As students at UCLA in the late 1990s, my friends and I spent a hefty chunk of our meager college income on music. The type of music - folk, jazz, rock 'n' roll, classical or hip-hop - never mattered just as long as it was good music.
We bought albums we would share with each other and purchased tickets to live shows together. Music more than any other art form seemed to be our form of escapism from those stressful times of academic flurry.
From the Conga Room and Catalina Bar & Grill to the Temple Bar, Knitting Factory and Largo to the Palace, Troubadour and Spaceland, at the time of leaving school for the real world we had patronized virtually every music venue in town.
He sat underneath the shadows tangled up in the baked and colored streams of stage lighting with his eight-string instrument and moved from one jaunty gesture to the next, usually signifying his transitions from a bass line to a solo.
I recall watching in awe as Hunter played an instrument comprising three bass strings and five guitar strings. He possessed not only the melodic and harmonic styling of a guitarist, but also the rhythm and consistency of a bass player. Hunter's strings glimmered back at the field of heads while he played a collection of distinct, original compositions just as unique as his instrument.
Over the years, I've followed Hunter's career that only improves with age. As not only a musician but an avid music enthusiast, Hunter continues to intertwine a divergent array of inspirations evident within jazz, blues, funk and Latin music as a solo artist and a member of the quartet, Garage a Trois.
"In writing my compositions, I am thinking of ideas all the time, in my mind, 24 hours a day," he said. "I try to get in two to three hours of practicing on my guitar each day but I also do a lot of composing. I am always thinking of new musical compositions in my head."
Hunter, now in his mid-30s, picked up a guitar at the age of 12 living in his hometown of Berkeley. As a child, Hunter grew up in a home where his mom fixed guitars as a profession. He bought his first guitar for $7 and in the years following, he began taking lessons from the famed guitarist Joe Satriani, whom people only knew as a teacher at the time.
"I knew that I wanted to do this with my life from when I was 16," said Hunter. "People can't believe that but I was just another Berkeley kid and every Berkeley kid took lessons from Joe Satriani. He must have had a hundred students. He's a great teacher."
Hunter graduated from the same high school in Berkeley as saxophonist Joshua Redman and pianist Benny Green. However, he never enrolled in its esteemed music program like his fellow students.
"I really wasn't an institutional-type person. I had to go out and do my own thing. I was a naughty kid who went through the crazy angst-driven hysteria many teen-agers experience," remembered Hunter. "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 graduated by the skin of my teeth."
Like most musicians who grow up in the Bay Area, Hunter's musical tastes are expansive, deep and eclectic.
"I was exposed to everything from the Dead Kennedys to P-Funk to Art Blakey. In the Bay Area, you have all of these different musical cultures living together. All of these different musical cultures and their music gets semiassimilated into this nonpolarized state of being where hybrids are free to grow, and there are all of these genres and cross genres to play in and around," said Hunter.
In the 1980s, Hunter began playing a custom-made seven-string guitar he took to Europe where he played it on the streets of Paris and Zurich. Following his return to America, Hunter began playing clubs in Berkeley and San Francisco. He joined songwriter Michael Franti's group, Disposable Heroes of Hypocrisy, and the band toured the country, opening for U2 and Primus.
Hunter left Franti's group in 1993 because he wanted to create music more grounded within the jazz idiom.
"It was interesting, but that whole pop-art scene was an overall drag. I love pop music, but it's a lot different when you get to sit back and be on the receiving end," explained Hunter. "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. 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."
Hunter established a trio, which eventually took up a weekly residency at the Elbo Room in San Francisco. He incorporated his longtime love for various genres and his most recent interest in jazz, which he discovered at the age of 18.
"That's where we learned to study the past and practice the present," said Hunter. "I was into everything while in high school - blues, rockabilly, funk and soul. My friends said, 'You've got to get into jazz, you've got to listen to Weather Report.' I thought, 'This is fusion. I'm not really into that.' So then, somebody told me I should listen to Wes Montgomery, but the album I got was one of those with strings, and I was totally turned off. Finally, somebody said, 'You need to check out Charlie Parker and Charlie Christian and John Coltrane.' It was like, boom! I was instantly turned on to their total sound and the reality of their playing just cut through everything. I suddenly wanted to play like that."
