A Conversation with Charlie Hunter article @ All About Jazz

” data-original-title title>Leon Parker entitled, Duo (Blue Note Records). On April 5th, 1999, I spoke with him from his hotel room in Los Angeles.

All About Jazz: You’re only 31, and yet you’ve had a lot of success doing a lot of different projects: Disposable Heroes,

” data-original-title title>T.J. Kirk, the

” data-original-title title>Bob Marley album, and you’re quartet. It must be a great feeling, knowing that you can play almost any style of music and have it be well received. Comment on that.

Charlie Hunter: Well, it is a great feeling, but it’s not something that just happened; it’s not like I just got signed then instantly I’m flavor of the month. I worked really hard. I spent years in a van driving around to every city in the country. I’ve played gigs, you know, where I’ve driven 1,000 miles to play to twenty people, and the next time I drove 1,000 miles and there were 50 people, and then the next time there were 100, and so forth. So I feel that I’ve worked really hard. I did most of this by myself, just getting out there and taking the music to the people; that’s what I feel is really the key to all of this. If I had just stayed in the Bay area, and never went anywhere, I wouldn’t have a career right now.

AAJ: The fact that your music changes so much seems to say something about your listeners.

CH: Yeah, well you know I think that for anything you do, if you follow you’re true path—if you’re intention is to connect with the people that want to hear that—there are people out there who want to hear your music. There might not be five million, but there are people out there who want to hear what you’re doing, and will connect with your music. If you keep to your path you will eventually run into those people.

AAJ: Even if it’s different then the last project?

CH: Especially if it’s different because the audience, they keep up with me. They know what’s going on, and I’m not going to insult them or myself by playing with a band that I feel has already lived it’s purpose. I don’t want to have something out there like some ABBA reunion or anything. I want to keep the music fresh so that I’m always excited on the bandstand, and that translates into the audience being excited.

AAJ: Speaking of new stuff, let’s talk about your latest project with Leon Parker, entitled Duo. What are your impressions when you listen to it today?

CH: Well, I’m better (laughter). You know, you’re always trying to get better than your last record. But, I’m better in this duo setting because I’ve done it so much since then, so many gigs. I think I’ve got a better attitude as to how I want to play in the duo format. I’m really proud of the record. I’m proud of the sounds we got, and the way Leon and I played. I’m proud of Joe Ferla’s mix, so I’m real happy with it.

AAJ: A lot of those tunes on the album are originals, your own compositions?

CH: Most of them are. One of them is Leon’s tune called “Belief.” Another is a Beach Boys song, a Brian Wilson song, “Don’t Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)” and then there’s a standard called “You Don’t Know What Love Is.”

AAJ: Right, right, I want to ask you about that, but first let me ask you about the process of composition and composing a song. Do you have a method for composing?

CH: Well, my thing is still on the simplistic side. You know, I’m not extremely educated in that setting, and maybe that’s a good thing, I don’t know. I’ll just get a motif, and there’s so many different tricks and things you can do with chord changes and the form of the song, rhythmic interpretations. I try to do all these little things to make the tune work. I get a motif and I basically plug it in, you know (laughter), and hopefully it works. But, composing is just like anything else. There are people that are composers and that is their thing that they do, and they spend a lot of time doing it. A real good composer is going to compose eight hours a day, and I’ve got to keep up on my instrument as well, so I just don’t feel like I’ve got the time to dedicate to composing, which someday I would really love to do. It’s a learning thing, and that’s what’s so fun about it.

AAJ: Specifically, is there any place that you go to compose? Do you go to a piano, or do you lock yourself in a room with your guitar, or do you go the park, or?

CH: No, you know, it’s just wherever you are.

AAJ: I know that for me, as a writer and amateur poet, it’s almost a kind of therapeutic thing that I do when I need to get some things off of my mind. Do you find that applies to your experience at all?

CH: Yeah, it’s nice. I mean, I feel really good when I’ve written a song and I feel that it’s good enough to play in front of people.

AAJ: Uh huh. Well, talk about that standard (“You Don’t Know What Love Is”). Why did you include that on Duo?

CH: Um…I just, you know, I’ve always liked that tune. I think it’s really well written, and I just had a concept for it, as far as taking it out of the milieu that it would regularly be played in—putting those different kind of sounds over it and seeing what happens.

AAJ: You co-produced Duo.

CH: Yes.

AAJ: Is that something you’d like to continue doing, producing?

CH: Yeah, I really liked it a lot.

AAJ: What were some of your duties as co-producer?

CH: Well, my attitude in working with Joe Ferla, who is just brilliant as far as…he’s been engineering for so long that he gets the best sounds possible for the instruments and he does the best mixes possible. So I produced the music part—the direction of the music—and he produced the mix. I just left him in there and let him do what he does when it came time to mix the thing.

AAJ: Can you describe the sound that Joe gets?

CH: Yeah, he gets the fullest possible, organic sound out of the instrument. And he uses the space in the mix very well, the space where there is no music.

AAJ: Are there a lot of effects and reverb in this project?

