Rock's original guitar hero Aug 14, 2009
Together they formed the Les Paul Trio, which, after moving to New York in 1938, alternated mainstream work for the popular bandleader Fred Waring with Harlem jam sessions that featured Louis Armstrong, Art Tatum, Ben Webster, Stuff Smith and Charlie Christian. Throughout the 1930s Paul had continued to experiment with different forms of electric guitar. (The Age, Australia)
Benny Goodman's music still swings May 27, 2009
Those dazzling trio, quartet and sextet recordings Goodman made from the mid-1930s to early '40s shined a light on - and were lit up by - some of the greatest young African American jazz artists of the period: pianist Teddy Wilson, vibraphonist Lionel Hampton and the pioneering electric guitarist Charlie Christian, who died of tuberculosis in '42 at the age of 25. Goodman wasn't the first bandleader to have an interracial group - the late critic Leonard Feather credits Benny Carter with that -... (San Francisco Chronicle)
Jazz Guitarist Charlie Christian Hit The Right Notes May 21, 2009
Above all, Charlie Christian wanted to be heard ... It sounded like a distorted sax, recalled jazz guitarist Mary Osborne in "Charlie Christian: Solo Flight The Seminal Electric Guitarist," by Peter Broadbent ... "When I heard Charlie Christian, it was as if the guitar suddenly spoke. He didn't have to play a lot of notes and a lot of technique," Osborne said. (Investors Business Daily)
Turn Ideas Into Reality May 21, 2009
Above all, Charlie Christian wanted to be heard. An acoustic guitar player, he worried that his music was overpowered by crowds and other instruments when he played live with jazz bands and orchestras. (Investors Business Daily)
Dex Romweber Duo: Contemporary retro siblings Apr 10, 2009
Romweber and his friends would scour the record stores of their Chapel Hill, N.C., hometown for 45 singles by the likes of Ritchie Valens, Benny Joy, Charlie Christian and Sarah Vaughn. Images. (San Francisco Chronicle)
Bill Tapia: String master brings ukulele back Apr 3, 2009
Working in Hollywood before World War II, he befriended the legendary electric guitar pioneer Charlie Christian. "He was my hero," Tapia says. (San Francisco Chronicle)
Coryell, Auger, Sample Trio follows fathers' leads Feb 10, 2009
That feat, by his own accounts, was incidental, the inevitable byproduct, perhaps, of an uninhibited musician in the '60s absorbing everything - from Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian to contemporaries like Chico Hamilton and Miles Davis - and then playing electric guitar any way it felt right. His son has a similar ethos. (Boston Globe)