Hunter enlisted the talent of Jay Lane, former drummer of the avant-garde rock trio Primus, for his trio and Primus member Les Claypool convinced the group to record a record on his label. Prawn Song Records released the "Charlie Hunter Trio" album in 1994. Hunter's gigs at the Elbo Room turned into packed houses and it was at this time that he added the eighth string to his guitar. He eventually signed with Blue Note Records in 1995 and produced several albums including "Bing, Bing, Bing" and "Ready, Set, Shango." The first project not only highlights Hunter's original pieces, but a rousing arrangement of the Nirvana hit, "Come as You Are."
"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. Actually, Nirvana is probably the only alternative rock band that I know," Hunter said with a laugh. "But Cobain was a really good songwriter. 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're jazz musicians, but we're jazz musicians from their generation. That's whom we share aspects of a common life with and that's whom we are trying to reach. We know the lineage of jazz and we're completely indebted to it. We've built the foundation of our music on John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum and Thelonious Monk, all the way back through Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton to the turn of the century. We want people to know this is the music that means the most to us, but we also want our audience to know that we are from the twenty-something generation, that we share the same experiences as a lot of people our age. That's what we want to communicate; that's what inspires us. I am very proud of the fact that our audience is very diverse."
Several years ago, Hunter put out a solo project produced by Contra Punto records. This 12-track recording includes both Hunter originals and a handful of jazz standards such as "Stars Fell on Alabama." Hunter recalled the disparity in studio experiences between a solo work and a group album. "In recording an album with other artists, there is a lot of give and take," he said. "With other musicians, you have to get a lot of people together where the communication has to be right on but you have such a powerful sound in the end. With a solo, the easy thing is that it's just you but you have to make it happen with just you, which can be lonely and difficult at times too."
Shortly after the release of "Bing, Bing, Bing," Lane left the band to pursue more rock-oriented music and Scott Amendola replaced him on drums. "He's super light and quick, and he brings action-packed percussion adventure to the set," said Hunter describing Amendola's style.
"He has an unstoppable attitude toward everything. He has too much inspiration to let anything get in his path. He's always pushing the rest of the band to the limit."
In the mid-1990s, Blue Note Records approached Hunter and requested he participate in its cover series effort that would mean covering an entire classic album of his choice. He narrowed the field to "Smiley Smile" by the Beach Boys, "Superfly" by Curtis Mayfield and Bob Marley's "Natty Dread." Hunter ended up selecting Marley's work.
In 1997, Hunter relocated to Brooklyn where he still resides. Although Hunter claimed touring the country is a constantly exhausting adventure, he has tried to remain consistent in his performances. Hunter also added the live shows are what prove to be moments of intense musical connection that serve as vivid reminders of his life as a musician. Equally significant is the interaction between himself and his audience. Just as unique as Hunter's playing are his fans - a congregation of particular individuals, many of whom people perceive as hippies, dancers, guitar heads or jazz enthusiasts.
"The connection is hard to put into words," he said. "It's like watching a basketball game in its most climactic moment where the players know exactly what the other teammates are doing. Then they make the perfect play at the perfect moment. It is such a sublime moment at such an intense level."
Hunter, who has worked with such innovative artists as D'Angelo, hopes to continue collaborating with other musicians who have produced noteworthy music using live instrumentation.
"I would love to work with D'Angelo again," he said. "I think that he is so musical and I think we really hit it off when recording 'Voodoo.' I would also like to work with Mos Def, whom I think is really talented."
In exposing himself to an assorted variety of musical tastes, Hunter has shied away from categorizing his playing through the definitive labels attached to music.
"I think that labels are mostly used for commercial construct," he said. "In a crude way, I think for some, it tells what music is about and for me, it helps me make the distinction as to where someone is coming from. In a sense, I think it is a devised way of communication."
In retrospect, Hunter has examined his perseverance in musical exploration as somewhat of an organic pilgrimage, arriving at his current destination in an artistic evolution. As Hunter's daily mantra has been to remain vigilant in his commitment to the art so was his advice to up-and-coming talents.
"Dedication, willingness to die for what it is, is the most important thing," he said. "There is no room for mediocrity. You may be able to get away with it in other professions where you can be a depressed lawyer or a doctor and you can get work based on other qualifications. But in music you can't be a depressed artist and get a gig. People don't like that. Music makes me happy and I think it shows in my playing. The musicianship is a foundation to the music and the instrument is your tool as you must learn the musicianship first."
Hunter's latest work on Rope A Dope Records, entitled "Right Now Move," features the work of a quintet rather than a trio. It showcases the talent of drummer Derek Phillips, tenor saxophonist John Ellis, harmonica player Gregoire Maret and trombonist Curtis Fowlkes.
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