Bass/Guitar Hybrid Player Charlie Hunter Tonight at the NAC
Petr Cancura
Published on February 6, 2015, 1:59pm
Charlie Hunter Trio
The Charlie Hunter Trio plays tonight, Feb 6th, at 9pm at the National Arts Centre’s Fourth Stage
It was a few years ago that Charlie Hunter played as a duo to a completely sold out audience at the NAC’s Fourth Stage. All I remember is thinking “how does he do it?” – it was Charlie on his bass/guitar hybrid and Scott Amandola on drums. First of all, they sounded like an orchestra and second, the level of groove was simply unbelievable!
To those of you that are Charlie Hunter-heads this is old news, but if you don’t know about him, Charlie has a custom guitar which has the bottom part of a bass and the top strings of a guitar. If you close your eyes it sounds like two people are playing. I do remember hearing his group on the radio years ago for the first time and thinking ‘wow… that’s a great bass player and not a bad guitarist too’. Needless to say I was blown away when I realized he was playing both at the same time.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfjxGCDhWC8
Charlie has a bit of a cult following and not just among fans. His laid back approach has been featured on D’Angelo’s Voodoo record, he has played with Michael Franti, Ben Goldberg, Christian McBride among many more.
What makes this concert even more exciting for me is that this time Charlie is bringing Bobby Previte on drums and Curtis Fowlkes on trombone. You may know Curtis from Bill Frisell’s band, Curtis has been a long time collaborator with the great guitarist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDJ9cV3lQ5M
Another notable band Curtis was involved with was The Lounge Lizards:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwsiExLSd1E
Curtis is a hero to many trombone players as he has such a unique voice on the instrument… he has a raw story-telling ability on his horn that gives you shivers.
And on drums Mr Bobby Previte, who is in a band with Charlie called Omaha Diner, a band that does #1 hits in their own deconstructive way:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHIxbKmkiI4