Charlie Hunter & Scott Amendola - EPs: Cars/Williams/Porter/Ellington (2014)

Country music and jazz are often cast as antithetical styles, but the truth is far more complicated. For Hunter and Amendola, a great song is simply a great song, and they find plenty of grist for improvisation in this set - originally released as 4 5-song EPs, which include Hank Williams classics like Cold Cold Heart, and Ramblin Man. They find fertile ground even further afield from typical jazz fare in the music of new wave rockers The Cars, digging into hits like Candy-O, and Let s Go. Also covered are Cole Porter and Duke Ellington classics interpreted only as Charlie and Scott can!

"The idea is to do these four [EPs] and see how people respond," Hunter says. "We started thinking why do we keep making 10-song CDs. I don t necessarily want to do 10 Hank Williams songs, but five can work well. As long as the song is good we can put it through the mill, like what we did with T.J. Kirk and the Bob Marley album I made."

Tracklist:

1. Bye Bye Love (Cars)
2. Candy O (Cars)
3. Double Life (Cars)
4. Good Times Roll (Cars)
5. Let's Go (Cars)
6. Move It On Over (Hank Williams)
7. I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry (Hank Williams)
8. Cold Cold Heart (Hank Williams)
9. Ramblin' Man (Hank Williams)
10. Your Cheatin' Heart (Hank Williams)
11. Blue Pepper (Duke Ellington)
12. Rockin' In Rhythm (Duke Ellington)
13. Daydream (Duke Ellington)
14. The Mooche (Duke Ellington)
15. Mood Indigo (Duke Ellington)
16. Ace In the Hole (Cole Porter)
17. Too Darn Hot(Cole Porter)
18. Ev'rytime We Say Goodbye(Cole Porter)
19. Miss Otis Regrets(Cole Porter)
20. Anything Goes(Cole Porter)