A Smo-o-o-oth One  —  13 March 1941  —  CO 29942-X   first take

        Intro, Solo, Riffs

C&A:

A Smo-o-o-oth One had made its first appearance on a portion of Charlie Christian’s repertory during the early hours of the session that took place while waitin’ for Benny and Artie to arrive prior to this scheduled 13 March 1941 Columbia recording date.  It was now decided to tone up the soupçon and record it as the first tune of the session along with a previously-composed, temporarily-named piece – another CC composition.  Seems that Goodman was not only late but also unprepared this one time.

Charles selected an unusual dyad for his introduction for A Smo-o-o-oth One – a very dissonant minor-2nd – perfectly suited for the ensemble’s theme.  The trumpet took the bridge on that first chorus.  The clarinet takes the next bridge which is set within a tenor sax solo chorus backed by CC riffs (also heard at the start of the second chorus of Charles’ jam solo).

The third and final chorus goes back to the theme, inappreciably altered.  This bridge is where Charles undertakes his only solo on the arrangement – eight ‘written’ bars.  The solo was improvised but then it was essentially repeated on all three takes.  A masterpiece actually;  it couldn’t have been more suitable.

A two-bar coda is added:  on the first take it’s guitar with ensemble, then the other two takes with Charles pretty much by himself.

CO 29942-X   initial take	☊   LISTEN   first take
CO 29942-1   alternate take	☊   LISTEN   second take
CO 29942-2   master take	☊   LISTEN   master take

Charles uses lots of ghost or almost-ghost notes on these short solos.  This is also the perfect tempo for shifting the location of the notes on or off the beat.
A Smo-o-o-oth One was Charlie Christian's adaptation of Leo Robin - Lewis E. Gensler’s 1934 song Love Is Just Around the Corner, with a slightly modified bridge.