Simply by dint of his choice of instruments —once an eight and now seven-string guitar–Charlie Hunter is one of the most original musicians of contemporary jazz. But he’s taken his idiosyncratic choice of axe into realms of music equally distinctive, ranging from his early trio and quartet ensembles to the Pound for Pound group featuring vibist Stefon Harris, duo work with percussionist Scott Amendola (with whom he played in the eclectic quartet TJ Kirk also including guitarist Will Bernard) and one-offs such as Earth Tones (2005). Then there are the open-ended collaboration including Groundtruther with drummer/composer/bandleader Bobby Previte, as well as the rotating cast of characters dubbed Garage A Trois.
In fact, Hunter has recorded so many different records, with so many different musicians, over the course of two decades plus, he’s never repeated himself. Even his latest album, Let The Bells Ring On release June 4th doesn’t really sound like anything he’s done before, despite the fact he collaborates with musicians he’s played with in the past in different contexts, the aforementioned Previte and trombonist Curtis Fowlkes. The surety of the rhythm that permeates the music is a definite element of continuity though, as is the wit and upbeat self-awareness that Charlie Hunter exhibits in conversation.
I appreciate you taking the time to talk to me today. You must be getting very anxious to go out on the road with Bobby (Previte, drummer) and Curtis (Fowlkes, trombonist).
Yeah, that happens in a few days. We do a short tour, than I come home and pack my bags for the west coast to play with Scott (Amendola, drummer and long-time collaborator). But, you know, I’ll take the work wherever I can find it! (laughs
You anticipated one of my questions: How different is your daily schedule when you are on the road compared to when you are at home? Some artists have their shows very early in the evening so they can maintain some semblance of normality.
I don’t really get to do that. Generally speaking, shows are getting earlier, especially the ones that I play and that’s fine with me because my natural inclination is to go to bed early and get up early. When I’m out on the road, I’m always doing something because I do it all myself—there’s a lot of driving, there’s a lot of everything, so I’m always in the mix—but all you’ve really got to do is make sure you’ve got your stuff together for three hours a night. But you get used to it after a while.
I had a whole list of questions to ask from my research into the studio you used and the producer, then I turned the CD itself over and was struck by the cover photo: how was that chosen for this record?
I have a fellow musician friend named Leo Gandelman who’s a saxophone player. He’s always been a musician, but there was a time in the late Seventies when he was a photographer, actually for a Brazilian news agency and that’s one of the photos he took in northern Brazil at that time. It’s not even a great take of the picture, to be honest, because he had the photo in his studio and he closed his studio, then couldn’t find it to frame it?! The photo on the album cover is actually an amalgamation of a picture I took of it with my iPhone and a copy of the picture he had in a show. It’s a great shot that I really like and it’s a very strong image
I love Bobby Previte’s work, so I went through my collection to see how many projects you’ve done with him. You two must have a really great relationship to play with each other and for each other in alternating roles.
Yeah!…And that’s a great point to bring up because the great thing about being a musician is that the power relationship is very fluid. When we did that improvisational project Groundtruther, which was essentially a duo thing with a third person, was completely free: we never discussed anything we just got on the stage and played. And I played in his band for The Coalition of the Willing (2006), so he was the boss and now he’s playing in my band and I’m the boss. You’re doing all the work behind the scenes, but when it comes time to play, everybody’s pushing forward.
Certainly no one’s ego gets in the way when you’re interacting that fluidly in that many different ways.
Some people are going to be more geared to being sidemen because they’re brilliant in that way, while others, by dint of what they do, are going to be leaders, But I think it’s best to do all those things and exercise all those muscles in addition to doing whatever your main thing is.
Obviously, it’s very different for you to play for someone, so whether it’s in a group with Bobby or someone else, do you feel this sense of relief that you are not in charge or is there a different and perhaps equal kind of pressure—to perform so to speak?
If I’m doing my thing on the seven-string or whatever, if it’s my thing and it takes up a lot of space, so I’m not surprised I don’t get much work like that; it’s not like just plugging in a guitar player. And I hardly ever play six-string: it’s just not my thing or something I really have a voice on. But on the other hand, it’s incredibly easy to play compared to my instrument: it’s like going from driving a truck to driving a little car. So it’s not something I have much interest in doing, but Bobby asked and I said “Hey I’ll play guitar on that record—that’ll be fun!”
Let’s go back and talk about the new record. Did you have all this material written and then think of asking Bobby and Curtis to play it or did that thought occur during the course of composing it?
That’s a great question actually because I thought of these guys when writing this material. That’s not to say it couldn’t be played with anybody else, but I thought Bobby’s drumming style is special because very few can play in a pocket the way he plays and still be an improvisational player. And it’s the same thing with Curtis because I didn’t want a singer, but rather a horn player who sings through his instrument and he’s the closest thing I could come to it. And we have a relationship too because it’s not like this is jazz so much as avant-blues or R & B: this is really a Blues or R & B band, but with this open improvisation aspect.
