After two encores, Charles had played all three, and Deep Deuce was in an uproar.
All three songs were big in the early 1930s, and Edward was surprised that Charles knew them. After some encouragement, he allowed Charles to play.
"Ah, nobody wants to hear them old blues," Edward replied. "Let Charles play one," they told Edward. When the time was right they took him out to one of the many after-hours jam sessions along " Deep Deuce", Northeast Second Street, in Oklahoma City. They taught him to solo on three songs, " Rose Room", " Tea for Two", and " Sweet Georgia Brown". Around 1931, he took the guitarist "Bigfoot" Ralph Hamilton and began secretly schooling the younger Charles in jazz. In a 1978 interview with Charlie Christian biographer Craig McKinney, Clarence Christian said that in the 1920s and '30s Edward Christian led a band in Oklahoma City as a pianist and had a shaky relationship with the trumpeter James Simpson. As he believed playing the trumpet would disfigure his lip, he quit to pursue his interest in baseball, at which he excelled. Charles wanted to play tenor saxophone in the school band, but she insisted he try trumpet instead. He attended Douglass School in Oklahoma City, where he was further encouraged in music by an instructor, Zelia N. Later he learned to play the guitar, inheriting his father's instruments upon his death when Charles was 12. When Charles was old enough to go along, he first entertained by dancing. Clarence Henry was struck blind by fever, and in order to support the family he and the boys worked as buskers, on what the Christians called "busts." He would have them lead him into the better neighborhoods, where they would perform for cash or goods. All three sons were taught music by their father, Clarence Henry Christian. He had two brothers, Edward, born in 1906, and Clarence, born in 1911. His family moved to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, when he was a small child. Second Street).Ĭhristian was born in Bonham, Texas. In 2006 Oklahoma City renamed a street in its Bricktown entertainment district "Charlie Christian Avenue" (Christian was raised in Oklahoma City and was one of many musicians who jammed along the city's " Deep Deuce" section on N.E. In 1990, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the category Early Influence. In the liner notes to the album Solo Flight: The Genius of Charlie Christian (Columbia, 1972), Gene Lees wrote that "Many critics and musicians consider that Christian was one of the founding fathers of bebop, or if not that, at least a precursor to it." Ĭhristian's influence reached beyond jazz and swing. Simon called Christian the best improvisational talent of the swing era. For this, he is often credited with leading to the development of the lead guitar role in musical ensembles and bands. His single-string technique, combined with amplification, helped bring the guitar out of the rhythm section and into the forefront as a solo instrument. He gained national exposure as a member of the Benny Goodman Sextet and Orchestra from August 1939 to June 1941. Charles Henry Christian (J– March 2, 1942) was an American swing and jazz guitarist.Ĭhristian was an important early performer on the electric guitar and a key figure in the development of bebop and cool jazz.
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