Thursday at the Square is considered by Buffalo natives to be a great Western New York tradition as well as a fantastic place to experience new music. The shows are free, there's excellent food and beer and the after-parties are plenty welcoming.
This past Thursday, a talented up-and-coming group named The Charlie Hunter Trio jazzed up the opening slot.
Drummer Simon Lott, keyboardist Eric Deutsch and guitarist/bassist Charlie Hunter comprise an exciting young instrumental group. Hunter is an incredibly gifted guitar player, but to label him only a guitar player would be to vastly understate his abilities.
Hunter is one of very few guitarists to play an eight-string guitar, or one of the very few who can play an eight-stringed guitar. The guitar has three bass strings and five standard strings. This allows Hunter to play guitar and bass at the same time, a task that is incredibly difficult but gives the three-man band a larger sound and leaves some concertgoers searching for the bassist.
The trio has a unique sound that is accessible to many different genres, but is mainly jazz-oriented. Hunter blends jazz, blues, funk, rock and even some aspects of country music to get his unique sound.
When CHT took the stage, the crowd did not accommodate their jazz prose so well at first. As the show went on, CHT began to play more upbeat and energetic songs that people could dance to, netting more crowd attention. By the show's end, the crowd could have been whetting their pallet with Shiraz and snacking on cheeses in a NYC jazz club.
The CHT's ability to play together as musicians was remarkable. They shifted from the middle of a drum solo to the whole group playing together in an instant.
The band's ability to win over the crowd was undeniable, as the group came onstage with no singer and with little recognition and still managed to entertain a multitude of people with many different preferences.
The band that followed the trio was a blues group led by Anders Osborne, a Swedish-born guitar player/singer.
If the Derek Trucks Band, Martin Medeski and Wood or jazz in general are in your music collection, The Charlie Hunter Trio are definitely worth checking out.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
