SATCHMO

# 37 Charlie Hunter Quartet - Natty Dread



To tell you the truth I'm almost at a complete loss for where to begin with Charlie Hunter.

I could start with showing you a picture of his instrument:


I know, I know we've all seen these musicians that need to have 1, or 2, or 10 more strings than the next guy. Usually its a matter of a musician wanting to increase the tonal range of his instrument. That's not quite the case with Charlie.

You see when Charlie Hunter was a teenager he, despite the fact that he was a guitar player, had an obsession with all the great jazz organ players. Mainly he was obsessed with transposing all the cool Hammond organ licks to his guitar, but discovered early on that a conventional 6 string wasn't apt for pulling off the tonal range & timbre of a Hammond B3 organ.
A Hammond organ's bass extends deeper into the lower register than almost anything that you listen today that isn't synthetically produced. Most competent B3 players, especially jazz players, will literally play bass lines with the left hand while playing chordal structures and melodies with the right. Achieving this particular effect really wasn't a possibility for Chrlie with a conventional guitar.

So what did charlie do? Well, he did what any of us would do given the same conundrum, He designed an instrument himself that was the top 3 strings of a bass guitar and the bottom 5 of "regular" guitar, routed the bass strings through a bass amp, the guitar strings through a guitar amp, played effectively, 2 instrument parts simultaneously, and made it sound like an organ. And for any stringed instrument musicians that are putting it all together in their head. I'll give you the answer before you ask. He doesn't employ any right-hand tapping.

Confused yet? Well here comes the good part. Somewhere, a few albums into his discography, Charlie had a fantastic idea. He, it would seem at least, asked himself the question "what If I took one of Bob Marley's best records, covered it in its entirety, first song to last, instrumentally as a jazz piece?".

Such an endeavor if attempted by most contemporary electric jazz musicians would really run the risk of falling directly into the smooth jazz pit of despair, but this album is a work of interpretive art. Them Belly Full swings with the intensity and bravado of a big band orchestra. No Woman No Cry is as tender and emotional as the original and every song in between has something to lend to the overall palette of this wonderful album. Definitely a must hear for any reggae fans.

Janszoon

Great review! I saw Charlie Hunter in concert several years ago and he's absolutely amazing live. The only album of his that I own is the self-titled one, but I love it it. I wasn't aware of the whole story about him trying to transpose organ but I've always thought a lot of his guitar playing sounded very organ-like.

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333

Beautiful choice, my friend. Great album. I, too, love Mr. Hunter. What other projects have you heard from him? I've really been into Mistico by Charlie Hunter Trio. It's got a real old school vibe. I was hooked at first listen. Also, I really loved Garage a Trois when C.H was playing with them. Heard of 'em?