Ep. #01 | Cool Charlie Christian lick!

Here we take a look at the great jazz guitarist Charlie Christian, his solo on Swing to Bop, and learn a beautiful Bb7 lick from his solo, recorded live at one of the late night jam sessions at Minton's Playhouse in Harlem, in 1941.
Original recording of Swing to Bop:
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Next episode we will look at tritone subs, and after that, use the idea of tritone subs with this Charlie Christian lick to imagine what Charlie Christian might have sounded like if he had lived a year or two longer!
Watch here:
Ep. #02 • Ep. #02 | Tritone Subs
Ep. #03 • Ep. #03 | Charlie Chri...
Jordan Officer is a jazz, blues, country guitar player, singer, producer, educator, touring and recording artist from Montreal. In these video podcasts he will be looking at guitar technique, language, ideas for improvising, gear, talking to some of his favourite guitar players, talking about his influences, and more. New videos will be dropping every two weeks starting Feb 2022 so stay tuned.
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[@Jamestele1]

Great history of Charlie Christian and the emergence of the electric guitar. I was practically drooling over that guitar you are playing. I play a Tele, but I remember Joe Pass stating that he disliked solid body electric guitars, as they have no sound without being plugged in. Charlie and Joe and two of my favorite guitarists.

[@JordanOfficerStudio]

Yaman. That's the guitar Charlie played too (he later switched to a fancier model ES-250). Thanks for your comment!

[@elmud]

Finally someone citing Bob Wills on a CC video. Thanks, man.

[@georgesember9069]

Thanks for the post, Charlie Christian’s art just fascinates!

[@JordanOfficerStudio]

Amazing

[@lewdite]

Hello Jordan… I consider myself to be a "hummer & strummer" and not a musician. I can't even read music but I have been an admirer of your musical talent for many years. I once had the pleasure of playing at the Wheel Club and being backed by yourself and Stephen Barry. I can only tell you that I will never forget that experience. I felt like a surfer and you and Stephen were the wave. You guys carried me along with such energy that I was continually elevated throughout the whole set. All that being said, I am very excited to see this new series that you are posting. I will never be a musician but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy your talent. For people who aspire to be a musician I can't think of a better source of inspiration.

[@JordanOfficerStudio]

Thanks a lot, it's great to hear from you!

[@pianowill01]

Really cool.. Thanks for taking to time to go onto this. Great observations. Please do more.

[@torontolarrivee7965]

Just killer… love this approachable style of jazz guitar, and Jordan crushes it both on tone and feel

[@JordanOfficerStudio]

Thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying the clips and the music!

[@dancabana8096]

Although I don't play guitar since a long time, I loved the fact that it can help me to understand music theory some more. Thanks Jordan !

[@JordanOfficerStudio]

That's great to hear Dan. All the best!

[@ryanmurtha2392]

Hey all right, you came up in my feed because I listen to Swing to Bop so much. You got chops man, glad to have found you. Yeah that solo is the best guitar solo I've ever heard, thanks for agreeing!

[@alainlapointe3528]

Great news!!!!! Can’t wait🤩. Thank you so much Jordan 🙏

[@JordanOfficerStudio]

Cool, my pleasure! Keep in touch.

[@trucks2byhalia]

Very cool. I can't believe you learned how to play that. I've been trying to figure out that lick for years with no success. He was such an inventive guitarist.

[@willarddickerson921]

I love the lick that you are sharing. I have one of his albums on vinyl. I need to listen to more CC.

[@willarddickerson921]

I appreciate that you remember Charlie Christian. They have a Charlie Christian Festival Every year on his birthday at his birthplace Bonham, TX ir at least they use to about 10 years ago.

[@JordanOfficerStudio]

That's very cool.

[@stevepethel6843]

God bless and be with you and thanks for sharing amazing guitar lesson...

[@JordanOfficerStudio]

Thank you, and all the best to you

[@BelfastBoxingNBlues]

Great video man, much appreciated:)

[@willarddickerson921]

You are bringing tears to my eyes. Everything that you are saying is true.

[@JordanOfficerStudio]

Thank you for letting me know, that is beautiful.

[@stuartstuart321]

Charlie a unique talent and he rocks❤

[@simoncooper2008]

Thanks so much. Revelation

[@martinmilan3169]

Great, I am thrilled to hear such a talented player as you, mention Swing to Bop that way. I listened to it years ago by accident at a friend’s place, and, although I did not know anything about jazz or guitars, I had never heard anything so exciting and it changed my life. It remains, as you said one of best ever solos. Only Wes or Django have emulated such greatness. Thanks.

[@JordanOfficerStudio]

Yes it's incredible. Very lucky that we have those live recordings!!!

