Mistico

Charlie Hunter Trio

Concord Music Group, 2007

http://www.charliehunter.com

REVIEW BY: Jason Warburg

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 10/30/2007

“Is it rock? Is it funk? Is it jazz? YES!”

So sayeth the promo sheet for this album, and it doth not lie.  Longtime Bay Area jazz-guitar iconoclast Charlie Hunter is a one-man musical smorgasbord, not to mention the self-proclaimed “master of the seven-stringed guitar” -- a title for which one imagines he has little competition, but which he nonetheless proves himself more than worthy of claiming.

If the music isn’t sounding interesting enough to you yet, get this -- in this latest incarnation of his eponymous trio, Hunter is joined by Simon Lott on drums and Erik Deutsch on piano, fender Rhodes and CasioTone.  That’s right, no bass player; Hunter covers that territory himself on the two bass strings he’s added to his customized five-string guitar.  Meanwhile, Deutsch plays jazz piano with one hand while the other is playing tinkly-cheese Casio synth riffs.my_heart_sings_the_harmony_web_ad_alt_250

No, really.

In terms of tone and style, Hunter the guitar-slinger finds some heretofore unexplored musical nexus between Miles Davis, George Clinton and Jimi Hendrix.  “Speakers Built In” (for example) starts out with comfortably fuzzy Jimi-riffing, then stutter-steps into a spacy bridge, then bursts back into its funk-n-roll “verses,” before Hunter goes off on a twisting, distortion-laced mind-bender of a solo… and then we’re back to a soul groove that Al Green would know exactly what to do with.  Oh, and then the closing solo just before the end of this 6:20 tune comes on like John McLaughlin and Steve Howe battling to a draw while Pink Floyd’s Rick Wright plays slumbering keys in the background.

Did I mention the smorgasbord part yet?

“Balls” starts out like a late ‘60s psychedelic stomper, with a sort of Procol-Harum-meets-Jimmy Page organ-guitar space-funk thing happening, except in the middle where it breaks down for a drum solo that starts out herky-jerky and gradually builds to a thunderous crescendo before the other two come back in.  Yeah, um, and then at the end it breaks down to a full-on two-handed piano-and-Casio freak-out. 

Whew.

Opener “Lady!” has a nice little blues strut at its core, but Hunter’s trembly tone and the faintly eerie Casio textures and Lott’s percussive pure-jazz time-keeping lend the whole thing a sort of dreamy psychedelic feel.  And Deutsch’s two-handed solo, piano vs. Casio?  Bizarre, yet compelling.  Other highlights include the off-kilter funk of “Wizard Sleeve,” the melodic-fusion-plus-distortion of “Special Shirt,”the drowsy slow blues of the title track, and the mind-blowing closer “Chimp Gut,” whose jazzed-out Tex-Mex boogie beat Hunter decorates with solos that throw in tones and phrases that range from straight blues to jazz-funk to hints of Middle Eastern swirl and country twang.   Duuuuuuude.

Like many albums that demand as much musical range and patience from the listener as this one, I’m not sure how often in the future I’ll pull Mistico out for another go.  But for the jazz guitar lover – or for any music fan in a particularly adventurous mood -- this thing is like nitroglycerin for the imagination, explosive and beautiful all at once.  Not for the faint of heart, but for the open-minded, a genuinely expansive experience.

Rating: A-

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© 2007 Jason Warburg and The Daily Vault. All rights reserved. Review or any portion may not be reproduced without written permission. Cover art is the intellectual property of Concord Music Group, and is used for informational purposes only.