While it’s a fair conclusion that Charlie Hunter’s recorded output should be filed in a record store’s Jazz section, there is an equally compelling argument that it should be in the Charlie Hunter section. Hunter’s stylistic compass has no magnetic North, and his musical adventures over the course of his 20-plus-year career have taken him to exotic and disparate locales, giving him an affinity for Soul, Rock, Funk, Reggae and Electronica, all of which he has incorporated into his restlessly inventive Jazz explorations.
Two early bullet points on his resume give an indication of Hunter’s amazing range — teenage guitar lessons from Joe Satriani and membership in Michael Franti’s Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy. Since his debut Charlie Hunter Trio album in 1993, Hunter has endeavored to apply his estimable guitar skills to as many projects as humanly possible, including his duo with longtime drummer Scott Amendola, the Charlie Hunter Trio and an endless array of artists and bands as guest/collaborator (Dionne Farris, T.J. Kirk, Garage A Trois, D’Angelo, Groundtruther, Bobby Previte, Christian McBride and many others). As a result, Hunter’s discography stands at over 40 titles, including his latest fluid Charlie Hunter Trio release with drummer Bobby Previte and trombonist Curtis Fowlkes, 2015’s magnificent Let the Bells Ring On.
One of Hunter’s longest and most productive associations has been with Amendola, who has played with Hunter for two decades. The duo — Hunter on 7- or 8-string guitar and Amendola on drums — possesses an almost radioactively mutated sense of musical telepathy. Their three recent studio projects together, 2012’s brilliant debut Not Getting Behind is the New Getting Ahead, 2013’s Pucker (where Amendola got first billing because the songs were his compositions) and 2014’s four-EP series where the pair covers The Cars, Hank Williams, Duke Ellington and Cole Porter (seriously), are a master class on invention and translation. The connection between Hunter and Amendola should be studied emotionally as music and scientifically as chemistry.
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This article appears in Apr 27 – May 4, 2016.