Transcription

Gone With What Draft   –   15 January 1941

mx CO 29519-3

C&A:

For this session the current recording-studio pianist for the sextet was back and he brought along his own, first-rate drummer with him.  And, instead of the three horns trading twos on the penultimate bridge of the tune, the pianist is assigned the 8-bar bridge for his solo (Basie had been getting special billing since the November session:  “Benny Goodman and his Sextet featuring Count Basie”).  The rest of the routine remained unchanged from the initial recordings of the tune on the previous Columbia session but the tempo is slightly slower, and more suitable, now.

Aside from the Eddie Durham-derived cadenza, Gone with What Draft is based on Fats Waller’s Honeysuckle Rose changes – one can hear snatches of that melody on occasion during the clarinet solo.

Unlike the rejected takes of Gone with What Draft on the December session, a take from this January session was selected for release two months later.  The issued version was take -1, however, take -3 turned out to be the one most often released commercially.  An abrupt, unissued breakdown was also recorded along with the three complete takes.
.

breakdown                CO 29519-x
            (never released)

complete take            CO 29519-3
            (first released in 1955 on Columbia LP
            “Charlie Christian with The Benny Goodman Sextet and Orchestra” as Gone With What Draft)

complete take            CO 29519-2
            (first released in 1973 on Jazz Archives LP
            “Charlie Christian & Lester Young –Together, 1940” as Gone With What Draft)

complete take            CO 29519-1
            (master take released in March 1941 on Columbia 78-rpm as Gone With What Draft)
 

The following month, the sextet would record Gone with What Draft two more times, on broadcasts from the “Fitch Bandwagon” and “What’s New?–The Old Gold Show” radio programs.