Charlie Hunter Trio serves up rich stew of jazz

Jazz guitarist Charlie Hunter is 41, a husband, father of two young children, with tattoos on both arms. He resembles the actor Matthew Fox, who plays the surgeon and tortured soul Jack Shephard, from TV's "Lost."

A serious and earnest musician (although he would probably resist that description) Hunter, too has had near-paralyzing bouts of torment in the form of artistic angst.

"If you asked me a few years ago," said Hunter, who performs with his trio at Jazz Alley Tuesday and Wednesday, "I would have said I couldn't stand anything I played. I was going to stop playing. I was done with it. I felt like I couldn't come up with any more tricks. The next stage would have been lighting myself on fire."

Hunter, who has a distinct way with words, did not quit playing or resort to onstage flambé but rather embarked on a new direction with his music — something simple, spare and naturally suited to him, and more importantly, to his instrument, which is a rhythm instrument at heart, not a melodic one. Despite that fact, jazz guitarists are often obliged to play like horn players, at least if they want to be considered true masters.

Taking it a step further, Hunter played both an eight- and seven-string guitar (as opposed to the standard six) so that he could play a bass line along with the melody and harmony, giving himself the range of a pianist. As a result, he can sound like two players, getting an organlike sound out of his guitar.

He'll use a seven-string guitar at Jazz Alley, performing with drummer Tony Mason and keyboard player Erik Deutsch, with whom he recorded his latest album, "Baboon Strength," his first independent release. The songs are a departure as jazz goes, the improvisation playing itself out slowly. Also, the band members do not solo in the traditional sense, with one instrument playing in front of the rest. The improvisation is collaborative; the melody and the licks are secondary to the groove of the song.

If most jazz is microwave, Hunter's music is Crock-pot: a few good ingredients set to simmer slowly.

The songs on "Baboon Strength" are an ode to pop music and to Hunter's tastes. He is no snob. He loves surf music and Southern soul, Karen Carpenter and the Squeeze, all of which are apparent on his album. Some of the songs are simply named for a composer or performer. Some titles are incidental pop-culture references like "Fine Corinthian Leather," the phrase used by actor Ricardo Montalban in an old TV commercial for the Chrysler Cordoba. The song is a moody blues ballad. The mastery is not so much in the technique but in the sensibility, true of all of his new songs.

Hunter, who lives in New Jersey, used the word "chase" to describe the earlier years of his career. It's a word some of his peers can relate to: the feeling that growth for a musician was a kind of contest, a mounting display of speed and technique, outdoing one impressive lick with another. The "chase" also speaks to a point of tension in jazz, that musicians can tend to play more for other musicians than for an audience.

Hunter has never been exactly a traditional jazz musician. He has plumbed the improvisational potential of pop and other forms of music before. He has collaborated with nonjazz musicians like Mos Def, D'Angelo and Norah Jones.

"I'm not against anything musically," Hunter said. "What I play has to be honest and relevant for myself. I'm a street musician, really. I went to a little community college but I learned on the street. So for me, music has to have that visceralness. Otherwise, what's the point?"

Hugo Kugiya: hkugiya@yahoo.com