Charlie Hunter & Ella Feingold Trio

It’s true that Berkeley-reared Charlie Hunter has long been a familiar presence on Bay Area stages. Even though he moved east decades ago and now resides in Greensboro, North Carolina, Hunter has maintained deep ties to his hometown.  

But the inveterately inventive 7-string guitar wizard has never presented anything quite like his trio with fellow guitar explorer Ella Feingold. Based in Western Massachusetts, she’s a pioneer of inverted tuning, which facilitates unexpected harmonic structures and voicings inaccessible in standard tuning. Inspired by the dauntingly prolific songwriter, jazz musician, and conceptual artist Chris Weisman, this approach shapes her signature sound—blending lush chord inversions, walking basslines, and expressive melodic phrasing, which makes Feingold a capaciously creative foil for Hunter.  

He’s hardly the only one seeking her out. She’s also been working with Meshell Ndegeocello, Bootsy Collins, and Erykah Badu (with whom she’s performed many times in the Bay Area). But it’s with Hunter that she’s defining her own musical identity. He’s carved out a major new role for himself over the past decade as a producer, and last year he released their debut album Different Strokes for Different Folks on his SideHustle label. Rooted in funk, jazz, soul and ambient textures, it’s a raw, spontaneous conversation between friends who find limitless new space to investigate deep in the pocket.