For the 13th year in a row, jazz/blues guitarist Charlie Hunter returned Thursday night to the Magic Bag in Ferndale for another standout performance. In prior years, Charlie has played in a trio with drums and keys, but currently Hunter is touring as a duo with up and coming jazz drummer Simon Lott. Those who read my short preview of this show earlier in the week, or folks who are already acquainted with Charlie Hunter, know that he’s no mere guitarist. Eschewing the traditional 6-string electric, he plays custom made 7- and 8-string electric guitars with bass strings.
Forgoing a guitar pick, Hunter simultaneously plays often complex bass lines with his thumb while dishing out tasty samples of blues-laden jazz riffs as he strums and plucks the other 6 strings with his fingers. As a result, the duo sounded much more like a trio, and I repeatedly caught snippets of other folk’s comments such as, “Man! He just kills that bass line with that thumb of his!”
I first heard of Charlie Hunter 12 years ago while living in Tucson when two of my housemates went to see him at Club Congress down the road. During that show, my housemate James’ dog Ziggy managed to escape out the door when I was coming into the house. After chasing Ziggy all over the neighborhood and being taunted and eluded by the wily Australian shepherd, I finally broke down and went to Club Congress to get James. We didn’t find the dog last night, but he did show up a couple of days later - I still feel bad about pulling James out of that show.
Back to last night: Before the show I met up with my amigos Z-Man and Ron at Como’s around the corner from the Bag. After a great dinner of calamari (the garlic butter – oohh, the humanity), and deep dish ‘za, I set off to make it in the venue just after doors opened. Now, Z-Man is an EPIC taper – he makes superb recordings of concerts at which the bands allow live recording/taping. Last night was the 95th show that Z-Man has recorded in 2009 - including shows all over the country (and he’s got a full-time job on top of that).
By the 9 PM show time, there were quite a few people at the bag, although it wasn’t nearly as full as some of the more rockin’ performances I’ve seen in the past few months by the likes of MOFRO and Soulive. At roughly half capacity, I wasn’t surprised that the dance floor stayed empty through both hour-long sets. One thing I like about the Magic bag is that it covers rock, jazz, blues, soul, and such genres, and in doing so creates a unique social blend. This was more than evident last night as 20 and 30-something, bearded, white, hippie-sters sat next to a table of fashionable, middle-aged, black dudes. Close enough to Detroit to get a nice draw from the city and suburban enough that those who never venture south of 8 Mile can feel ‘safe,’ the Magic Bag is a great venue for jazz, blues, funk, soul, and of course, rock. All those at the Bag last night seemed to really enjoy the performance.
Despite Charlie Hunter’s musical prowess, I know that jazz isn’t necessarily everybody’s cup of tea but for those in attendance, last night’s show was something else altogether. I was extremely grateful to be on hand at the Magic Bag to bear witness to the sickness. Although most of the songs the duo played were not well-known to me, I did catch one song where Hunter riffed on the chorus from Bad Company’s ‘Feel Like Makin Love’ in the middle of a jam as well as the first set closer ‘Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.’ Lott was certainly no slouch on the skins, either, as multiple times throughout both sets Hunter would lay off and provide a simple bass and/or guitar rhythm while Lott showed his stuff. I’m pretty sure I saw Lott play with Charlie Hunter last year, and after last night’s performance, I won’t be forgetting his name anytime soon.
In addition to outstanding musical performances, both musicians had great facial expressions when going all out – Hunter had the classic jazz/blues overbite while Lott alternated between ‘taking a massive crap and what might have been his ‘O-face’. Really though, as a photographer, I’m grateful for some visual indication of intensity from musicians not jumping/screaming/sweating/bleeding all over the stage.
This was one jazz show that had audience members shushing each other during softer tunes and heads bobbin’ every which way and shout outs of ‘Yeah!’ or ‘Play that shit!’ during the funkier numbers. After two hour-long sets and a single encore, Hunter and Lott received a standing ovation from those in attendance. I’d strongly recommend coming out next year when Charlie Hunter comes for number 14.
Click here to download the torrent from the show (you may need to ask somebody what a torrent is)
WERD!!
-drew