To a genius, the “work” of creation can sometimes be as easy as walking to the store to buy milk and bread. Charlie Hunter is a genius, and he makes it seem easy. The son of a mom who fixed guitars for a living, he grew up in a Berkeley commune, plays custom-made seven and eight string guitars and has produced artists as disparate as The Cars and Little Village Foundation’s traditional blues singer Candice Ivory. I spoke to Charlie who produced Jubu, whose self-titled album is the latest release on Little Village.
Jubu Smith has toured with Whitney Houston and recorded with Luther Vandross, Mary J. Blige, Boyz II Men, Toni Braxton, George Duke, and George Benson. He has fronted his own bands Legally Blynd and The Jubu Smith Experience. Jubu is an instrumental album that blurs the distinction between jazz and blues and includes a cut by blues’ guitar master Eric Gales. It was improvised in the studio with most of its 11 originals cut in one or two takes.
“Me, Calvin Napper, the drummer, and Jubu just sat at Earthtone Studios in Greensboro, North Carolina, and we just played,” says Charlie Hunter. “Jubu had a good idea that he and I should have microphones so we could kinda talk in the headphone. ‘Hey, let’s move to a G7 here. Let’s move to a B flat or whatever it is, or let’s check this out so we could just keep on playing in the groove without having to really stop or lose the vibe on anything.’
“There’s a lot of linear stuff Jubu plays on the record, but he never ever gets away from the rhythm as a unit. He’s always inside the drums rhythmically and time-wise feels like he’s always there. I’ve shared this with a number of big deal guitar players, and everyone is freaking out about it. And a big part of it is all about phrasing, how he phrases.
“It’s not like playing a lot of bluster over the top of something. He’s playing it inside with what’s going on. So, you can feel it, but it’s not one of the things that you file under pyrotechnics. Pyrotechnics are fleeting, and if they’re not connected inextricably to the drummer’s time feel, they’re kind of meaningless, honestly.”
Eric Gales plays on “EG Is Here.” Charlie explains, “We both live in Greensboro, and we both record a lot at Earthtone Studios. Eric Gales happened to be in town, and we told him, ‘Hey, we’re in the studio. Come on by if you feel like it.’ So, he did, and we just threw that down in one take, and it was pretty fun.”
I asked Charlie if having Eric Gales there changed the paradigm of what the rest of the album was like, because what I hear on the number is not typical of what I think of when I think of Eric Gales who is a lot busier and staccato than he comes across as on this album.
“Yeah, I can only speak as a fellow guitar player, and Eric is one of the real ones as far as I’m concerned, and there aren’t a lot. I’ve gotta be really honest. So, there’s a lot of notoriety for doing it and more power to him, but his wheelhouse is a lot broader than people imagine, and his harmonic knowledge is very very broad as well. So, it’s just a matter of eventually he’s going to probably produce those kinds of records, but at the moment he’s doing another thing, but he’s capable of doing that. Literally I would put him in any situation and be completely confident that he would contribute something really deep to whatever that situation was.”
Charlie enjoys working with Jim Pugh, CEO of Little Village. “I feel really good about working with him because I’ve got to put my money where my mouth is and the whole thing was, yeah, why is there not a record by Jubu? Ok, let’s fix this problem. You know?
“Or, how come there are so few authentic female singers out there that are really doing it, and why can’t I really find that? Well, Candice Ivory is one. Ok, let’s do that. So, it feels really good to feel a part of the solution. And those are only the things I’ve worked on. I know we have a lot of stuff like the mariachi band, all these different singers and people he’s put on there, And I’m really honored to be part of that kind of continuance.”
I asked Charlie if he could have played with anyone living or dead to pick out the one you would play with.
“I already have. I’ve played with so many great people. If I could have ever played with Roland Kirk that would have really been it for me, but that was not a possibility. He passed away when I was very young, but I’ve been very lucky. I’ve played with a lot of people when I was young that were my age now and now I’m playing with younger people, and it’s great to be a part of the situation.”
