The Devices of Charlie Christian Seen Throughout the Lineage of Jazz Guitar

Benno Marmur breaks down the improvisational devices of Charlie Christian — arguably the most influential jazz guitarist of the 20th century — and traces how they echo through Barney Kessel, Grant Green, Wes Montgomery, George Benson, and Pat Martino. Using Christian's solos on "Stompin' at the Savoy" (recorded live at Minton's Playhouse in 1941) and "I Found a New Baby" (with Benny Goodman) as source material, Benno shows how the first guitarist who could truly hold his own with the horn players built his lines, and how to bring those devices into your own playing.

Devices covered

• Linear lines — Christian's long streams of eighth notes, weaving through changes like a saxophonist
• Harmonic anticipation — starting lines on beat four of the previous bar to create forward motion
• Accent implied through pitch — using intervallic leaps to create punch within a line, rather than volume
• Double stops — woven into flowing single-note phrases, the seed of the Grant Green and George Benson sound
• Octaves — used sparsely but effectively, an influence Wes Montgomery absorbed note for note
• Upper structure harmony — playing the 3rd, 5th, b7, 9th, and 13th over a chord (like E minor 9 over A7)
• Building a solo — playing melodically on the A sections and saving intensity for the B sections
• Downstroke picking — the 90%-downstrokes technique Eddie Durham taught Christian for a horn-like attack

Along the way you'll get the historical context — Christian as the third guitarist to record through amplification, and how that technology moved the guitar from a rhythm role to the front of the band. A focused class for any improviser who wants to understand where modern jazz guitar vocabulary comes from.