C&A:

Celestial Express was the last tune recorded at the “Celeste Quartet” session booked for Alfred Lion’s Blue Note label at Reeves Sound in Manhattan.  Charlie Christian doesn’t solo on this cut but he is very prominent comping behind the leader’s solos and especially so on riffs – all on acoustic guitar, as he did during the entire session most likely due to Lion’s traditional predilection.  In my opinion, the absent amplifier is no great loss in this small group;  Charles was well miked.  (I doubt that an amp could have helped much in overcoming the celeste intrusions.)

There are two sets of riffs on here where the quartet engages in some very loosely orchestrated near-improvisations for two choruses on each set.  On the first set, Charles plays one boogie riff pattern for twelve bars then switches to a different boogie riff for the next twelve.  The same two patterns are used again on the second set of riffs but this time Charles reverses the sequence.  Nothing fancy or complicated but vibrantly effective.


NB: Reeves Sound had been founded several years earlier by engineer Hazard ‘Buzz’ Reeves at 1600 Broadway in NYC.  The studio produced excellent results on the recording of this Blue Note session.  In the 1950s, the studios (now on 44^th St) were especially noted for recording many sessions for the Riverside label in particular: Thelonious, Trane, Wes, John Lee Hooker, et multis al.  Reeves himself was an innovative pioneer in phonograph recording and more so in motion pictures (Cinerama, magnetic tape, film, cameras) – there wasn’t too much he wasn’t into in this broad field.

Blue Note Records, of course, went on to become a nonpareil, legendary jazz label.