'MISTICO' CD REVIEW

Before jazz-funk maverick Charlie Hunter recorded his latest album, he performed a little surgery. A string was removed from his custom-made eight-string guitar, and its neck trimmed accordingly, producing a denser, darker sound.

He certainly makes aggressive use of his retooled ax on "Mistico." Capitalizing on the instrument's range -- and a lowered tuning -- he creates a series of blues-drenched performances that occasionally sound as if they were inspired by some lost Hendrix tapes.

In fact, "Mistico" is seldom more entertaining than when Hunter is letting his freak flag fly. On "Speakers Built In," for example, he spills a bucket of psychedelic guitar work over a funk groove. The tune eventually drifts into a spacey interlude, but it isn't long before the wah-wah tones and clipped beats re-emerge.

Working alongside his new trio mates -- keyboardist Erik Deutsch and drummer Simon Lott -- Hunter occasionally conjures a noir-ish tone, as on "Estranged," or cozies up to a sleek and languid melody. Yet, as the gleefully distorted "Balls" and the twangfest "Chimp Out" demonstrate, there's always a sharp volume spike lurking around the corner. What's missing from "Mistico" is the kind of jazz interplay that Hunter has developed in the past, whether recording with saxophonist John Ellis or touring with chromatic harmonica player Gregoire Maret. But then, as Hunter has made clear over the past 15 years, he doesn't settle into one groove for very long.