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Charlie Hunter

"I knew that I wanted to do this with my life from when I was 16", says Hunter about his musical career. His early recognition of this may have been influenced by the fact that he grew up in homes where his mother repaired guitars for a living in Berkeley, California where he has lived since he was eight years old. Charlie picked up his first guitar when he was twelve years old for $7, and a few years later was taking lessons from Joe Satriani, who at that time was just another guitar teacher. "People can't believe that but I was just another Berkeley kid and every Berkeley kid took lessons from Joe Satriani. He must have had a hundred students. He's a great teacher."

Charlie graduated from the same Berkeley high school whose music program produced saxophonist Joshua Redman and pianist Benny Green, but Hunter did not participate in the school's prestigious music program. "I really wasn't an institutional-type person. I had to go out and do my own thing. I was a naughty kid who went through the crazy angst-driven hysteria many teenagers experience," says Hunter, who doesn't deny not making it to class much. "Because I was from a low-income family, I was tracked into the lowest level of academic courses. You didn't get a chance to develop much self-esteem there, so I decided to focus on something that made me feel good. I graduated by the skin of my teeth."

"I was into everything at that point - blues, rockabilly, funk and soul...", but it wasn't until Hunter turned 18 that he discovered jazz. "My friends said, 'You got to get into jazz, you've got to listen to Weather Report.' And I thought, 'This is fusion. I'm not really into that.' So then somebody told me I should listen to Wes Montgomery, but the album I got was one of those with strings, and I was totally turned off. Finally, somebody said, 'You need to check out Charlie Parker and Charlie Christian and John Coltrane,' and it was like boom! I was instantly turned on. Their total sound and the reality of their playing just cut through everything. I suddenly wanted to play like that."

Hunter soon discovered and became heavily influenced by such organ legends as Jimmy Smith, Larry Young, and Big John Patton. Mix this with some of his favorite artists from other genres such as Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy and Little Walter, and you can see where Hunter's sound came from. But it was the exposure to so many various genres of music that Charlie is thankful for. "Growing up in the Bay Area had a profound effect on my music. I was exposed to everything from the Dead Kennedy's to P-Funk to Art Blakey. In the Bay Area, you have all of these different musical cultures living together and all of these different musical cultures and their music gets semi-assimilated into this non-polarized state of being where hybrids are free to grow, and there are all of these genres and cross genres to play in and around."

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Album Review

Candice Ivory: When The Levee Breaks: The Music Of Memphis Minnie

Read "When The Levee Breaks: The Music Of Memphis Minnie" reviewed by Doug Collette


Candice Ivory is more than a little ambitious to conceive and execute an album comprised wholly of material by blues icon Memphis Minnie. But to her credit, she has been quite resourceful in enlisting some formidable resources in the effort: guitarist/bassist Charlie Hunter serves as a player and the album producer, the latter role he also filled on the album of the steel guitarist here DaShawn Hickman. Needless to say, camaraderie abounds throughout the dozen cuts, beginning with ...

11
Album Review

Kurt Elling & Charlie Hunter: SuperBlue: The Iridescent Spree

Read "SuperBlue: The Iridescent Spree" reviewed by Chris May


As Shakespeare said, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Kurt Elling and Charlie Hunter follow up their Grammy-nominated 2021 album, SuperBlue (Edition), with another sublime blend of jazz and groove. As on the first disc, jazz is represented by Elling, groove by Butcher Brown keyboardist DJ Harrison and drummer Corey Fonville. Hunter, who has had a foot in both camps for over two decades, acts as marriage broker. Some jazz fans have an aversion to singers, ...

1
Album Review

Kurt Elling: SuperBlue

Read "SuperBlue" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Nel pieno delle restrizioni Covid, la condizione artisticamente più difficile dopo la seconda guerra mondiale, Kurt Elling ha realizzato uno dei suoi album migliori, quello dal groove più intenso e coinvolgente.Il merito va condiviso col chitarrista Charlie Hunter e con gli altri due partner, il tastierista DJ Harrison e il batterista Corey Fonville. Chi segue la scena della black popular music attuale sa che i due sono membri del collettivo Butcher Brown, la band jazz/funk/hip-hop di Richmond che ...

5
Radio & Podcasts

Costanza Alegiani, Charlie Hunter, Christian McBride, Nicole Johänntgen & Other New Releases

Read "Costanza Alegiani, Charlie Hunter, Christian McBride, Nicole Johänntgen & Other New Releases" reviewed by Ludovico Granvassu


In the two weeks since our last new releases special, so much great music came to our attention that today we have one of those shows that some define as “all killer, no filler..." except that I don't like to think of music as “killing," but you catch my drift. A special focus on Charlie Hunter's numerous recent projects as leader or sideman, and on great bass players like Petter Eldh, Christian McBride, Michael Formanek and Clovis Nicolas. ...

