The Future Looks Bright With Hunter, Cruz Leading the Way

It may not exactly be the full picture, but at least one compelling element in the future of jazz is on display this week at Catalina Bar & Grill. The duo of guitarist Charlie Hunter and drummer Adam Cruz is exuberantly charging into the next century with the kind of enthusiasm and imagination that can attract crowds of new listeners to jazz.

And that’s precisely what they did on Tuesday night, in the opening set of a six-night run. Playing before a nearly full house, most of it consisting of the kind of youthful attendees that don’t always turn up for jazz programs, Hunter and Cruz played a surging set of tunes--many of them from Hunter’s new Blue Note album, “Duo” (with another drummer, Leon Parker).

Hunter plays an eight-string guitar, with two added bass strings. The combination allows him to simultaneously play roving, independent bass lines on the bottom two strings, beneath melody and chords on the top six strings. While one may marvel at the digital dexterity he brings to the task, it is the music that matters, and in Tuesday’s set it was extraordinary.

Prior to the performance there was some question regarding the partnership with Cruz--a drummer who plays with a full drum kit, unlike the more minimally oriented Parker (who was unavailable for the current tour). But Hunter and Cruz were in sync from virtually the very first notes. They dug into the insinuating groove of “Belief” with a compelling, body-moving swing. On “Mean Street,” Cruz tossed in interactive passages on steel pans and timbales.

It was stunning, generation-crossing jazz--drawing from the past, but not indebted to it, reaching out and touching younger listeners with an energetic impact too rarely found in the bop-revisited music of much of the ‘90s. With players like Hunter and Cruz on the scene, the jazz future is looking increasingly bright.

* The Charlie Hunter-Adam Cruz Duo at Catalina Bar & Grill through Sunday. 1640 N. Cahuenga Blvd., (213) 466-2210. $20 cover tonight, Saturday at 8:30 p.m. and Sunday at 7 p.m.; $17 cover tonight, Saturday at 10:30 p.m. and Sunday at 9 p.m.