CH: Very little. All we used on the guitar was the plate reverb, which is an analog thing—it’s literally a big, metal plate—and a tape delay. We didn’t really use much digital stuff; and it wasn’t because we didn’t want to use digital stuff, it just didn’t happen that way. We recorded live to sixteen track, so we got a lot of extra space on each track for the sound to be represented.

AAJ: Was that kind of a new sound for you?

CH: Yeah, I mean I wanted to do it that way because I really wanted to get that vibe happening.

AAJ: Let me ask you about some of your influences, and I’ve read that among them are Coltrane,

” data-original-title title>Charlie Parker, and

” data-original-title title>Charlie Christian. How were you influenced by their music?

CH: Well, Charlie Christian is the first guitarist I heard that, to me, was a bridge between the blues and that kind of stuff I was playing and the jazz that I would later play. He approached the guitar in a linear, non-lick oriented fashion. And he’s probably one of the first guitar players to play, you know, in a non-lick way. It’s just straight-up music; he wasn’t just playing licks. So that’s what really got me into playing jazz, Charlie Christian. Then, later on, I took that a litter farther and got into

” data-original-title title>Charlie Parker and

” data-original-title title>John Coltrane‘s stuff.

AAJ: All right. Now, are you living in Manhattan?

CH: I live in Brooklyn.

AAJ: How often are you on the road?

CH: I’d say now I’ve got it down to six months out of the year.

AAJ: What’s the New York City like, musically?

CH: It’s the center of my universe (laughter). You know, for someone like me who’s always playing music, there really isn’t anywhere else to be in the world. There is no other place. It’s the Mecca.

AAJ: So you can always catch something?

CH: Oh yeah, it’s just in the air. I mean you go out and you just feel the energy.

AAJ: In your travels, throughout the world and the US, have you discovered any other places where there’s music happening that you really dig?

CH: Well, I grew up in the Bay area, and when I was growing up there was a lot of great stuff happening. New Orleans has always got some great stuff happening.

AAJ: When was the last time you were down in New Orleans?

CH: Oh, about six months ago.

AAJ: Yeah, I’ve got to get down there.

CH: Yeah, you do.

AAJ: Up here is Seattle we’ve got a cat by the name of

” data-original-title title>Bill Frisell.

CH: Yeah, Bill’s my buddy.

AAJ: Yeah, he’s kind of doing his own thing. What do you think of his music?

CH: Oh, I love Bill Frisell. I think he’s the one guitarist now who, of those older guys, is really sticking to his evolution. And I take my hat off to that. I’m influenced by a lot of Frisell’s stuff. I’ve never transcribed a solo of his or anything, but just his sound and his concept and the way that he has his career is a real inspiration to me.

AAJ: Now you’re going to be up here in Seattle April 11th, on a tour with

” data-original-title title>Adam Cruz. Contrast Adam and Leon’s drumming styles.

CH: Leon and Adam were roommates for about a year, so they’ve influenced each other. There’s a lot of Adam in Leon, and there’s a lot of Leon in Adam. Yet, they’re very different drummers. Leon is more of a percussionist at a drum set, and Adam is more of a drum set player. They’re both very organic players; both play the music that I want to play.

AAJ: I know Adam has a Latin background, with Latin rhythms.

CH: He’s definitely got that, but among other things, he swings his ass off. He can play a shuffle like a mother, and you know, he’s got some funk stuff happening too.

AAJ: I want to ask you about the busking that you did around Europe, because that seems like such an incredible freedom. When was that, and what was it like?

CH: Well, that was about ten years ago. Yeah, it was great. I mean, I was a young guy, I didn’t have any money, and I got terrible grades in high school, so college wasn’t really a possibility. Plus, I couldn’t get into music school because I couldn’t read a note, although I’m a good reader now. I just thought, “Well, what the hell am I going to do?” So, I had a friend living in Paris and he let me stay at his place for a month. I started playing on the street and after a month I started living on the street. I would play everywhere and it was great. I met all these incredible musicians, and I learned an immense amount. There’s nothing better for your chops than having to play twelve hours a day trying to attract a crowd, and trying to make enough money to survive on a day to day basis. That, to me, is a good way to learn how to play music.

AAJ: Would you recommend busking to young guitarists?

CH: I would highly recommend it. At least to go over there for a summer and do it. I mean, you don’t have to make it a career, but at least go over there and do that for a summer.

AAJ: What are you listening to currently?

CH: I like

” data-original-title title>Danilo Pérez, a pianist. I like

” data-original-title title>John Benitez, a bassist, who I think is really exciting. But, you know, there just aren’t really many new records out that I like. It’s kind of sad, but there just isn’t a lot out there.

Charlie Hunter’s top five desert island discs

Unity by

” data-original-title title>Larry Young Mingus Ah Um by

” data-original-title title>Charles Mingus Boss Guitar by

” data-original-title title>Wes Montgomery Tango Zero Hour by

” data-original-title title>Astor Piazzolla Funk Power by

” data-original-title title>James Brown

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