*** Charlie Hunter/Leon Parker

DUO

(Blue Note)

Eight-string guitarist Charlie Hunter's sleight-of-hand noodling can be on the elegant-lite side, and it always begs the question: would this stuff be so interesting if you didn't know it was one guy playing all those simultaneous bass and guitar lines? In other words, is it a stunt or is it music?

So, yes, Duo is a darn good trio record, but it's also downright irresistible. Hunter has joined forces with minimalist percussion master Leon Parker (the two hit the Regattabar several weeks back), and the mix of rhythms and arrangements helps them avoid groove-music yawns. Hunter's thing isn't the tensile, percussive drive of a Grant Green, Pat Martino, or for that matter Marc Ribot. He's all delicacy and detail, dancing around the beat with his bass-treble arabesques. Parker's rhythm is fancy in a way you tend not to notice: elemental, deeply rooted, never overly busy. There's Cuban here, calypso, backbeat funk, a noir-ish reverb-drenched "You Don't Know What Love Is," and an equally appealing Brian Wilson offering. It's a big, warm, living-room sound, and the production by Hunter and Joe Ferla captures every inch of it.

-- Jon Garelick