With a career spanning 25 years and almost 20 albums, Charlie Hunter consistently ups his game as an innovative writer and bandleader. He has worked with the likes of Norah Jones, Mos Def, John Mayer, D'angelo and countless others. He is widely considered the authority on the seven and eight string guitar, and continues to stun audiences with his ability to simultaneously bust out tasty bass parts, melodic leads and swinging rhythms. Silvana Estrada, a native of Mexico's southeast, had just started her studies of Jazz at the University of Veracruz and quickly became known throughout the Jazz Studies Centre as a unique triple threat talent: an instrumentalist, playing the Cuatro Venezolano, vocalist and songwriter whose original compositions are a mixture of Latin American sounds and a vocal interpretation that comes from the "son jarocho" tradition of Veracruz. On a whim after rehearsing one day, Silvana and the band took a road trip to hear one of their heroes; Charlie Hunter was in Mexico City delivering a Master Class at the University. Inspired (and pushed by Alex the drummer) the band waited to meet Charlie whereupon Silvana sang for him on the spot. Charlie was so impressed that he ended up staying in Mexico, calling his sound engineer buddy Chris Finney from New Orleans and together they went to Silvana's magical hometown in the Southeastern hills of Mexico to record her debut album Lo Sagrado (The Sacred) that will be released on Charlie's non profit 30 Amp Circuit later this month.

[source: Bop Shop website, 2018-Mar-26]