C&A:
The sextet treats this piece similarly on all its renditions with little
space for proper solos. Mostly four-bar breaks with the theme repeated
three times and short solo statements sprinkled here and there. It’s a
slightly-modified blues that often wells up into a boogie beat.
All five recordings of AC-DC Current start out with the same guitar intro
without noticeable variation. Charlie Christian incorporated this intro
sequence into his solos on a few other tunes.
The first guitar solo on the first three versions are effectually analogous.
This four-bar break follows immediately after the initial theme and may be
of keen interest to guitarists in the interplay between the twelfth fret and
open string; and in the variation in detail between the three samples. At
this first guitar break, the studio take contains what some would consider
the only bona fide CC solo on AC-DC Current.
On the next guitar break, with the exception of pre-bent-note scales on
the initial version of the tune, beginning with the Nov 27th rendition the
solos all contain the same double-stop accentuations where Charles bends the
lower note. Comparable to those he played on his intro and the out
chorus on Shivers
earlier in the month.
A unison break by guitar and ensemble is introduced on the later studio
version which, incidentally, was not originally released – not until over a
decade later, on EP. The second half of the sequence is a familiar CC run. The order of
appearance of the double-stop and the unison readings are reversed on the
final rendering.
A novel Christian-Hampton composition presented with much jubilation but
not the sextet’s best outing. Goodman seems to have been fond of it while
Hampton was in the sextet. Still, it’s good to have a sampling of CC’s
unique twelfth-fret / open-string interplay.
All but the last recording of this tune took place in New York City
within a three-month period. The last one was performed at the end their
four-month tour of the West Coast; after
that date on Santa Catalina Island the band would take a four-month hiatus
before regrouping back East at their home base.
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