By the early 1930's Charlie was doubling on bass and guitar and playing with a number of regional bands including Anna Mae Winburn's Band, the Leslie Sheffield Band, and by 1934 was playing the bass with Alphonso Trent, it was about this same period that he discovered the electric guitar. In 1935 the amplified electric guitar was still in it's infancy, with Hawaiian style solid body slide guitars being the only instruments available of sufficient quality for professional use, everything changed however in 1937 with the release of the Gibson ES-150.
Shortly after Eddie Durham began using the ES-150 and it was through him that Charlie Christian was first exposed to it Durham explains " Touring with the band [ the Kansas City band ] I ran into Charlie Christian in Oklahoma City. He was playing piano when I first saw him, but I never in my life heard a guy learn to play the guitar faster than he did. It was around the latter part of 1937, and I'll never forget that old beat up five dollar wooden guitar he took to the jam session where I heard him play...I don't think Christian had ever seen a guitar with an amplifier till he met me. It was a year before they got one on the market generally, and then he got one for himself ".
By 1939 armed with the ES-150 Charlie Christian was becoming a force to be reckoned with in the mid-west as he toured extensively with Al Trents band throughout the area. With Trents band, which was a sextet, he began to use the guitar as a lead instrument playing single string guitar lines in harmony with sax and trumpet parts creating three part effects which were unheard of in jazz at that time. He played with Trent for about two years during which time he was able to let his style evolve, he began to utilize more complicated harmonies and to build his own improvisations around standard tunes. His style of playing was beginning to resemble that of the music that Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie would later make famous as Be-Bop. Eventually pianist Mary Lou Williams recommended him him to legendary producer John Hammond Sr. In August 1939 Hammond impressed with Christians talent arranged an audition for Christian with Benny Goodman.
In 1939 Benny Goodman was leading what was probably the most succesful and inovative Big Band of his day. According to Hammond he was not enthusiastic about introducing electric instruments into the band and when Charlie Christian arrived in LA for the audition Goodman gave him only a brief audition and didn't let him demonstrate his immpresive improvisation skills. Undaunted Hammond snuck Christian on stage that night during a concert and an annoyed Goodman retaliated by launching into "Rose Room" a number he assusmed Christian would be unfamiliar with. To the contrary however Christian not only blew through it but he played an extended set of improvisations and he and Goodman are reported to have traded riffs back and forth on the song for 48 minutes. Goodman was impressed and Christian was introduced into the Benny Goodman Sextet where he immediately invigorated the band with his musical energy and quickly began to make a name for himself around New York City.
