After Hours

These live recordings, some made after hours in night clubs during the swing era when most of the players were working regularly, touring in big bands, is a fascinating document, as it foretells the birth of bop. Most of the solos here, as well performed as they are, are rather conventional, but every once in a while someone like young Dizzy will break out with something totally new and unexpected. No wonder Cab Calloway, in whose band Dizzy played briefly, warned him famously not to play "Chinese music in my band." A few years later the big band era would be over and in small combos like this bebop and progressive jazz would really be born. What is particularly noteworthy is to listen to how terrific technically these experienced professions all were, how well they knew and could play the standard repertoire before they would someday break it all down, and create something entirely different. There is not a rock guitarist today who doesn't owe a debt to what Christian was doing back uthen.

Bebop's conception a living history.

Some of the best jazz guitar ever played

Although the music is clearly amazing the recording quality is so bad it really shouldn't even be on the market but if you want to hear Christian play some great solos it is just worth it but be prepared.

A jazz follower sent me a note inquiring if the two prominently featured Columbia collections of Charlie with Benny Goodman are really the best available. I'd agree that the aforementioned two albums have too many tunes, with excessively polished and even formulaic arrangements, and of course drastically truncated solo time for Christian. You get a taste of Christian, but that's about all. Your imagination pretty much has to fill in the rest based on admittedly very limited evidence.Christian's after-hours sessions at Minton's are storied, if unevenly documented on record. But even if Charlie isn't laying down blistering choruses in life-like audio and in the company of Diz and Monk, there's a lot more evidence of the "real" Charlie Christian on this recording than on the commercial Columbia dates. As a musician, I'm more interested in "content" than audio quality, and there's enough meat on this album to make it perhaps the only essential recording for a collector, musician, or guitarist who wants to hear more than 4-8 bar snippets played by the putative "Father of Jazz Electric Guitar" (seems to me that Les Paul deserves serious consideration as well, but sadly many listeners simply are unaware of his jazz chops. Simply picking up the first JATP recording from 1944 (on Jasmine Records), which features Les and Nat Cole, should rectify that misunderstanding in a hurry.Christian also plays some genuinely heated choruses on this album, swinging with imagination, passion, and the technique to express his ideas. Whether the trumpet player is Diz or Joe Guy is a tough call because of the scarcity of Joe Guy recordings (he's probably better known as the notoriously exploitive character and addict he's made out to be in the Billie Holiday autobiography (primarily authored by William Dufty). The player on the recording has technique but a "hotter" sound played with more "artifacts" (semi-growls and Eldridge or Shavers-like vibrato) than you might associate with Diz, even before the bebop revolution.No matter. There's enough of Christian to make this recording (which has been resurrected throughout the years with a number of different titles) the one to own.

In 1941 a young man named, Jerry Newman brought a portable recorder to the legendary jazz club in Harlem called Minton's. What he recorded is little short of priceless. Cut in May of 1941 this music features, among others, electric guitar pioneer Charlie Christian, Dizzy Gillespie then a young trumpeter just beginning to emerge from Roy Eldridge's shadow, the cool toned tenor of Don Byas, a young drummer who was radically altering the approach of jazz drummers named Kenny Clarke, and a little known house pianst named Thelonious Monk. There are two reasons this music is so vital. First, the performances are outstanding. Christian is transcendant in his soloing. His lines are crisp, and swing hard as anyone, and for this listener THE reason to pick up this disc. He is afforded the opprotunity to really stretch out and dig into the music that the standard three minute record of the day simply could not allow, just listen to "Swing to Bop" and "Up on Teddy's Hill". Gillespie is in a transitional phase of his playing, only just beginning to come into his own, but one hears glimpses of his greatness on "Kerouac". Monk is identified as the pianist on "Swing to Bop" and "Stomping at the Savoy". One has to strain to listen even as he solos as the piano is very soft, most likely far from the mic, but one hears enough to tell his playing is still stride based and displays little of his trademark style. These performances of Monk and Gillespie at such a stage gives the fan a perspective of just how young they were, and how far they would come. The second reason to pick this cd up is for it's historical value. At the time this music was very much underground and ignored by nearly everyone outside of the musicians and a small base of dedicated fans. This recording gives us the briefest glimpse of the music that would become "be-bop" in it's infancy, and is an indespencable historical document. The sound quality is suprisingly high considering the source materials are the discs mr. Newman cut on his portable, and then listened to countless times. While not in the catagory of audiophile quality, there is very little audible analog hiss, and most of the musicians (save the rhythm section, which is muffled thorughout) come through loud and clear. This disc is a must for fans of bop, Christian, Gillespie, and fans looking to fill holes in the development of jazz styles, I recommend it highly.

