Artist: Charlie Hunter

Charlie Hunter is an American guitarist, composer, and bandleader. First coming to prominence in the early 1990s,

Hunter plays custom-made seven- and eight-string guitars on which he simultaneously plays bass lines, chords, and melodies. Critic Sean Westergaard described Hunter's technique as "mind-boggling...he's an agile improviser with an ear for great tone, and always has excellent players alongside him in order to make great music, not to show off." Hunter's technique is rooted in the styles of jazz guitarists Joe Pass and Tuck Andress, who blended bass notes with melody in a way that created the illusion of two guitars. 

On his debut album, Charlie Hunter Trio (1993), he played seven-string guitar with  Dave Ellis on saxophone and Jay Lane on drums. On the next album, Bing, Bing, Bing! (Blue Note, 1995), he played an eight-string guitar custom built by Ralph Novak. In the 1990s, Hunter played in the band T. J. Kirk, which got its name from three musicians whose music it covered: Thelonious Monk, James Brown, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. The band released two albums before breaking up. 

Hunter co-founded Garage a Trois, a jazz fusion band with Stanton Moore and Skerik,  and Groundtruther with Bobby Previte.