CHARLIE CHRISTIAN - Celestial Express (1999) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Definitive's mini-anthology of classic recordings featuring pioneer electrically amplified guitarist Charlie Christian is an excellent core sample taken from his brief and eventful career. Note that Definitive has also issued what purport to be compilations containing all of Christian's complete live and studio recordings, as well as another more modestly proportioned sampler entitled The Genius of the Electric Guitar. Charlie Christian was like a will-o'-the-wisp, a strikingly creative sideman who appeared at studio sessions and live jams during a span of months only adding up to a couple of years before succumbing to tuberculosis at the age of 25 in 1942. On Definitive's Celestial Express, the guitarist is heard with various groups led by Lionel Hampton and Benny Goodman, with Edmond Hall's Celeste Quartet, and with the Kansas City Six (a band including Count Basie and Lester Young) at the second From Spirituals to Swing concert in Carnegie Hall. Christian accompanies sweet vocalist Eddy Howard (who sounded a bit like Gene Austin); jams out with a quartet including bassist Oscar Pettiford at the Harlem Breakfast Club in Minneapolis, MN; cooks with a sextet while waiting for Benny Goodman to show up and lead a studio recording session; and improvises freely in the wild and woolly atmosphere of Minton's Playhouse, an after-hours joint favored by young musicians seeking a loose and friendly environment suitable for collective artistic exploration. It's a fine taste of great music from a time when music was evolving as rapidly as all of the other arts near middle of the maelstrom of the 20th century. by arwulf arwulf