Chords for Charlie Christian, George Benson and Me - Mark Whitfield

Now did you notice that [F#] playing the guitar as he's playing you get a
different sound it's not like a saxophone it's not like a trumpet it's a
very special sound and we're gonna talk to Mark again about I mentioned in
passing Charlie Christian why was he special?
Well Charlie Christian is known
as the father of the modern jazz electric guitar because he was one the
first guitarist to to bring the amplifier and amplified guitar to
prominence he played with Benny Goodman band and what's special about Charlie in
a lot of ways unfortunately he died very young of tuberculosis but in only
three or four years of recording making records and so forth he popularized the
single note style of playing _ _ and he played many of the phrases that the horn
players [N] at the time were playing Louis Armstrong and Benny Goodman and such he
popularized the idea that guitar players could play the same vocabulary the same
notes the same the same solo ideas on the guitar as well as well as playing
chords and working in you know in both capacities so he was I think the first
one to really demonstrate the virtue you know the fact that the guitar is a very
versatile instrument you can play it in the accompaniment capacity or as a
soloist.
Well you're quite a virtuoso yourself and one of your principal
influences was George Gershwin, George Gershwin I'm alright I know you love to
play George Benson was the person I was thinking about.
Sure well I saw
George play on television when I was about nine or ten years old with the
Boston Pops Orchestra and then my father bought me a copy of the Breezin'
record.
Breezin' that was big hit back in the 70s _ _ [F#m] so anyway I mean [B] you _ [F#m] know and I
heard George and [E] I was amazed with with his with his technique his technique and
his virtuosity he could play the guitar like no guitarist had ever heard.
Well he
plays very fast and you play very fast how do you do that?
That's just practice
yeah taking simple scales and arpeggios and you know like you would do with any
instrument and just do repetition you build up speed and virtuosity and
technique.
Well I'm gonna demonstrate or have you demonstrate some of the things
that you do personally.
Your personal style has some elements you said the
first [G] record you were given was a blues record.
Sure.
I think it kind of made a
lasting impression on you evidently.
Oh yeah well the blues remains I think a
common denominator between all the musical styles that I play.
Oh that's
great.
Well now if I asked you to play with just Chip just you and Chip what
would you sound like?
Alright. _ _
_ [C#m] _ _ _ [C] _ _ [F#] _ _
[A#m] _ _ _ [B] _ _ _ _ _
_ [Bm] _ _ _ [F#] _ _ [B] _ _
_ [A#] _ _ [F] _ _ _ _ _
_ [C#m] _ _ [C#] _ _ _ _ _
_ [C] _ _ [B] _ _ _ _ [C#] _
_ _ _ _ [B] _ _ [C#] _ _
[E] _ [A#] _ _ [D#m] _ _ [F#] _ _ _
_ [C#] _ _ _ [D] _ _ [C#] _ _
_ [Em] _ _ _ _ [F] _ _ [F#] _
Yeah.
_ _ Well I like that.
Now if you did something similar to that with just a
piano [Bm] would have a different sound like this maybe. _ _
[Gm] _ _ _ _ [B] _ _ _ _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ [Gm] _ _ [C] _ _
_ [G] _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _
[E] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [C] _ [G] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ [C#] _
_ [G] _ _ [C] _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ [Cm] _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _
_ [G] _ _ [F#] _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ [G] _ _ _ [C#] _ _ [Em] _ _
_ [G] _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ [Dm] _
_ [D] _ _ _ [F#] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ Well that's a lot of fun for me but [Fm] now how about maybe asking you to do
something with Steve Johns just at the drums.
Alright one two three.
[A#] _ _ _ [A#] _ _
_ [Gm] _ _ _ [A#m] _ _ [C#] _ _
_ [F#m] _ _ [E] _ _ [G#] _ _ [A] _
_ _ _ [A#] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [G#] _ _ [D#] _ _ _
[D#] _ _ _ _ [A#m] _ _ _ _
_ [D#] _ _ [C#] _ _ _ _ _
_ [E] _ _ _ [D#] _ _ _ _
_ [B] _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [D#] _ _ _ _
_ [G#] _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _
_ [A#m] _ _ _ [G#] _ _ [A#m] _ _
_ [F#m] _ _ [F#] Yeah _ _ well
_ _ _ _ it's easy to see you can do a lot of different things when you play the guitar.
_ _ _ [N] _