Charlie Hunter is an American rock, fusion and jazz guitarist born in Rhode Island. He is known for playing custom-made seven and eight-string guitars, on which he plays guitar rhythms, bass lines and guitar lead.
He is currently working with his Trio band ‘Charlie Hunter Trio’.
Charlie Hunter learnt guitar from the guitar instructor ‘Joe Satriani’ and graduated from Berkeley High School. The political rap group of Michael Franti’s, ‘The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy’ introduced the work of Charlie Hunter where he played a seven-string guitar and organ. The band performed in the opening acts of ‘Zoo TV Tour’, a concert tour by Irish rock band ‘U2’ in 1992.
In 1993, he released the self-titled debut album ‘Charlie Hunter Trio’, which featured Dave Ellis on Saxophone, Charlie Hunter on seven-string guitar and Jay Lane on drums. Charlie co-founded a jazz fusion band ‘Garage A Trois’ with saxophonist Sherik and drummer Stanton Moore in 1998. The band recorded their debut album ‘Mysteryfunk’ and Stanton Moore’s debut album ‘All Kooked Out!’ in 1998.
Charlie Hunter collaborated with Bobby Previte and toured with his band ‘The Coalition of the Willing’ in 2006. He also worked on an ongoing project ‘Groundtruther’ with Bobby Previte and on ‘Live At Tonic’ with jazz bassist Christian McBride. Charlie played six-string guitars in ‘The Coalition of the Willing’ and ‘Live At Tonic’.
Charlie Hunter’s Trio rejoined in 2006 with drummer Simon Lott and keyboardist Erik Deutsch and released ‘Mistico’ in the summer 2007.
Some of his albums include:
- (1993) ‘Charlie Hunter Trio’
- (1995) ‘Bing, Bing, Bing! ‘
- (1996) ‘Ready, Set...Shango!’
- (1997) ‘Natty Dread’
- (1998) ‘Return of the Candyman’ and ‘All kooked Out!’
- (1999) ‘Duo’ and ‘Mysteryfunk’
- (2000) ‘Charlie Hunter’ and ‘Solo Eight-String Guitar’
- (2001) ‘Songs from the Analog Playground’
- (2003) ‘Emphasizer’, ‘Right Now Move’ and ‘Come In Red Dog’
- (2004) ‘Friends Seen and Unseen’ and ‘Latitude(Groundtruther)’
- (2005) ‘Steady Groovin'’, ‘Longitude (Groundtruther)’, ‘Outre Mer’ and ‘Earth Tones’
- (2006) ‘The Coalition of the Willing’, ‘Live at Tonic’ and ‘Copperopolis’
- (2007) ‘Mistico’ and ‘Altitude (Groundtruther)’