'CHARLIE HUNTER' CD REVIEW
***1/2 stars
by Jim Macnie

Finding a balance between art and commerce has been a jazz bugaboo since the era of whorehouse piano. These days, guitarists usually have the best shot at accommodating both connoisseurs and casual listeners-just ask Charlie Hunter. Over the last decade he's created a template for wooing a mainstream audience while sustaining his improviser cred. Hunter's latest disc is a good explanation of how that balance is achieved.

There's intricacy, but it does its work in the wake of buoyant grooves. There's flash, but wankery is foiled at every turn. A glance at the instrumentation tells you one way the guy avoids the obvious: a batterie of drummers help define several tracks. It may be a guitar record, but it thrives on the power of percussion.

The pulse department is commandeered by Leon Parker, and if you've been watching the careers of either he or Hunter, you know they connected a couple years ago, making the lurni- nous 1999 disc Duo. The pith of that album is beefed up on Charlie Hunter. Josh Roseman's trombone and Peter Apfelbaum's tenor sax flesh out the action, as do the syncopated beats of Stephen Chopek and Robert Perkins. It's the action of the latter two that lifts the music. Combined with Parker's traps, it helps create a web of sound that's proud of its own logic.

The guitarist isn't a deep composer, but the riff tunes he comes up with are catchy enough to tickle the most general listeners while still offering ample fodder for Hunter's advanced soloing skills. Improviser enough to turn some. thing simple into something elaborate, he leads his men through accessible shuffles like "Nothin' But Trouble" and saucy blues like "Flau Flau." Remember how Parker's near perfect Belief presented its passion by trading , ,,[essionism for subtlety? That's what hap. pens here. Charlie Hunter is without freak-outs. But it always sounds committed, deeply focused on the emotions it's trying to articulate.

The ensemble tracks are buffeted by three drum 'n' guitar duets, and each displays a bit more exuberance than Hunter and Parker's tan- dem record. Remember how Miles tipped the hat to one of his big heroes on "w-Illie Nelson"? Here, the pair takes a moment to acknowledge the exemplar of pop sanctification: The track's called "Al Green." There.s a cool reserve to the way they glide through the piece: it surely paral- lels the Rev's talent for giving it up while hold- ing it in. And if there was ever an antidote for a riff tune, "Epistrophy" would be it. The duo cast Monk's monument as a Haitian dance number.

Seems like a few guitarists are investing in grooves right now. Scofield's Bump is committed to out-snaking the Meters, and Marc Ribot's iMuy Diverlido! lets the claves have their say. It's not a formal "movement" of course, but Hunter's head is also thinking along these lines. Banking on syncopation and nuance. he can lay claim to being part of that scene. His alignment with Parker has proven to be nothing but a boon for his art.