The nine performances on this excellent CD were recorded at the Harlem clubs, Minton's & Monroe's during 1941 and feature Charlie Christian(1916-1942), pioneer of the electric guitar, on six tracks and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie(1917-1993), one of the founders of bop, on four tracks.Among the participants on these jam sessions were Thelonious Monk, Al Tinney, Kenny Kersey(piano); Don Byas, Kermit Scott(tenor sax); Rudy Williams(alto sax); Joe Guy, Hot Lips Page, Victor Coulson(trumpet); Nick Fenton, Ed Paul(bass) & Kenny Clarke, Tom Miller(drums).Christian is at his peak playing several inventive, extended solos on 'Swing To Bop', 'Stompin' At The Savoy' & 'Up On Teddy's Hill', while Gillespie displays his Roy Eldridge influence and can be heard developing his later bop style.The sound quality is reasonably good considering that the music was captured by jazz fan Jerry Newman using a primitive disc recorder.These exciting and atmospheric jam sessions are a valuable snapshot of the transition from swing to bop in 1941 and deserve a place in any serious jazz collecton.

One of the Ur-texts of jazz and of jazz guitar. A bad-quality mono wire recording but about the only example of what happened at Minton's. Completely seizing from the fade-in; Charlie Christian absolutely flying and flowing in a way that doesn't quite happen on the Goodman stuff, 8 minutes of 'Topsy' (titled 'Swing To Bop') with Monk, Kenny Clarke and Joe Guy's braying trumpet, Christian's incredibly slick, hip playing dominating the whole band while Clarke drops the bombs. 'Stompin' At The Savoy' is given a good kicking and 'Up On Teddy's Hill' reveals Don Byas as one of the old guard despite his then comparative youth. Gillespie is on some tracks but not the mature Diz, and from the sound of it Christian was the best musician by a long way, and that's why most people get this one - to hear Charlie Christian in his element, NOT in the Goodman sextet. He is really cutting loose here and the timing and phrasing is incredible. It's also true about his riffs and phrases re-appearing as Goodman tunes. I think this recording has been sped up a semitone over the years as 'Topsy' seems to be in B rather than Bb. Essential jazz and history too.

We are warned that this is a bootleg, recorded on the 1941 equivalent of a cassette tape recorder, have no fear!The sound is much better than you might expect.Thank goodness this has survived, an unrepeatable snatch of history(now if only someone could turn up with Memphis Minnie playing a National steel guitar with a pick-up, only a few months later......)

Excellent condition, as advertised

you can't go wrong with Charlie Christian.

新品商品なのにケースが割れていました。緩衝材は立派とは言えませんが、郵送途中で割れないよう梱包され発送されていると思います。そうすると最初からケースが割れた商品を郵送しているのではないか？！と疑ってしまいます。

また、いつでもあの小節の中間から飛び入ってくるスリル満点のクリスチャンを聴ける！ジャズを好きになって良かったと思う瞬間でしたね冒頭の1ッ曲は・・・・！

やっぱり、これは外せない名盤。この臨場感と。歴史。素晴らしい。

これが録音されたこと自体が重大。歴史が生まれた瞬間が録音されるなど稀なことだから。

チャーリークリスチャンは「The genius」を聞いて、こんなもんかと思ってましたが、このアルバムではかなり弾きまくっていてイメージが変わりました。なるほど、チャーリーを崇拝する人が出て来るわけだ。ただ、弾きまくる曲もあれば、あまり弾かない曲もあり、なので★マイナス１。

甲斐がありました．レコードよりいい感じですね．見事にスイングしてます。