The Charlie Hunter Blog

Jammin' Java - DC

2009-04-06T12:13:00.001-07:00

Best place I've played in the DC area!
Owned and operated by three brothers from Montclair, NJ (my town).
The staff are great. Whole scene is a good vibe.

Peace,

CH

Roanoke!

2009-04-03T16:04:00.000-07:00

Had a blast playing the Kirk Avenue Music Hall. Also the clinic at The Music Lab. These guys really have a good thing going on!

Also Wayne Jones, the guy who makes Headstrong Amps (I use one of his "Lil King" models) came up from Asheville. We had a great hang all around!

Peace,

CH

Projector Dressing Room

2009-03-26T16:54:00.000-07:00

Eric Kalb in our projector dressing room at the Westcott theater in Syracuse NY

Just trust me on this one

2009-02-24T09:31:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2OrJWCoonM&feature=related

Hendrix

2009-02-22T12:23:00.001-08:00

Here's a little thing my amp guy Wayne Jones(Headstrong) showed me:

Hendrix in '65 playing "Shotgun"
Wish you could see the drummer, he's laying it down!

http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=GaIxswG7d84

Wilbur Hall

2009-02-22T12:22:00.000-08:00

Check this guy out. He was the Trombone player in the Whiteman band. Vaudeville!!!
Apparently my paternal grandfather was in that world as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XA16CzV_Y0

Zvex Nano Amp

2009-02-22T12:17:00.000-08:00

Hey all,
Check out this awesome Zvex nano amp! The Lovely folks at Truetone Music in Santa Monica X-Mas presented me with it. Thank you all!

Ernie Isley in the house!

2009-01-26T08:55:00.000-08:00

Did a clinic at Fazio's in St Louis and Ernie Isley came. What an honor. I asked him what he was working on. He then gave a virtuosic 'sing-thru' of his latest project. You had a pretty vivid idea of what the recorded tracks sound like.
Peace,
CH

St. Louis

2009-01-23T18:09:00.000-08:00

Simon Lott and I have been having a great time here in St Louis.
The highlight of which was playing for the awesome kids at Airport
Elementary.

Peace,

CH

Back from Japan

2009-01-22T16:21:00.000-08:00

Hey folks. Sorry for the delay...too much to do. A good thing.
We just finished a run at the Cotton Club in Tokyo. Great club, staff, audience!
Check this guys crazy, Land of the Giants camera...

The other pic is of Tony and Erik in the fish market in Tokyo with their new friend.

If you can come out to our 2-19 gig at Sullivan hall, do. It'll be the last one for the trio.It's been a wonderful run but the time has come for me to change things up.

Peace,

bloggaroo

2008-12-23T11:48:00.000-08:00

Hey all. Thanks for your suggestions vis a vis contrapuntal guitar stuff. I'll be checking it all out!

We just finished a great run at Yoshi's(SF and Oakland).

Thursday night in SF. Derrek(friends seen, right now move),Scott(shango,natty dread,candyman)and Willard(pound for pound)all converged for a great reunion of past drummers. What a blast it was to play with everyone.

The evening was completed when the incomparable Zigaboo Modeliste sat in! Yes!

Sunday night Ben Goldberg came down .I was worried we'd overpower the clarinet but Tony grooved his ass off at low volume and Ben sounded great. We'll be doing gigs in February with Ron Miles and Scott Amendola.

The whole run culminated(for me at least)when Jim Campilongo sat in.

That's my kind of guitar hero! He really kicked us into another gear!

I highly recomend his two discs "Heaven Is Creepy" and "American Hips".

Peace,

Some Great contrapuntal guitar records.

2008-12-05T16:50:00.000-08:00

If you're into multi-part guitar stuff I thought I'd lay a little list of great discs i checked out for you to check out. These records are great for your playing whether you dig the musical aesthetic or not.

Joe Pass: Any of the virtuoso records. I personally like the "Live At Long Beach City College' as it was the first one I bought .

Joseph Spence: "The Complete Folkways Recordings". My Mom and all of her friends had this disc so I didn't want to hear it! In my early thirties I gave it another listen. He is a one man dance band.

Tuck Andress: " Tears Of Joy". This was the record that turned me out in terms of counterpoint technique. Tuck really changed

the whole equation, technically speaking with this one. the information is vital and can be used for so many different musical concepts.

Robert Johnson: There are really only about thirty recordings so get them all!

David Starobin: " New Dance". My friend Jeff Asch gave me this a while back. Damn this guy can play. His control is humbling. I haven't attempted to play any of this, listening is enough.

Ted Greene: " Solo Guitar" . About fifteen years ago I took a lesson from Ted. I still think about the info he layed on me. My friend Phil DeGruy calls him the "Ghandi Of Guitar Harmony". He certainly pushed the instrument to it's limit in that department.

This record is apparently the only one he made. Voice leading for days.

If you have anyone you'd like to add, please do, I could use some new guitar inspiration.

real soul music to check

2008-11-19T12:15:00.000-08:00

Joe Goldmark, A great Bay Area pedal steel player and vinyl aficionado, digitized a bunch of his rare soul sides for friends. Among the tracks was "Mountain Of Memories" By David Ruffin.

The track really moved me and I wanted more...They finally released the "unreleased record". Man this thing is incredible! Ruffin is throwing down and so in the music with the band. If you want to hear

some real soul music this is the ticket. I'm always so juiced when one of these old, from the vaults records is made available.

check out some info:http://www.hip-oselect.com/scr.public.product.asp?product_id=c57c2548-0f07-3296-9d50-5f059f4b7e5e

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ruffin

Leon,Spain

2008-11-13T11:18:00.000-08:00

We played Leon ,Spain last night.beautiful concert hall. We were a little freaked when we noticed that a good part of the audience were very well dressed people in their60s-70s, Expecting the dulcet jazz stylings of...

We played our regular stuff and they really dug it! Awesome audience.

Go Leon!

Peace,

Must check record!

2008-11-11T08:56:00.000-08:00

Ike Turner And The Kings Of Rhythm-A Black Man's Soul. As much as it's been de rigeur to hate on Ike Turner for his various transgressions, his guitar playing and writing have always been unquestionably killing.

I've been really into this record. It's all about the tunes and playing together as a band. Classic tube amp bass sound.

Get this record!

Peace,

CH

Couldn't be happier today! Obama!

2008-11-08T11:51:00.000-08:00

Couldn't be happier today! Obama!

I won't go thru the usual platitudes except to say I haven't been this proud to be an American since I first heard "Songs In The Key Of Life" .

I can also stop obsessively checking fivethirtyeight.com. That guy is awesome! He pretty much nailed how the election would go down within a fraction of an inch!

Here are some cool Obama/Music related things:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4g5v4cqX30 (Ben Goldberg sent me this, check it out about 38secs in)

http://www.alexiscuadrado.com/ (my friend Alexis Cuadrado's website. Great Bassist/Composer tells his story of meeting Obama in O'hare airport four years ago)

Off to Spain again. More later.

Europe - October 2008

2008-11-01T19:22:00.000-07:00

We had a great couple of days in Asturias region in Spain. It's in the north between Galicia and Basque country.

The first night we played in Oviedo which is inland and hilly .

Beautiful spot. Oscar Rico, our tour manager for the Spanish run, took us to what looked like a great restaurant.Not!

Oscar was mortified we would have bad food in his country. After the gig,which was a blast , he hooked us up with a great,great Asturian meal. See photo.

Peace,