After Hours

Guitarist Charlie Christian was a central figure in the development of bebop, though his very early death from tuberculosis guaranteed that he would never go on to the kind of fame enjoyed by his contemporaries Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Thelonious Monk. This album is titled After Hours because it documents his performances at the New York after-hours clubs Minton’s Playhouse and Clark Monroe’s Uptown House in 1941, as musicians were beginning to develop what became bebop. Monk is there on piano, as well as Gillespie, whose bright, brash tone cuts through the muddy recorded sound (Jerry Newman recorded these performances on a portable disc recorder) and contrasts beautifully with Christian’s relaxed, elegant phrasing.