California raised Charlie Hunter introduces a New Trio With Let the Bells Ring On, a program of evocatively greasy originals reuniting the 7-String guitar wizard with longtime collaborators trombone master Curtis Fowlkes and drum maestro Bobby Previte. This album is gritty, groovy and downright celebratory, and features 10 original tunes by Hunter designed for the trio’s singular, deep-pocket sound. Previte and Fowlkes, a charter member of the Lounge Lizards and the Jazz Passengers, were both essential participants on the Downtown scene in the 1970s and have worked together in countless settings over the years. Hunter and Previte have toured and recorded together in various all-star cooperative ensembles so you can hear the long formed relationship in their playing. Hunter says “…he’s always been one of my favorite drummers. He came up in the 1960s, and he has the beat. You have to have lived it to have that feel. Because of his composer’s mind, we can play the simplest groove and it becomes something really exciting and compositional.”
With Fowlkes singing on his horn to compliment the rhythm, this new trio’s soul-drenched groove and laid back jams are a force to be reckoned with. “The guitarist cedes nearly all the lead duties to the ‘bone player” reveals Something Else, “but the rhythm work bubbling just underneath is just as attention-grabbing and Fowlkes plays locked closely attuned to his two-man, three instrument rhythm section.”