5
Album Review

Garage A Trois: Calm Down Cologne

Read "Calm Down Cologne" reviewed by Chris May


Formed by guitarist Charlie Hunter, saxophonist Skerik and drummer Stanton Moore in 1999, Garage A Trois has sparked a slew of “But is it jazz?" debates with every new release. Calm Down Cologne will do it again. GAT has been through various incarnations since its debut EP, The Mysteryfunk (Fog City Records, 1999), necessitated by the departure of Hunter. The group's last album, 2011's Always Be Happy, But Stay Evil (Royal Potato Family), was actually made by a ...

3
Live Review

Charlie Hunter and Lucy Woodward at Dazzle

Read "Charlie Hunter and Lucy Woodward at Dazzle" reviewed by Geoff Anderson


Charlie Hunter/Lucy Woodward Dazzle Denver, CO August 2, 2019 Is it possible to trace Charlie Hunter's musical evolution by the number of strings on his guitar? Back when he hit the scene in the early '90s, he played a massive 8 string guitar. (Although he was on seven string guitar for his first album, he stuck with the 8 string starting with his second album in 1995 for roughly the next decade.) The three low ...

3
Album Review

Charlie Hunter & Lucy Woodward: Music! Music! Music!

Read "Music! Music! Music!" reviewed by Doug Collette


Music! Music! Music! will cement the revelatory impression guitarist Charlie Hunter and vocalist Lucy Woodward leave upon attendees of their concerts. Having repaired to the studio in November 2018, the duo maximized the spontaneity of those proceedings through the enlistment of drummer Derrek Phillips. adding a spark that further ignited the keen chemistry the pair had honed on stage. In recent years, Charlie Hunter has revealed a predilection for the blues that may very well have led to ...

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Video / DVD

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Charlie Hunter Trio with Lucy Woodward

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Charlie Hunter Trio with Lucy Woodward

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

This week, let's take a look at some videos featuring guitarist Charlie Hunter's latest trio with singer Lucy Woodward and drummer Keita Ogawa, who are coming to St. Louis to perform on Sunday, July 28 at Off Broadway. Hunter, whose distinctive technique on the seven-string guitar lets him play leads, bass lines and accompaniment more or less simultaneously, has played St. Louis a number of times in recent years with various configurations of musicians. And while he's frequently used the ...

Performance / Tour

Jazz this week: The Thing, Denise Thimes, Charlie Hunter, Victor Wooten Trio, and more

Jazz this week: The Thing, Denise Thimes, Charlie Hunter, Victor Wooten Trio, and more

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis features several stellar singers; the local debut of an esteemed free jazz trio; some straight-up bebop; funky sounds from New Orleans, California, and beyond; and more. Let's go to the highlights... Wednesday, March 21 Singer Brian Owens will performs for the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro, revisiting some of the jazz material he did earlier in his career, with backing from pianist Adam Maness' ...

Performance / Tour

Jazz This Week: The Wee Trio, Take 6, J.D. Parran and George Sams, Scott Kirby, Charlie Hunter and Scott Amendola, and More

Jazz This Week: The Wee Trio, Take 6, J.D. Parran and George Sams, Scott Kirby, Charlie Hunter and Scott Amendola, and More

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

With spring appearing finally to have sprung here in St. Louis, it should be a fine weekend to get out and hear some live jazz and creative music, and fortunately, our local stages will be filled with intriguing possibilities. Let's go to the highlights... Tonight, Good 4 The Soul plays their monthly gig at  BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups; Washington University's jazz studies students will perform a free concert to wrap up this semester's Jazz at Holmes series; the Lemp ...

Performance / Tour

Jazz This Week: Charlie Hunter, Hamiet Bluiett, "Cool Like That: A Tribute to Miles Davis," and More

Jazz This Week: Charlie Hunter, Hamiet Bluiett, "Cool Like That: A Tribute to Miles Davis," and More

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

It's the first official week of summer, and there are plenty of jazz-related events coming up in and around St. Louis over the next seven days. Let's go to the highlights... Tonight, the inaugural St Lou Fringe Festival opens with an evening of performances that will include the first of four stagings of Cool Like That: A Tribute to Miles Davis, an event that incorporates spoken word, music, and dance to pay tribute to the legendary trumpeter. Also tonight, there's ...

