Nearly everything you need to know about Charlie Christian can be learned from the compilation album Charlie Christian – The Genius of the Electric Guitar. Released on Columbia Records in 1987, this ...

Charlie Christian’s name is not likely to cause much of a stir among young rock guitarists. But it should, since the pioneering, Texas-born artist produced a body of work -- amazingly, in just two ...

Since my recent column item on Charlie Christian introducing the electric guitar to jazz, I've received several e-mails with questions about this legendary performer. So, I'd like to share some of my ...

Born in 1916, Christian died when he was just 25 years old. Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead calls him "the single greatest influence on a signature 20th-century instrument." This is FRESH AIR. This Friday ...

The New Orleans cornetist Buddy Bolden—active in the early 1900s—won his reputation as a founding father of jazz without leaving any recorded evidence of his talent. His epoch-shaping stature is based ...

For everyone wondering if and when Sony will ever get around to upgrading the CDs of music by legendary guitar-player Charlie Christian, well...I guess we’ll have to keep waiting. In the meantime, ...

January 15, 2013 • Prior to the advent of electrical amplification, the role of the guitar in jazz was strictly that of a chorded rhythm instrument. But as soon as guitarists could plug into an ...