Vortex, London
Charlie Hunter specialises in coupling an R&B rhythm-guitarist's choppy propulsiveness with jazz-improv melodic variations and a driving bassline – but all on his own. The Rhode Island-born guitarist has ingeniously redesigned his guitar and boasts one of the most original techniques in the instrument's history. On a two-night stopover in London, Hunter's virtuosity was bolstered by the deftly attentive San Francisco drummer Scott Amendola.
The pair played whimsically twisted standards for the first set, before turning up the funk for the second. Negotiating the details on the fly, they found their way in and out of musical thickets with an irresistibly good-humoured resourcefulness – the guitarist being given to staring ecstatically at his audiences as if his instrument were out of his control, and emitting demented cackles at moments of doubt and resolution alike. Early in the first half, he seemed to have ravelled back in time to the loping sound of bop giant Wes Montgomery, before a shower of gleaming harmonics, and the prodding countermelody of the simultaneous bassline, served as reminders that this was still a Hunter show. A soul-jazz groove sprang up, with Amendola snapping to Hunter's every accent, and the churning melody line now began to suggest the great Curtis Mayfield guitarist Phil Upchurch. Body and Soul emerged in fluttering runs against Amendola's brushes, a Thelonious Monk quote turned to blues and then rockabilly. Billy Strayhorn's A Flower is a Lovesome Thing unveiled an unsentimental lyricism that this artist usually disguises, and Hunter stood up to share the cymbal work with Amendola on a fast climax to the set.
The second half was a showcase for groove-playing of all kinds, from R&B and soul to blues. Halfway through came a long, unaccompanied guitar passage of popping bass accents, chunky chord work and bursts of double-time improv that never dropped a stitch in the pulse. It was tour de force of an unruly but dazzling performance.