The Excellent Charlie Hunter: Just Hoping You Spell His Name Right

By Jeannette Madden
Staff Writer
Jazz musician Charlie Hunter’s newest album, “Gentlemen, I Neglected To Inform You You Will Not Be Getting Paid” was recorded in “Glorious” mono. Now back in the day, that was the best to be had, the king of recording styles. But why would someone do that today, when stereo and overdubs rule the airwaves? “Because it’s tougher.” said Hunter. “A bigger, fatter sound for the kind of music that I do.”

For those that don’t know what mono is (meaning anyone born after the 1950s), it means “Everything comes up in the center…means just in the middle, there is no balance.” Hunter explained. “[Gentlemen] is a record we recorded from mono tapes. It’s got two trombones, trumpets, drums and myself and we did everything live, there’s no overdubbing, there’s no mixing. The mixing was done while we recorded it and there you have it. That’s what we’ve always done. We’ll always play live and record live because that’s what we do. That’s what separates the men and women from the boys and girls. There have been times playing live when you multi-track it so you can get kind of a real kind of mix out of it but I just thought I’d rather not do that this time and I have to say, I much prefer it.”

Hunter doesn’t appear to be concerned whether the critics have embraced Gentlemen’s mono sound. “I don’t know because it doesn’t matter to me,” he said. “Twenty years ago that stuff really mattered but now it doesn’t. The only thing that matters to me is response and some kind of press and just hoping they spell your name right. They can say whatever they want. It works for me, you know? “

Hunter started playing guitar around the age of 12 because, as he says, “It’s fun.” He describes his influences as “Everyone I’ve ever played with, all the people, so many records to listen to. It just never ends.” He plays a seven string instrument in tune G, C, F, C, F, B flat D, which he says allows him “to do a lot of the bass chores on the guitar but more than that, it allows you to not have to play all of the show-offy bass or show-offy guitar stuff and you can be more of a drummer on that instrument.” Hunter says its “taken me awhile to get there but it definitely makes the music a lot better…I’m still figuring it out…lots and lots of practice. I definitely came, technically, out of people on the guitar side but then there’s a lot of bass and a lot drum stuff involved, as well, just as much.”

He has no favorite place to play because as he says, “It’s different all of the time. Even if you go back to the same club you love to play, it will always be different. You just never know. I play a lot in Europe. It’s different every place you go and it’s different every night. Basically, our lives are just the inside of a vehicle, the inside of a hotel and the stage. Other than that we don’t get too much time to do much else. If you have time to do much else, chances are you’re losing money, you know? And there’s very little money to lose at this point.”

When asked how he brings his best show to the stage every night, Hunter said “That’s just what you do. This isn’t like being an accountant or like being an investment banker or lawyer. There’s so many people that do those jobs that you can afford to have like ninety percent of your population be mediocre at what they do…we don’t get that luxury. We have to be excellent all of the time because we’re judged on a nightly basis. We don’t have yearly evaluations; our evaluation is every night! But that’s good. You have to have the kind of personality that allows you to want to be constantly working at what you do and constantly making sure you are playing your best all of the time.”

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