| C&A:
On the Alamo doesnt receive nearly as much attention as
it should. Possibly because it was one of the slowest tunes played by the sextet,
recorded only once on one take, and almost half of it is fairly straight melody. It
was also recorded during the same studio session as the multiple takes of up-tempo tunes Breakfast
Feud, I Found a New Baby, and Gone with What Draft (Alamos
78-rpm flipside companion). It is beautifully played by all.
Charlie Christians eight-bar solo is a gem. Everything fits together
perfectly. The four notes he plays on the pickup bar and bar three are identical and
go with both the Eb and F7
harmony and are used for the same purpose. Then you have two phrases that ascend in
triplets and descend with quarter notes; two cascading triplets and a leap up to a single
note and the phrase is resolved with a couple of notes in the next beat. The solo is
then resolved with two similar, and unexpected, two-note phrases that also relate to the
first measure.
So simple and sensible and lovely. |