Blue
Note Records approached Charlie Hunter to cover an entire classic album
of the past by a legendary artist as part of their new Cover Series project.
The choice on what album to be covered was left up to Charlie and his
Quartet to decide. Having a broad range of musical influences did not
make the decision easy for Charlie. After pondering the idea of doing
Curtis Mayfield's "Superfly" and the Beach Boys' "Smiley
Smile", he settled on Bob Marley's Natty Dread.
"For
starters, Bob Marley is one of the greatest songwriters of all time,"
Hunter explains. "His music stands on its own like a Beatles song.
You strum one of his tunes on an acoustic guitar and people instantly
recognize it. He ranks up there as a song composer with Stevie Wonder
and Elvis Costello. Plus, the numbers on Natty Dread have such strong
melodies and harmonies. The clincher was that each tune presented itself
in such a way that allowed the band the freedom to do something original
with it."
Blue Note
Records (1997)
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