The Beat: Hunter shows extra pluck
Jazz musician uses eight-string guitar for layered sound
By Chris Macias

Did Charlie Hunter escape from a jazz session at Area 51? There seem to be alien forces at work when Hunter plays his eight-string guitar: His thumb thumps smooth bass lines, while his fingers simultaneously tickle melodies and slap rhythms.

Hunter's jazzy, polyrhythmic playing gives the semblance of three brains at work when he plays his custom-made instrument, which uses both electric guitar and bass guitar strings. On Tuesday night at the Palms Playhouse in Davis, he will showcase music from his new album, "Charlie Hunter/Leon Parker Duo," though percussionist Adam Cruz will fill in for Parker, who had prior commitments.

As a star of San Francisco's "new jazz" scene since the early 1990s, Hunter is a familiar face to Northern California jazz and hip-hop fans. When young Bay Area musicians were filling local clubs with the sounds of jazz fused with funk, hip-hop and ethnic music, Hunter's groups were perhaps the most popular of all those performing -- guitar fanatics were awed by his technique, and regular folks simply liked his funky sound.

But Hunter, a Berkeley native, moved to New York a year and a half ago. Dismayed by the limited numbers of jazz venues and the gentrification of his old stomping grounds, he now lives in Brooklyn.

"I miss the food and my friends out there," said Hunter in a recent phone interview from New York. "But it's so exciting to be (in New York). It took a lot of energy to get here but it's worth it. There's such an incredible number of musicians here who are of the highest caliber that eventually you'll come into people who are like-minded.

"In San Francisco, there's a glass ceiling," he continued. "There are so few gigs there and things move at a slower pace.. . . Things had really changed around me. The neighborhood I lived in got filled with Range Rovers."

But fans of Hunter's music know he isn't one to stay in a single mode for long, whether it's the city he lives in or the musicians he plays with. He played with Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, a politically charged rap group that at the peak of its success opened concerts for U2. His jazz trio played Bob Marley and Nirvana covers among its original tunes, though he later disbanded the group and moved away from its saxophone-heavy sound. Hunter then formed Pound for Pound, a quartet that fused his guitar with vibraphone and percussion.

"I try to keep moving forward in a natural progression and stay a step ahead of myself, but not so far that I don't know what I'm doing," said Hunter. "And I do (a project) until I feel it's done. When the (Charlie Hunter Trio) was done, it was done. When Pound for Pound was done, it was done."

Hunter's latest project is a guitar-percussion duo, recorded with drummer Leon Parker after two one-hour rehearsals. The album has nods to Cuban music, as on the opening track "Mean Streak," along with interpretations of standard jazz fare such as "You Don't Know What Love Is."

"I really felt like I tried to create a sound with just drums and my instruments," said Hunter about the new album. "I'm a big fan of Leon's music. I think he's really taking a new approach to to drums and cymbals. I thought it'd make a good mix."

Though Hunter is excited about his new music, playing snobby jazz clubs is one of his least favorite obligations. He's even referred to some jazz club owners as "jazz fascists" who seem bent on keeping the music for a privileged few by charging outrageous cover prices.

"It's pointless for me to play those kinds of places," Hunter said about pricey jazz clubs, such as New York's famed Blue Note club, where cover charges range from $30 to $50, plus a drink minimum. "I can reach other audiences there, but I feel like those places alienate my fans. People who want to come see me are people who can't afford the cover to be at the Blue Note. It's a club I can't really afford to go to (either)."

Instead, Hunter loves playing at intimate venues such as the Palms, especially since it's near his mom's house in Sacramento.

"I love that place, man," said Hunter. "It's laid-back. It reminds me of hippie places like my mom used to take me to when I was young. It's mellow: it's not an uptight jazz club, it's not a rock club, it's like a living room, like playing for your friends."

And perhaps the only constant in Hunter's always-evolving career is his commitment to developing his playing on the unorthodox eight-string guitar.

"The drum set has been evolving for the past 100 years and I feel my instrument is doing for the electric string thing what the drum set did for the drums," he said. "I'm trying to develop a vocabulary of my own on the instrument. I'm developing an awareness of what I can or can't do (but) I feel like I still have a long way to go."