Ropeadope

that 70s show

a great story teller with a quick wit and pronounced sense of humor, hunter has told me plenty of his road warrior tales over the years - his childhood days in berklee california when his mom bundled him and his sister into a bus for a four-year magical mystery tour; his post-high school street-performer gigs in europe in the late '80s; his early-'90s adventure with agit-rapsters disposable heroes of hiphoprisy (he was the band bassist; spearhead's michael franti was one of the coleaders); opening for pop superstars u2 where the headliners had deluxe transit while the support act got the scrub treatment; and his own exhausting cross-continent jaunts in a van as trio leader.

"i guess traveling is in my blood," says hunter, 36, who remarkably looks the same as when i first met him 12 years ago: a brawny, trim physique that's more the body build of a beefy construction worker than a musician; close-cropped, dark and curly hair; and a thin stirrup of beard that loops from his sideburns to his chin. "i didn't wear shoes until i was eight years old because my mom was into that crazy hippie thing with the bus - being on the road, stopping at communes, selling blood, playing spoons on the street for spare change, stealing newspapers."

the family road trip ended in berkeley. even then the hunters lived a hardscrabble existence. "i can remember me and my best friend haunting the recycling center, hunting for deposit bottles, then getting money to see a movie at the uc theater and buy some treats."

several years ago in a conversation at his berkeley home, hunter told me that his youthful days in the city, which was a hotbed of musical populism in the '70s, were seminal in forging his artistic vision: "growing up here, we were exposed to all kinds of music, from the dead kennedys and parliament funkadelic to art blakey. in the bay area you have so many different cultures living together. it all gets semi-assimilated into a non-polarized type of existence where hybridization of music is possible. there are so many genres and vibes to work with. that's what makes the music so special."

hunter, who got his first guitar at ten, early on immersed himself in tunes from the '60s to the mid '70s. a music omnivore, he listened to everything, regardless of stylistic bulwarks. he gravitated to the soul music of stevie wonder and marvin gaye. he burned through a rock phase that made him a lifetime fan of jimi hendrix. and he still treasures the old blues records by muddy waters, little walter and buddy guy that his mother listened to. after ear-opening exposure to charlie christian, joe pass and charlie parker at 18, he dug in and got dangerous, focusing on technique and dedicating himself to transcribing their solos on guitar.

the great 80s

given that hometown berkeley high's esteemed jazz program at the time was churning out future stars (including joshua redman and earlier alums peter apfelbaum and benny green, among others), it would make perfect sense imagining hunter in the practice room riffing away on the changes with the others. guess again.

"i just barely made it to school each day because i was playing in all these motown, reggae and blues bands in bars every night," he said, noting that he also formed his own eclectic rockabilly band called the grease monkeys. "i was a naughty kid who went through that crazy, angst-driven hysteria a lot of teenagers experience. because i was from a low-income family, i was tracked into the lowest level of academic classes. 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."

having schooled himself in the genre-bending basics, hunter assimilated it all and in his mid-twenties came up with a distinctive roiling-chunky-funky blend of urban jazz. it was high-energy, improvisationally sharp and immensely appealing to the younger generation packing into san francisco neighborhood hangs like the elbo room and tiny nightspots like the up and down club which catered to the burgeoning post-post-bop scene.

most of the people who came to see his bands - first his guitar-sax-drum outfit, then his twin sax quartet and the three-guitar t.j. kirk attack squad - were in their twenties. of course, jazz pundits convened and argued: is hunter retreading pop-jazz of the '70s or is he on to something new? and, do we really want all these young kids dancing in the clubs?

nonplussed, hunter shrugged it off, covered charles mingus ("fables of faubus") and titled one of his groove creations "dance of the jazz fascists," both appearing on his maiden trio recording. his band, already a continental roadrunner, was invited to join two lollapalooza alt-rock tours where grunge fans told the leader they hated jazz, but loved his music.

it didn't hurt that the trio had put its own twist on the kurt cobain tune "come as you are" that showed up on hunter's 1995 blue note records debut, bing, bing, bing! at the time he said, "guys who love guitar relate to me. one said, "you shred way more than my favorite metal dudes." we're seeing young people have a whole new attitude toward jazz." why? "they're probably tired of mtv beating up on them and cramming corporate music down their throats."

the 90s and beyond::

charlie kept kicking out the jams throughout the '90s. for warner bros., he recorded two albums with t. j. kirk, his three-guitar, one-drummer project that brilliantly wed the music of thelonious monk, james brown and rahsaan roland kirk (after being dormant since 1996, last december the band was resurrected for two shows at the great american music hall in san francisco and ropeadope recently issued a never-released kirk live album, talking only makes it worse.

and hunter kept up a steady flow of blue note releases, including his final album for the label, 2001's vocal disc songs from the analog playground, which featured norah jones making her recording debut on two numbers (she cut her touring eye teeth with charlie's band that year). during that time he worked with a range of artists, from jazz drummer leon parker and vocalists patricia barber and kurt elling to pop-r&b singer d'angelo, who enlisted him to co-write and record two songs on his last cd voodoo. he's also toured with galactic drummer stanton moore, skerik and mike dillon in the co-op band garage a trois, which released 2003's killer emphasizer cd on tone-cool/artemis. since his blue note stint, hunter has hooked up with ropeadope, which has released a series of his projects, including last year's right now move quartet outing and the hip groove-to-avant duo disc with bobby previte, come in red dog, this is tango leader. the label will also release a live quintet/solo dvd in april.

reading is fundamental

given his on-overtime schedule, it's amazing that hunter is also a voracious reader. for example, a few years ago he cited to me two of his recent favorite books: cryptonomicon, an epic 918-page novel by neal stephenson about the links between world war ii cryptographers and today's computer hackers, and russell banks' latest, cloudsplitter, a book of historical fiction on john brown told from the point of view of the 19th-century abolitionist's brother.

at one point, hunter told me, "i like being in control of my own destiny." he was talking about the rigors of making it as a musician in a culture that values profit over art. that reminded me of another russell banks novel, rule of the bone, the story of a young guy, chappie, who renames himself bone and embarks on a journey to find himself.

while there are more differences than similarities, bone vaguely reminds me of hunter. he's scrappy, has a tattoo (charlie's got three from a time, he says, when he just wasn't thinking clearly), lived in a bus for a spell and has the highway as his middle name. while bone has an aimlessness that charlie seems to have never possessed, they share a survival instinct, a wisdom that comes from experience and a spirit that overcomes the odds.

the sad story of bone's life ends with a vague hope. there's no doubt with charlie. he's around for the jazz duration. why? what distinguishes him from so many other working musicians his age is that he's consistently followed a change-of-pace philosophy, putting a variation on the theme into each outing. instead of serving up a mesmerism of grooves, he shakes things up like a major league hurler who first delivers a hard one right down the pike, then a slow curve that's followed by a wobbly knuckleball, then a cut fastball that's not overpowering or flashy, but effective. hunter's sound colors have morphed as configuration and instrumentation have altered.