[@jazzbox35]

I close my eyes and listen to Swing to Bop and can imagine the enormous effect he would have had. He'd kind of bait you into thinking he'd stalled out his solos somewhat, there is a lot of intentional holding back and staccato notes, and just when you are thinking he's starting to ease off, he hits the bridge and burns through those eight note clusters. When I listened to him as a teenager, I didn't like it that much. There were flashier guitarists since. But now I really like it, and his place in history, that it was so original.

[@peteeastmuremusic]

So excited to hear this series!!! Subscribed!!!

[@JordanOfficerStudio]

Cool!

[@Kylerjguitar]

Man great stuff! This channel will be so much help thank you. Hard to find good stuff on Charlie where people explain what he’s thinking. It’s hard to get in his head cause he’s so fast moving and expressive

[@JordanOfficerStudio]

Indeed. I love trying to get myself in there. I always learn so much.

[@andreascalzini6189]

Hello Jordan, which chord progression were you soloing over when you demonstrated that short chord solo? I'm currently learning it as I want to start improvising in this chordal style.

[@SubTroppo]

When I first heard "Swing To Bop I realised what Alvin Lee had been listening to so that he could play like "that" on Ten Years After's "Undead" (live at Klooks Kleek).

[@AlexVachon]

Your course is very helpful as a filmmaker. Perfect music for the comedy genre.

[@JordanOfficerStudio]

Thanks Alex!

[@frankus54]

I would be interested to know what Charlie's previous musical education was. Was he trained or did he just figure it out with a little help from some horn players? For such a young player without obvious mentors, he was unique.

[@anthonyroach7974]

Yes I totally agree with your words had so much feel and that raw but very technical style was the jimi Hendrix of the day reminds me of the gypsy jazz style to blues mixed in .Amazing

[@JordanOfficerStudio]

So out of the blue and revolutionary, a massive influence on everything that came after, died so young, I think it's definitely an appropriate comparison!!!

[@ryanreeves8931]

Holy CRAPP!!! Just found your channel. Your playing is amazing. I would love a few videos about your comping you displayed here. Thanks for the uplink.

[@JordanOfficerStudio]

Thanks for the comment, and suggestion. That would be cool, and I'll try to do that at some point! All the best.

[@trucks2byhalia]

Do you have a video or videos playing the rest of that bridge?

[@davidlopez-white3185]

ok nice thank you!!

[@crimsontyger8576]

Overall, for me, your absolute love and respect for the genre shines through. I also came to Jazz through blues. My teacher was Mr Louis Gallo who, sadly, is no longer with us. BTW, your playing is wonderful.

[@JordanOfficerStudio]

Thank you for letting me know. All the best!

[@jsamc]

People like you make me wonder why I even pick a guitar up LOL !! will like and subscribe.

[@JordanOfficerStudio]

Haha! Thanks for the comment, and happy picking! :-)

[@ismaelnin8960]

Gracias

[@4cidj4y]

great

[@spyderstompers7180]

Love Charlie Christian

[@JordanOfficerStudio]

Amazing.

[@billdang3953]

Important enough to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

[@stevekindler]

well.. thank you, but one thing that you passed over was that in the format of the big band he, with his "newly invented gtr." was not constrained by the volume of all those horn players... "Chonk Charlie Chonk"

[@chansouvannarath3789]

Charlie Christian is where you start if you want to learn Jazz. I did the same.

[@JordanOfficerStudio]

It worked great for me, endless learning from CC

[@PierreVeniot]

Man, I play a bit of guitar, this is great! I want more... I want ot by a semi-acoustic ''jazzy'' electric, what would be a good ''budget'' axe?

[@fornofsky]

Check Eastman guitar awsome quality/price ratio ….

[@dancabana8096]

Ibanez, I had two guitars of their Artcore series and you can find some used ones at a very good price.

[@JordanOfficerStudio]

Thanks a lot! The suggestions posted here already are cool. The Godin 5th ave is cool too. I would also check out cool vintage archtops that are not too expensive. Everything's gone up in price in recent years, but I'm sure you could still find something fun under 1k

[@atomicflash1753]

Talker

[@krausewitz6786]

Dude, we know who CC is. You don't need to waste MORE THAN HALF THE VIDEO gobbing off. Just play.

[@PageandPlant4Life]

I didn't. All I'd ever heard of was the pickup they refer to as a "charlie christian pickup"

[@diegomaugeri4038]

I love Charlie Christian but you are giving him too much credit, at least as far as creating a new vocabulary in jazz. Yes, he was very innovative in the guitar world (he pioneered a guitar world) but his vocabulary was Benny Goodman's and, more importantly, Lester Young's. Charlie Christian proved that guitar could become a be bop instrument by translating the reed's idiom of the time into guitar. And even just that is no small feat!

[@nicholasdauphinais]

This is completely false info. You are a hater. CC totally had his own style and sound. His music is timeless still to this day people can not get that sound.

[@hunterbrown7161]

He didn't say he created new vocabulary. He said he created a new voice to use the vocabulary. Which is exactly what he did.

[@um9272]

6:30 min of blah blah and 1 min noodling 😒