It’s really got an earthy flavor to it. How much did you prep the material before you went in to record it? Did you arrange it and then present it to them?
No, I just brought it in and we figured it out together. Bobby’s a great guy for that because his compositional mind is really fantastic in terms of arranging the form of songs.
I wanted to ask a bit more about touring, beginning with how you choose the material you want to play when you are getting ready to go on the road? Do you have a collection from which you choose or do you wing it, night in and night out?
In my experience, the best thing I can do, because most of my gigs are ‘An evening with…,’ consisting of one hour sets, it’s good to have twenty to thirty tunes for the tour. But that doesn’t mean we won’t go into other things that we know, like a standard we play in a weird way. And there’s also those tunes on a record that for some reason don’t translate live: they just don’t work in the live situation like they do in the studio where you depend on nuance. But then if you are in a small place, where everyone’s on you and you’ve got a sound system, then everything’s going to work, when in another setting it might not come across. I think a lot of people have the same issues and, by the same token, a lot of the live stuff you do, if you record it for an album, out of context it sounds bombastic.
I’ve heard musicians say very much the same thing about material and concert recordings missing the visuals and the atmosphere of the room, so much is lost in the translation. Are you going to try and play all the material on the new record?
We probably won’t play it all, but all of it probably can be successfully played live. There’s also a lot of other new material I’m working on for another record with these guys and other little tunes we’ll hit on along the way. And then I’ll reach back into my vault for things we’ll work with.
That sounds exciting!
Well, this record is just coming out and this group is just starting and once people know I’m playing and that Bobby and Curtis are in my band, we’ll be able to get some nice gigs.
Your enthusiasm for this project is infectious and you mentioned a surplus of material for the trio: is that from the original batch?
No, it’s not. I am actually trying to make a ‘blues record’ with this band. That’s my idea and I’m writing these songs that are very focused on that part of it.
When you talk about writing, do you conduct writing sessions for yourself or just follow inspiration.
It’s got to be both and you just keep at it till it becomes something. Sometimes I’ll take something I had on past records, like “Welcome to Nutley,” which is actually something I had on another record called “Welcome to Frankfurt;” if I’ve got a nice melodic fragment that I didn’t use particularly well, I’ll try to re-use it in a way that is hopefully better.
It’s interesting to hear how an idea can go through different permutations till it finally becomes its own …or not. How do you keep track of the material in its various stages?
Mostly I just try to get the melodic and harmonic fragments together and I’ll try it on my guitar or I’ll use software to which I’m a real latecomer. And I can put stuff on “Garage Band” so I can hear how parts sound against one another. It’s different for every project though, but generally I just keep on working it till it sounds right.
Do you have a studio at home or a space elsewhere you can go to tinker with things and experiment?
I don’t have a studio, I just have a garage I play in and that’s about it. But I don’t have the chops, nor am I interested at this point in my life, to learn how to engineer stuff in a studio. When I want to do a record, I go into a studio and do it. Someone else who really knows what they’re doing can have that job, I have enough already.
There must be a really unusual sensation to approach things that way as opposed to someone who’s always in the studio and then decides to record. You’re going into a whole different world with a specific purpose.
And that’s how I like it too because what I do is more about performance. It’s old school, but for me that just works better. That’s why I like mono—though this record isn’t so much in mono—but I like to record that way live to two-track because that’s really what I like the sound and feel of. I’m never going to win any awards for going into the studio; it’s essentially about the live performance more than anything else, the interaction within the band and all that. Whatever I can do to make that come through as articulately as possible with as much vibe as possible. And that usually means going in to the studio and counting to four.
It’s interesting to mention the mono thing because I’ve taken note of that on a couple other records you’ve done recently (Public Domain, 2010).
The Gentlemen I Neglected to Inform You (2009) record is mono and the ones I’ve done with Scott are mono. I don’t even like stereo unless it’s something classical music where it’s more about the ambiance; if it’s rhythmic music, I really can’t abide stereo—I have my IPhone set permanently to mono. I have always like that sound, like AM radio that I have always preferred. And its funny: on this record, Fabian took this record back to Austria to mix it and when I heard what he’d done, I said “something doesn’t sound right about the guitar?” and he said, “That’s because it’s stereo not mono!” (laughs).
I thought about that as I listened to it from one of the sweet spots in my living room: it’s not a very pronounced stereo, but then it’s Charlie Hunter.
Stereo actually drives me nuts. With mono, you can be anywhere in the room and it sounds good! (laughs)
Top photo by Matt Carr
