Charlie Hunter © Andrea Canter

A guitarist who has defied classification while pulling in audiences of diverse age and musical tastes, Charlie Hunter has been long known for having one of the hottest grooves in jazz guitar. With his famed custom-made 8-string instrument he managed the roles of keyboard and bass so well that his trio (with sax and drums) sounded like a quintet. But recently Hunter transformed that instrument into a 7-string box with an 8-string sound. This summer, he toured with a new trio featuring keyboard and drums, and (with keyboardist Erik Deutsch and drummer Simon Lott) released his first effort on Concord, Mistico. The instrumentation may have changed, but the result is still pure Hunter. This week, following a gig across the bay at Yoshi's San Francisco, Hunter brings his trio plus guests Steve Bernstein and Curtis Fowlkes into the Oakland venue (December 19-23).

Growing up in Berkeley, CA, young Charlie was destined to become a guitarist. His mom repaired guitars and, by age 12, Charlie had purchased his own for $7. Berkeley has produced its share of jazz greats, including Joshua Redman and Benny Green who both attended the same high school as Hunter. But Charlie was not part of the music program. "I really wasn't an institutional-type person. I had to go out and do my own thing…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 was into everything at that point - blues, rockabilly, funk and soul..." At 18, Hunter was pulled into jazz by friends encouraging him to listen to Weather Report. But his first response was, “This is fusion. I'm not really into that.” He listened next to Wes Montgomery, but the strings on the album turned him off. Finally, he heard Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, and Charlie Christian, “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."

Influenced by organ greats Jimmy Smith and Larry Young, Hunter fused his growing interest in jazz with the music of his favorite artists--Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy and Little Walter. But overall Hunter attributes the development of his sound to the eclectic influences surrounding him in the Bay Area. “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."

Charlie Hunter © Michael Weintrob

Hunter is known for his unconventional guitars. He had his first custom 7-string (with two bass strings, 2 pickups) in the late eighties, and took it to Paris and Zurich where he worked as a street musician. Covering bass and string parts, he returned to the Bay Area, gigging in clubs until he met poet/rapper Michael Franti. Hunter toured with Franti’s Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy in the early 90s, but left after a year to pursue more jazz-oriented music. “It was difficult for me as an artist who's dedicated to searching for the spiritual core of music to have to deal with being in a situation where the quest is in the most superficial, consumer-driven aspects of the recording industry,” says Hunter. “It's hard enough driving for hours to get to the next city. When you get there, you at least want to play music that excites you." Soon he had formed the first edition of the Charlie Hunter Trio with high school buddy, tenor saxophonist Dave Ellis, and drummer Jay Lane. A weekly gig at the Elbo Room in San Francisco was the incubator for what became their distinctive Bay Area sound. The trio released its first recording, then in 1995 they debuted on Blue Note. By now Charlie had added yet another bass string, and was making waves with his 8-string guitar.

Of the appeal of his music across generations, Hunter notes,“I think our music is an alternative to the suit-and-tie club that says you have to be well-to-do and super-intellectual to understand jazz music. We don't have that attitude. We play at places where people aren't interested in pigeonholing instrumental music." But the appeal to a rock-oriented teen audience may be based on misconceptions of the music. Says Hunter, "I think that because we covered a Kurt Cobain song on the first Blue Note Record, people have decided we are really into alternative rock… We're jazz musicians, but we're jazz musicians from their generation. That's who we share aspects of a common life with and that's who we are trying to reach… I am very proud of the fact that our audience is very diverse. There are a lot of women who come to our shows. There are a lot of kids-I mean teens and young adults-who bring their parents. And there are a lot of moms and dads who bring their kids, and that makes me feel like we're doing something right." When the press tried to label Hunter’s music as “acid jazz,” Charlie countered with his own label—“antacid jazz.”

Over the next decade, the Charlie Hunter Trio expanded to a Quartet and Quintet, playing through personnel changes and experimenting with different combinations of sounds, more brass, more percussion. At one point he added vibraphone monster Stefon Harris, dubbing the ensemble Pound for Pound. In 1997, Hunter changed his geography as well, relocating to Brooklyn, and two years later joined forces with Leon Parker for a duo recording. “Just meeting and then getting to play with someone like Leon is why I came here [to New York]," he says. "I'm being constantly inspired by people, which sets off a chain of events for more exploration. It's been one constant chain reaction since I moved here." And continuing the duo format, Hunter toured with drummer Adam Cruz as the millennium faded.

Over his career, Hunter has played with Scott Amendola, Will Bernard, Skerik, Mimi Fox, Kurt Elling, Bobby Previte, Greg Osby, Josh Roseman, Mos Def, Norah Jones, Adam Cruz, John Mayer and Willard Dyson, among others; he co-founded Garage A Trois, a jazz fusion band with Stanton Moore and Skerik; and proving he can be more conventional, he recorded with six-string guitars on Christian McBride’s Live at Tonic.

Hunter recently made a change in his equipment and subsequently his sound, which has often been compared to the Hammond B-3. In 2006, he removed the top guitar string and, with a modification in the guitar neck, created a 7-string on the formerly-8 string body. He explained that because he has relatively small hands, he had to move out of position to make use of the 8th string, which was thus not used often. On the new instrument, Charlie retuned the strings up a half-step: F-B flat-E flat on the bass and B flat-E flat-A flat-C on the guitar strings. A more bluesy and distortion based sound marks his current playing, while the keyboard is still present in his current trio, featuring Erik Deutsch on piano and Fender Rhodes, and Scott Amendola on drums. Yet there was already evidence that Hunter was moving in this direction, as saxman John Ellis played increasingly on keyboards during the most recent trio tours.

Steve Bernstein © Don Berryman

In the Bay Area, fans of improvised music, be it jazz, fusion, or “antacid jazz,” can enjoy the new Charlie Hunter Trio plus brass as the threesome will be joined by slide trumpeter Steve Bernstein and trombonist Curtis Fowlkes. Maybe this will be Hunter meets Hunter? Whatever, it will be cool.

Charlie Hunter performs at Yoshi's in Oakland at Jack London Square, December 19-23; Wednesday-Saturday shows at 8 and 10 pm; Sunday at 7 and 9 pm. Visit www.yoshis.com. For more informaiton and tour dates for Charlie Hunter, visit www.charliehunter.com