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Charlie Christian’s Electric Guitar Revolution in Deep Deuce
Charlie Christian changed how we hear music in just two short years.
Born in Texas in 1916, he grew up in Oklahoma City’s Deep Deuce jazz district, learning guitar from his blind father. In 1937, he got his first electric guitar and soon made it sing like a “garbled saxophone.”
His big break came in 1939 when he shocked Benny Goodman with a 40-minute improvisation on “Rose Room. ” Though tuberculosis took his life at just 25, his sound lives on through B. B. King, Chuck Berry, and Jimi Hendrix…