Video / DVD

STLJN Saturday Video Showcase: The Return of Charlie Hunter

STLJN Saturday Video Showcase: The Return of Charlie Hunter

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

After a couple of Saturdays presenting historic videos, this week we're back on the straight-up “coming attractions" tip, and the featured artist is guitarist Charlie Hunter, who's returning to St. Louis next week to perform Friday, June 22 and Saturday, June 23 at Jazz at the Bistro. Hunter's been a relatively frequent visitor here in recent years, appearing at the Bistro in January, 2009 and again in January, 2011. (You can see more ...

9

Education

Charlie Hunter to Present Master Class on Saturday, June 23 at City Music

Charlie Hunter to Present Master Class on Saturday, June 23 at City Music

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

Guitarist Charlie Hunter, who's known for his ability to play leads, chords and basslines simultaneously on a custom-built seven-string guitar, will present a master class at 1:00 p.m. Saturday, June 23 at City Music and Education Center, 9291 Watson Rd. Hunter (pictured) will be in St. Louis that weekend to perform Friday and Saturday nights at Jazz at the Bistro. The master class is open to vocalists and instrumentalists of all types, not just guitar players. Attendees are encouraged to ...

160

Recording

Vocalist Dara Tucker Releases "Soul Said Yes"- Examines Common Threads of Soul in Jazz, Gospel and New Originals and Features 7-String Guitarist Charlie Hunter and Drummer Derrek Phillips

Vocalist Dara Tucker Releases "Soul Said Yes"- Examines Common Threads of Soul in Jazz, Gospel and New Originals and Features 7-String Guitarist Charlie Hunter and Drummer Derrek Phillips

Source: Greg Bryant

Jazz Vocalist and Songwriter Dara Tucker has released her second CD Soul Said Yes, a collection of music that examines the common thread of soul in Dara's gospel roots, jazz standards and in newer classics reworked in distinct arrangements. “Soul, to me, is an audible expression of the human experience," Tucker said. “As this album reflects a wide range of influences, it represents where we are musically and we are very excited about presenting it to our listeners." In addition ...

183

Performance / Tour

Charlie Hunter Trio: Live Stream this Friday

Charlie Hunter Trio: Live Stream this Friday

Source: Todd Altschuler

On Friday March 4, there will be another exciting “Live from the Llama" webcast. Presented by Telluride Jazz Celebration, the Live from the Llama webcast series gives music lovers from around the world a chance to enjoy concerts emanating from Telluride's premier live music venue. The next band to be beamed into cyberspace is the Charlie Hunter Trio. As always, Hunter will be demonstrating his virtuosity on a custom-made 7-string guitar on which he simultaneously plays guitar and bass lines. ...

55

Performance / Tour

Brandi Disterheft, Charlie Hunter, Sophie Hunger and Ibrahim Maalouf Light up L'astral

Brandi Disterheft, Charlie Hunter, Sophie Hunger and Ibrahim Maalouf Light up L'astral

Source: AAJ Staff

Organizers of the Jazz All Year-Round series, part of the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal presented by TD, are proud to add four concerts to the marquee at L'Astral, the magnificent venue housed by the Maison du Festival Rio Tinto Alcan. We welcome three revelations and a “young veteran" who shone last year, especially at the Festival: young Canadian acoustic bassist Brandi Disterheft, spellbinding Swiss singer Sophie Hunger, supremely gifted Franco-Lebanese trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf and virtuoso American guitarist Charlie ...

103

Performance / Tour

Charlie Hunter: Tour Dates

Charlie Hunter: Tour Dates

Source: JamBase

FEBRUARY RESIDENCY AT ROSE LIVE MUSIC IN BROOKLYN, NY Charlie Hunter has lined up some tour dates in support of his second solo outing, Public Domain. The dates include a month-long February residency at Rose Live Music in Brooklyn, NY. Check out the itinerary below and click here to download “Limehouse Blues" off the new album. TOUR DATES

02/03/11 Thu Rose Live Music Brooklyn, NY 02/10/11 Thu Rose Live Music Brooklyn, NY 02/17/11 Thu Rose Live Music Brooklyn, NY 02/18/11 ...

Petr Cancura
saxophone
Sol Roots
guitar and vocals
Matt Skellenger
bass, electric

Photos

Concerts

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

SuperBlue: The...

Edition Records
2023

buy

When The Levee...

The Little Village Foundation
2023

buy

12 Galaxies

Self Produced
2022

buy

Americana, Vol. 2

Savant Records
2022

buy

Calm Down Cologne

Royal Potato Family
2021

buy

SuperBlue

Edition Records
2021

buy

There Is a Chance

From: Don't Let It Stop! Live at On...
By Charlie Hunter

Ain't We Got Fun

From: Public Domain
By Charlie Hunter

Swamba Redux

From: Copperopolis
By Charlie Hunter

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