Ready Set Shango

Ready Set Shango

ASIN: B000005H2V

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
This is funky, organ-driven soul-jazz, with one catch: there's no organ. Because Hunter fills the organ's role with his fluid eight-string guitar grooves, everyone wants to lump him into acid jazz or even rock. Hunter borrows a certain intensity from rock, but he also includes dynamic funk-oriented rhythms and jazz's improvisational aesthetic. Like many of the best of the soul-jazz albums, this 1996 release is predicated on emotion and feeling, not complex chord changes or technically impressive flurries. These nine originals use a variety of rhythms as improvisational springboards: joyous romps, slow grinds, soft Latin-tinged waves, and bluesy shuffles. Saxmen Dave Ellis and the late Calder Spanier can handle fragile melodic phrases as easily as from-the-belly wails. Hunter's guitar aims for tones, moods, and textures while he anchors the bass line with those extra two strings. --Marc Greilsamer

Tracks:

Ashby Man
Teabaggin'
Let's Get Medieval
The Shango Pt. III
Dersu
911
Shango...The Ballad
Thursday The 12th
Sutton

Amazon.com

This is funky, organ-driven soul-jazz, with one catch: there's no organ. Because Hunter fills the organ's role with his fluid eight-string guitar grooves, everyone wants to lump him into acid jazz or even rock. Hunter borrows a certain intensity from rock, but he also includes dynamic funk-oriented rhythms and jazz's improvisational aesthetic. Like many of the best of the soul-jazz albums, this 1996 release is predicated on emotion and feeling, not complex chord changes or technically impressive flurries. These nine originals use a variety of rhythms as improvisational springboards: joyous romps, slow grinds, soft Latin-tinged waves, and bluesy shuffles. Saxmen Dave Ellis and the late Calder Spanier can handle fragile melodic phrases as easily as from-the-belly wails. Hunter's guitar aims for tones, moods, and textures while he anchors the bass line with those extra two strings. --Marc Greilsamer

Customer Reviews:

A hint of what's to come........2006-11-22

"Ready ... Set ... Shango" by almost any other contemporary jazz guitarist would be their best. But, this is not just any Jazz guitarist.

Charlie Hunter has been quietly setting himself apart from his contemporaries with his groove driven, funk and rock inspired tracks. His approach to composition is pure entertainment and very accessible, with little of the obfuscation and dense noodling that some contemporary jazz falls prey to. Charlie Hunter strains to bring jazz back to the popular perch it occupied in its heyday; probably not achievable, but a laudable goal nontheless. He probably owes as much to John Frusciante as to Wes Montgomery, and this shows in his execution.

Although not his best, this album has its highlights, and a large vision of what's to come. The opener, Ashby Man is particularly enjoyable. Neither Charlie nor his partners on the album show the confidence of later albums, notably "Friends, Seen and Unseen", but I can wholeheartedly recommend this album anyway. Shango on!

Get ready to.......2004-11-19

Play this energetic album during your next party and guests will undoubtedly compliment your smart music tastes. Play it while sitting alone and you'll soon realize why he's a pioneer in today's jazz/fusion scene. It's my favorite Charlie Hunter album (and I own them all). SHANGO!

Ready... steady... replay!.......2000-05-16

From its opening bars this wonderful "jazz-blues" record grabs you by the collar and carries you along through 50 minutes of rolling guitar & sax based fun. This is "good time" music at its best... catchy melodies, virtuoso musicianship and clever arrangements that make you want to be up there playing with them! Like David Grisman's "Hot Dawg", the complexity of what's going on is never allowed to destroy the enthusiastic, laid-back feel that permeates the album. Tracks flow seamlessly into one another, taking you from up-beat jazz improvisations through slow blues work-outs and back again, and... before you know where you are it's over - time to hit the replay button once again!

Shango/Django?.......2000-05-15

from what i heard this can only be the start of something big. trad jazz (eg Thad Jones & normal 3/4-tets must be paying Jimmy Smith & Captain Jack the same dues finally that Joey DiFrancesco is getting, playing also cornet, because this organ stand-in "six string bass" guitar is using what rock has dropped for decades - WAH-WAH pedal as a judicious organ stop. This is no acid jazz, this hip rhythm collective reaches back to the original rhythm section of the standard trio to pull out some funk & rescue the lowly hendrix pedal from oblivion. No label, this is straight ahead. i followed it up from Christian Jacob/Steve Swallow, another rock transfer (Chuck Mangione, or was it "Larry Coryell"?), & can only describe what can't be summarized - listen w/ caution, it is uncommon rare.

Continually enjoyable-- --.......1999-10-15

One of a handfull of CD's that would go with me to a desert isle

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