finetune artist: Charlie Hunter/Leon Parker

b. 1968, Rhode Island, USA. Hunter grew up in Berkeley, California, where his mother repaired guitars for a living. He had his own first guitar at 12 and took lessons from Joe Satriani, but although he attended the same school as Joshua Redman and Benny Green he chose not to participate in the music programme. His musical interests were varied but heavily pop-orientated: blues, rockabilly, soul, funk. Hunter first listened seriously to jazz at the age of 18, in particular to records by Weather Report and Wes Montgomery, but found neither especially to his taste. As he acknowledged later, in the latter's case he had inadvertently stumbled across an album with strings that missed the essence of the man. Hunter then heard Charlie "Bird" Parker, John Coltrane and Charlie Christian and was now wholly turned on to jazz. He also found the sound of Jimmy Smith and others organists fascinating. He spent some time in Europe, mostly busking in the streets of various cities, then returned to the Bay Area where he linked up with poet-rapper Michael Franti to form a duo. In 1993 he toured with Franti's Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy, opening the show on a U2 package.

Listen to Charlie Hunter/Leon Parker at Finetune.

Belief