Charlie Hunter

Charlie Hunter (born May 23, 1967) is an American guitarist, composer, and bandleader. First coming to prominence in the early 1990s, Hunter plays custom-made seven- and eight-string guitars on which he simultaneously plays basslines, rhythm guitar, and solos. Critic Sean Westergaard described Hunter's technique as "mind-boggling...he's an agile improviser with an ear for great tone, and always has excellent players alongside him in order to make great music, not to show off." The technique is rooted in the styles of jazz guitarists Joe Pass and Tuck Andress, two of his biggest influences, who blended bass notes with melody in a way that created the illusion of two guitars.

Charlie Hunter performs at the Bennett Alliance Music Fest in Rochester, New York (July 21, 2007)

Hunter was born in Rhode Island. At an early age, he was around guitars because his mother repaired them for a living. He and his sister and mother lived for several years on a commune in Mendocino County, California, then settled in Berkeley. Hunter graduated from Berkeley High School and took lessons from guitarist Joe Satriani. At eighteen he moved to Paris. He has stated that busking in Paris gave him on the job training. Returning to San Francisco, he played seven-string guitar and organ in Michael Franti's political rap group, The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy. In 1992, they were one of the opening acts for U2's Zoo TV Tour.

On his debut album, Charlie Hunter Trio (1993), he played seven-string guitar with Dave Ellis on saxphone and Jay Lane on drums. On the next album, Bing, Bing, Bing! (Blue Note, 1995), he played an eight-string guitar custom built by Ralph Novak. In the 1990s, Hunter played in the band T. J. Kirk, which got its name from three musicians whose music it covered: Thelonious Monk, James Brown, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. The band released two albums before breaking up.

Hunter co-founded Garage a Trois, a jazz fusion band with Stanton Moore and Skerik, and Groundtruther with Bobby Previte. In the summer of 2007, he toured in a trio with keyboardist Erik Deutsch and drummer Simon Lott and recorded the album Mistico (Fantasy, 2007).

He performed on three songs on D'Angelo's album Voodoo (2000), including "The Root". He has stated that the session for the song was the most challenging session he has worked on.

He was an inaugural member of the Independent Music Awards' judging panel to support independent artists.

Hunter plays a custom seven-string guitar made by Jeff Traugott. Previously, Hunter played a custom-made, eight-string guitar made by luthier Ralph Novak of Novax Guitars. He played chords and lead guitar solos on the top five strings (tuned ADGBe), and simultaneously played bass lines on the bottom three strings (tuned EAD). With the addition of a Hughes & Kettner Tube Rotosphere (a Leslie rotary speaker simulator), his unique style produced a sound similar to that of a Hammond organ—an instrument he set out to imitate.

In 2006, Hunter removed the top guitar string and had the neck of his guitar reworked and now plays a modified 7-string on the formerly-8 string body. Hunter has mentioned that because of his small hands, he had to move out of position to make use of the 8th string and thus wasn't using it much. A change in Hunter's style away from the organ sound into a more blues and distortion based sound happened at the same time. After removing the 8th string, Hunter retuned all of the strings up a half step: F-A#-D# on the bass and A#-D#-G#-C on the guitar. As of 2008, he had once again retuned up another whole step: G-C-F on the bass and C-F-A#-D on the guitar.

As leader

• Charlie Hunter Trio (Prawn Song, 1993)
• Bing, Bing, Bing! (Blue Note, 1995)
• Ready...Set...Shango! (Blue Note, 1996)
• Natty Dread (Blue Note, 1997)
• Return of the Candyman (Blue Note, 1998)
• Duo (Blue Note, 1999)
• Charlie Hunter (Blue Note, 2000)
• Solo Eight-String Guitar (Contra Punto, 2000)
• Songs from the Analog Playground (Blue Note, 2001)
• Right Now Move (Ropeadope, 2003)
• Friends Seen and Unseen (Ropeadope, 2004)
• Copperopolis (Ropeadope, 2006)
• Mistico (Fantasy, 2007)
• Baboon Strength (reapandsow, 2008)
• Gentlemen, I Neglected to Inform You You Will Not Be Getting Paid (Spire/reapandsow, 2009)
• Public Domain, (2010)
• Let the Bells Ring On, (There, 2015)
• Everybody Has a Plan Until They Get Punched in the Mouth (Ground Up, 2016)

As sideman/co-leader

With Garage a Trois

• Mysteryfunk (Fog City, 1999)
• Emphasizer (Tone-Cool, 2003)
• Outre Mer (Telarc, 2005)

With T. J. Kirk

• T. J. Kirk (Warner Bros., 1994)
• If Four Was One (Warner Bros., 1996)
• Talking Only Makes it Worse (Ropeadope, 2005)

With Groundtruther

• Latitude (Thirsty Ear, 2004)
• Longitude (Thirsty Ear, 2005)
• Altitude (Thirsty Ear, 2007)

With Bobby Previte

• Come in Red Dog, This is Tango Leader (Ropeadope, 2003)
• The Coalition of the Willing (Ropeadope, 2006)

With Scott Amendola

• Not Getting Behind Is the New Getting Ahead (2012)
• Pucker (2013)
• The Cars/Hank Williams/Duke Ellington/Cole Porter (2014)

With others

• Hypocrisy Is the Greatest Luxury, The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy (Island, 1992)
• Spare Ass Annie and Other Tales, William S. Burroughs (Island, 1993)
• All Kooked Out!, Stanton Moore (Fog City, 1998)
• Voodoo, D'Angelo (Cheeba Sound, 2000)
• Earth Tones with Chinna Smith and Ernest Ranglin (Green Street, 2005)
• Live at Tonic, Christian McBride (Ropeadope, 2006)
• Continuum ("In Repair"), John Mayer (2007)
• Fade (Tim Collins featuring Charlie Hunter & Simon Lott (Ropeadope, 2008)
• Go Home (Ben Goldberg, Charlie Hunter, Scott Amendola & Ron Miles (BAG Production, 2009)
• Channel Orange ("Sweet Life") Frank Ocean (2012)
• Family Dinner Volume 2, Snarky Puppy (2016)

• Right Now Live, (Ropeadope DVD, 2004)
• Solo Inventions, (Shanachie DVD, 2005)
• In Repair: One Song, One Day, playing 8-string with John Mayer (Aware 2006) (iTunes download)
• Solos: the Jazz Sessions, (Original Spin Media DVD, 2011)

• SOLOS: the jazz sessions (2004)
• Late Night with Conan O'Brien (1997)
• Rochester, New York Jazz Festival (2009)