Solo Flight
Benny Goodman and His Orchestra, 1941, from Solo Flight (single). Solo by Charlie Christian.
A big band built around the amplified guitar, with Christian's horn-like lines setting the vocabulary for bebop guitar.
Solo Flight is one of the rare big-band recordings built around the electric guitar as the featured voice, and Charlie Christian makes the most of it. Playing a Gibson ES-150, he spins long, horn-like lines that move through the harmony with the fluency of a saxophonist, while the orchestra sets up riffs and backgrounds around him. His phrasing, with its even eighth notes and clear sense of where each chord is heading, helped establish the vocabulary later bebop guitarists built on. Listen for how naturally his lines ride over the band's arrangement, and how he often repeats a short riff before extending it into a longer idea, a technique drawn from the swing-era horn players he admired.
Solo Flight by Benny Goodman and His Orchestra is ranked #240 in our consensus of 79 guitar-solo lists. The solo is played by Charlie Christian and the song was released in 1941. It appears on 1 lists, placing as high as #9 (uDiscover Music).
In our lists
- One and Only — #43
- The Greatest Solo of Every Year — #5
- The 25 Greatest Jazz Guitar Solos — #4
- The Best Charlie Christian Guitar Solos — #1
Sources
Who played the guitar solo on Solo Flight?
Charlie Christian played the solo on Benny Goodman and His Orchestra's Solo Flight (1941).
What guitar was used on the Solo Flight solo?
A gibson es-150, according to widely reported accounts.
Where does Solo Flight rank among the greatest guitar solos?
#240 in the GreatestSolos consensus of 79 published lists; it appears on 1 of them.