Transcription Page:     Way Down Yonder in New Orleans

C&A:

A 28-bar (fairly rare) tune was the finale for the “Kansas City Six” (this aggregation was the first of Charlie Christian’s three appearances on stage this grand evening at Carnegie Hall).

Presumably Way Down Yonder in New Orleans was to be Lester Young’s feature and Charlie Christian may not have been scheduled to solo, so he was sitting this one out while Freddie Green took care of the rhythm guitar post.  Unexpectedly Charles is called on to follow the tenor sax solo.  His amplifier was probably switched to standby so it wasn’t until the sixth measure that he was adjusting the volume before coming in on the 7^th and 8^th bars with a most unusual entry that catches the listener off-guard.  Starting with a D♭m6 going into the A♭ is not something anyone would expect especially as it was phrased.

It’s actually a very worthy venture but there are lot of looong-held notes and pauses on this solo.  That’s okay, it’s a pleasure to clearly hear the master rhythm guitarist chonking away so reliably in the background.

Compare mm 7-8 with mm 21-22.  Interesting.  Same notes, same sequence, totally different effect.  And compare both with mm 17-18:  same sequence, just a different harmony (B♭9 = Fm6).

Charles closes his solo with the blues sequence that he had showcased twice in the last section of his second solo on the first take of I Got Rhythm exactly three months earlier:  ♭3/9, ♭7/6, ♭3/9, ♭7/6.  Indeed, he used it, sparingly, in various forms starting with the very first recording.

Wonder who it was that suddenly passed Charles the baton right after Young’s chorus.  If I had to bet on it, I would have to guess it was Prez himself.