October 25, 2007

Charlie Christian's Genius of the Guitar

Posted by dogpossum on October 25, 2007 8:57 PM in the category digging

This is a truly fab box set. The packaging is a bit dumb, but it's a great set of music. 4 CDs worth of goodness. Christian died young of TB, but he did some truly fabulous work with people like Benny Goodman. A lot of this stuff covers the Goodman RCA collection, and if you pick up the shorter version of this set and the Goodman, you should be right. But for ob-con collectors like me, this set gives you lots of silly 30 second out-takes which are fascinating.
The set is a bit expensive, but I finally decided to take a risk with the second hand ones. One CD is a bit dodgy (it can't talk to Gracenote, so the song info doesn't import automatically into itunes), but that's not a big deal. The liner notes are a good read, and for sheer tactile loveliness, this set is worth it. It's almost all great dancing, though a lot of it tends towards 'bal' music - especially the Goodman Sextet stuff. Great, technical musicianship, but a little precise and fiddly for lindy hoppers. Perfect for jazz nerds and balboa dancers who like tiny, precise music for their tiny, precise dancing.

Posted by dogpossum on October 25, 2007 8:57 PM in the category digging