| C&A:
An excellent six-chorus Fletcher Henderson arrangement on Honeysuckle Rose
for Charlie Christian’s first studio recording with the full Goodman orchestra and
the first of several times that he was recorded on this tune. The orchestra plays
behind the soloists throughout the piece.
On the fourth chorus, owing to Charles’ good use of dynamics, his solo starts off
with a great line that emerges from within the band. At bar 6 he plays the root on
alternating strings followed by a b7 blue note on
the third beat. On mm 9 & 10 there’s a couple of dissonant notes which he
emphasizes on beats three (Bbb) and one (Abb), respectively.
Surprisingly CC doesn’t run the bridge changes in his usual manner—instead,
his phrasing and rhythm are as on the three A
sections, possibly because the band continues to play through the B section. Right after the bridge, mm 25-27 have a
device that Charles also used at this point on a later recording of this tune—a pedal
root with alternating octaves and Maj7s.
Across mm 30 & 31, he applies a blues bend to a b3 (Fb) to
appropriately end with a Db6 phrase.
Exceptional orchestration and guitar solo. |
