Ready Set Shango!
This is funky, organ-driven soul-jazz, with one catch: there's no organ. Because Hunter fills the organ's role with his fluid eight-string guitar grooves, everyone wants to lump him into acid jazz or even rock. Hunter borrows a certain intensity from rock, but he also includes dynamic funk-oriented rhythms and jazz's improvisational aesthetic. Like many of the best of the soul-jazz albums, this 1996 release is predicated on emotion and feeling, not complex chord changes or technically impressive flurries. These nine originals use a variety of rhythms as improvisational springboards: joyous romps, slow grinds, soft Latin-tinged waves, and bluesy shuffles. SaxmenDave Ellisand the late Calder Spanier can handle fragile melodic phrases as easily as from-the-belly wails. Hunter's guitar aims for tones, moods, and textures while he anchors the bass line with those extra two strings.--Marc Greilsamer