DB Hall of Fame

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DB Hall of Fame


 


POOR BUTTERFLY


mx  WCO 26719 A


APRIL  3,  1940   * Wednesday HOLLYWOOD

World Broadcasting System

[ for COLUMBIA Records ]   *




32  BARS    (ABAC) Key of Ab Quarter Note = 118 Time: 2:46



2 ˝  CHORUSES:


32  bars  –  clarinet (Melody) [ABAC]


16  bars  –  vibes [AB]

16  bars  –  piano [AC]


»   8  bars  –  CC [A]

  8  bars  –  clarinet (Melody) [C]




Personnel: Issued Recordings:


Benny Goodman Sextet [78] Columbia 35466

CHARLIE CHRISTIAN.....Guitar Columbia 36722

BENNY GOODMAN.........clarinet Columbia C-102

LIONEL HAMPTON.........vibes

JOHNNY GUARNIERI......piano [EP] Columbia RLS 799  (SEGC.11)

ARTIE BERNSTEIN..........bass

NICK FATOOL..................drums [LP] Avan-Guard VSLP 213

BLU-DISC T-1011

CBS 52538

CBS / Sony 56AP 674-6



[CD] Black Bird Black Bird

CBS 465679 2

Classics 1098

Columbia/Legacy AC4K 65564 (disc 1, track 14)

Columbia/Legacy C4K 65564 (disc 1, track 14)

Columbia CK 45144

Definitive DRCD11176

Giants of Jazz 53049

Going for a Song GFS561

History 20.1960-HI

History 20.1979-HI

Masters of Jazz MJCD 40

Masters of Jazz MJCD 9004 (disc 3)

Proper PROPERBOX 98

Universe UV 129/2




* Matrix assigned on   APRIL 10, 1940.

Recorded by the World Broadcasting System, Inc.  (Hollywood)

for the Columbia Recording Corp.  (NYC)



Composed by: Raymond Hubbell - John L. Golden

© VALDÉS 3/02/01

 


 

Transcription Page:     Poor Butterfly  —  3 April 1940   (studio take)

 


 

C&A:

The clarinet plays the melody on the first chorus;  the second chorus (32 bars just before the guitar solo) is split evenly between vibes and piano;  after the eight-bar guitar solo, the clarinet melody closes out the take in eight measures.

Except for the modified melody line on the pickup bar, this studio Poor Butterfly 8-bar solo is fairly standard Charlie Christian. An excellent solo…until you compare it to the stunning one on the live version three weeks later in the month.  There’s a few blue notes tossed in—unexpectedly in the second measure (bent b9).  The F9 figure on the last bar is the same (with identical notes) as the one that ends his On the Alamo 8-bar solo over an Ebmaj nine months earlier.  In fact, his solo here, although in a different key and taken at a quicker tempo, reminds me of the way he constructed his solo on Alamo.

 


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