Remembering the great Charlie Christian (July 29, 1916 – March 2, 1942)
“He wasn’t the most imposing figure in the world, but by gosh, when he sat down to play the guitar he was something… He was way ahead of his time, and a joy to listen to.”Benny GoodmanChristian was the electric guitar's first superstar, (he even made the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame, even if it was almost half a century after his death) but he wasn't the first electric guitarist. Experiments with pickups and amplification began in the early 1930s, with the Rickenbacker company, and Christian's famous arch-top was developed by Gibson in the middle of the decade. Oklahoma prodigy Christian bridged the swing era of the 1930s to the leaner, faster, and more demandingly intricate small-group style of bebop in the 1940s, and he put the now ubiquitous sound of the electric guitar on the map.Christian had the briefest of recording careers - barely two years. Tuberculosis claimed him in 1942, aged 25, but not before he had blazed a trail that not only inspired generations of guitarists (in both pop and jazz music), but also significantly influenced the development of the bebop revolution.
Photo: © Popsie Randolph/Donaldson Collection—Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Gabriel Gier (from Budapest points out)
"Gibson made the first real electric guitar with the horseshoe pick up ( even called the Charlie Christian pick up) which converted acoustic sound into electric signal. Previous pick ups only amplified acoustic sounds which don't make a guitar electric. So in this light we could say that Charlie Christian was the first real electric guitarist"
Swing Top Bop (1941) Charlie Christian
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