| C&A:
This version of Flying Home was the very first of Charlie
Christian’s studio recordings with the Goodman sextet. It may not have been the
very best of his solos but it is by far the best known version of this tune having been
released on a Columbia 78-rpm exactly a month after it was recorded. (The alternate
take from this session was released a few years later, as Homeward Bound, but
only on the V-Disc label for distribution exclusively to the soldiers overseas.)
Charles was well acquainted with this composition—he wrote it and had been playing
it since his days with the Leslie Sheffield orchestra. It begins with a four-bar piano
intro, followed by the 32-bar theme (with a clarinet break) by the ensemble. CC then
comes in with his solo and it’s an excellent example of how to add variety to a
simple harmony not only by the distinctive phrases but by the unique phrasing and by
playing the EbMaj in all kinds of fret positions.
On five of his seven early solos on this tune he starts out with riff repeated three or
four times—not so here. But what I find most unusual on this particular solo is
his playing two-bar phrases on the A sections. I
can’t think of another solo where he does that. His normal modus operandi is to
cross or ignore the bar lines as he does on the bridge.
And an excellent B section it is: I like
that leap from Eb, D, Db
up to C at bar 18 before inserting the three-note Dbm
between the Eb7 and Ab
measures. In bar 19, he repeats the pattern from mm 17, transposed to Ab. He anticipates the F7 by two beats with a six-note
chromatic run which is unique—in fact, the entire run in mm 20-21 is not repeated in
any of his solos. There’s a #5 in the
Bb7 (not unusual for CC but it is for that era).
The first note of bar 24 is a Maj7 which
he emphasizes as more than a mere passing tone; or he may have just used the slide
to Ab to complement the hammer-on three beats
earlier; probably both.
The vibes solo follows with Charles prominently heard with his Ebdim7
chord accents throughout the A sections and riffs
on the bridge. The out-chorus has CC riffs on the As
and comping on the bridge.
To save on web space for future transcriptions, I have elected not to include the
theme, chord accents, and closing riffs here since they are readily available in recently
published books and magazines. However, those publications tabulate most of those
choruses too high on the fretboard—the theme, for example, should be played between
the third and eighth fret rather than around the twelfth. |
