Charlie Hunter 'Baboon Strength' album

Charlie Hunter's going indie with his first self-release in a career spanning 18 years, 14 albums, a dozen side projects and a zillion miles on the road performing live! Recorded at Trout Studio in Brooklyn on 16 track two-inch tape, old school style.

As a young guitarist growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, Charlie Hunter was looking for a way to stand out in the '80s. His primary influences were jazz great Joe Pass and the fluid Tuck Andress (of the guitar/vocal duo Tuck Patti), both six-string guitarists who were adept at blending bass notes into their standard guitar melodies to make themselves sound like two musicians at once.

But Hunter wanted to take it one step further, and set out to find an instrument on which he could simultaneously function as both a guitarist and a bassist. For his self-titled 1993 debut CD, Hunter played a seven-string guitar for the duality effect, locking down the bottom with drummer Jay Lane and mixing melodically with saxophonist David Ellis. But on his trio's sophomore 1995 release, Bing, Bing, Bing, Hunter unveiled his custom-made Novax eight-string, the guitar that finally allowed him to realize his capacity. Designed by Ralph Novak, the instrument featured special frets and separate signals for its guitar and bass portions. Picking bass notes with his right thumb while fretting them with his left index finger (while at the same time fingerpicking guitar chords and single notes with his right hand's remaining four digits as he frets with his left hand's other three fingers), Hunter achieves the real sound of two-for-one. Hunter played with the sidegroup T.J. Kirk in the mid-'90s, a band who derived their name from the cover material they exclusively played: Thelonius Monk, James Brown, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Initially wanting to call themselves James T. Kirk before being threatened by the Star Trek TV and film series, T.J. Kirk released a self-titled 1995 debut and the 1996 follow-up, If Four Was One, before disbanding. Hunter took drummer Scott Amendola with him for his next project, an ambitious instrumental remake of Bob Marley's Natty Dread album in its entirety. Also featuring saxophonists Kenny Brooks and Calder Spanier, the 1997 release beat the odds by becoming arguably Hunter's best album. After Spanier died from injuries sustained from being hit by a car, Hunter moved east to New York, taking Amendola with him. Teaming with vibraphonist Stefon Harris and percussionist John Santos, Charlie Hunter Pound for Pound's 1998 CD, Return of the Candyman, is dedicated to Spanier. A departure from Natty Dread, mainly due to the work of Harris, the disc featured a vibes-heavy cover of Steve Miller's "Fly Like an Eagle." Hunter's modus operandi had now become shifting personnel changes, and in between tours he recorded a 1999 duo CD with drummer/percussionist Leon Parker and a self-titled 2000 CD that featured Parker and an otherwise ensemble cast. Hunter also contributed greatly to the 2000 comeback CD by drummer Mike Clark, Actual Proof. Hunter concluded his run at Blue Note with 2001's Songs from the Analog Playground which saw him collaborating with vocalists for the first time, ranging from labelmates Norah Jones and Kurt Elling to Mos Def. 2003 found Hunter with a new label (Ropeadope) and two new bands (the Charlie Hunter Quintet) on Right Now Move, and the beginning of Groundtruther, a partnership with percussionist/composer Bobby Previte. They released Come in Red Dog, This Is Tango Leader before adopting the Groundtruther moniker. For 2003's Friends Seen and Unseen, it was back to the Charlie Hunter Trio, with drummer Derrek Phillips and saxman John Ellis, both members of the Quintet. By now, Groundtruther had taken on a life of it's own, with Hunter and Previte joined by a rotating third member. Latitude was first in 2004 with saxophonist Greg Osby, followed by Longitude with DJ Logic in 2005. In April the Charlie Hunter Trio released Copperopolis. Charlie is currently on tour with his band, Christian McBride, Bobby Previte and DJ Logic. In May he will be touring with Bobby Previte's Coalition of the Willing.

album notes
Here goes:
Baboon Strength: Cool name, huh?
We recorded Baboon Strength at Trout Studio in Brooklyn. They have an old school set-up
where everything happens in the same room, instruments, mixing desk, tape machine, everything.
We recorded to 16 track two-inch tape before putting it in the digital realm (for those of
you who are interested).
Erik brought his 1970s Yamaha combo organ, Casiotone and Echoplex. His sonic aesthetic and
abilities as an improviser are impeccable. Go Erik!
Tony played Trout's big ass bass drum, snare and toms. He also happens to be, in my opinion, the
best pure pocket drummer I've ever heard. Science. In terms of groove and time it's his world,
we live in it, act accordingly. Erik and I both concur that he gets the game ball for this record.
I brought some decent songs and tried not to overplay. It's a never- ending process.
Dave McNair did a hell of a job mixing and mastering the disc. Check out the fat drum sound on
Difford-Tillbrook.
Athens: This tune is really supposed to be a kind of a set opener or closer, a "theme" so to speak. We call
it Athens because the high-pitched one note melody is our version of said city's (Greece, not Georgia)
horde of excruciatingly grating motor scooters
Astronaut Love Triangle: You know the news story.
Welcome to Frankfurt: What can I say, Europeans like this because it has a four-on-the-floor bass
drum pattern.
Difford-Tillbrook: We call this one "The Squeeze Tune". It has that vibe.
A Song for Karen Carpenter: I think she was a great singer and wrote this with her in mind.
Baboon Strength: Did you know that" strength" is the longest word in the English language with only one
vowel?
Fine Corinthian Leather: A four -chord jam.
Porter-Hayes: This ended up with a quasi-Stax kind of sound so I named it after their two top
writers.
AbadabA: I was reading "Billy Bathgate" by EL Doctorow and decided to name this one after Dutch
Schultz’s number crunching assistant.
Signing off,
CH

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Tracklisting

Charlie Hunter - Baboon Strength