Guitarist Hunter Attracts Appreciative Younger Crowd

Guitarist Charlie Hunter’s performance at the Knitting Factory on Friday night was fascinating in two very distinct ways. It was, first of all, a consistently engaging musical experience. Equally important, it took place before an enthusiastic crowd of young listeners.

The contrast between the audience for Hunter’s appearance and the turnout for the Cool and Crazy West Coast Jazz Festival taking place over the weekend in North Hollywood couldn’t have been more striking. The latter program was attended primarily by fans with a firsthand recollection of Southland jazz in the ‘50s. Hunter, on the other hand, drew a crowd whose parents were probably toddlers when the music and the players celebrated at the Cool and Crazy event were at their peak.

Why the age difference in turnout? That’s a question that jazz must deal with on a continuing basis. But one distinct reason traces to the fact that Hunter--who has a well-earned reputation as a virtuosic player of the difficult-to-master eight-string guitar--is as conversant with rock and funk music as he is with straight-ahead jazz, playing and blending each style with complete musical fluency. Add to that Hunter’s open-minded willingness to position himself within a wide array of musical settings. He frequently works within a quartet setting and, on his most recent album, “Songs From the Analog Playground,” included a number of tracks featuring the vocals of Norah Jones and the rapping of Mos Def.

At the Knitting Factory, however, he showed up with a gritty, hard-driving quintet featuring saxophonist John Ellis and trombonist Josh Roseman (frequent Hunter associates), harmonica player Gregoire Maret and drummer Terreon Gully. Often taking a relatively reserved role, Hunter featured the unusual textures produced by the three wind instrumentalists, who occasionally produced even darker-sounding tones when Ellis switched to bass clarinet and Roseman played with a plunger mute.

As responsive as the crowded house was to the other musicians, however, it was Hunter who was clearly their greatest object of affection. And he rewarded their warm reactions with several extraordinary solos, driving out bass lines on his two lowest strings while simultaneously adding chordal clusters and roving melodies on the top strings. A remarkable feat of dexterity, it was also a stunning demonstration of how to combine technical virtuosity with inventive, briskly swinging improvisation.

Given a few more Charlie Hunters, jazz would have no problem at all in solving the problem of how to bring new, young listeners to the music.