"But I just think we've got such a continuity with what we're doing that most people come in and fill in the blanks. And sometimes we leave a lot of blanks to be filled"
About this Quote
Charlie Hunter is describing a band as an unfinished sentence on purpose. The line sounds casual, even a little shruggy, but it’s a clear aesthetic manifesto: continuity matters more than control. He’s not talking about locking musicians into a rigid chart; he’s talking about building a recognizable grammar - a feel, a pocket, a way the harmony turns - so strong that new players can walk in and intuit the rules without being micromanaged.
The phrase “fill in the blanks” does double duty. On one level, it’s practical: Hunter’s projects have often been fluid, with rotating collaborators and a reputation for high-level musicianship. A stable core lets the personnel shift without the music losing its identity. On another level, it’s almost philosophical: the “blanks” are where listening becomes visible. Leaving space forces everyone to make decisions in real time, to reveal taste, restraint, and imagination. In a culture that rewards maximalism - more notes, more production, more certainty - Hunter frames absence as a feature.
The subtext is trust: in the musicians, in the audience, in the idea that coherence can come from shared instincts rather than explicit instructions. The sly part is that “leaving a lot of blanks” isn’t laziness; it’s craft. You can only leave that much open if the underlying continuity is sturdy enough to keep the whole thing from collapsing into mush.
The phrase “fill in the blanks” does double duty. On one level, it’s practical: Hunter’s projects have often been fluid, with rotating collaborators and a reputation for high-level musicianship. A stable core lets the personnel shift without the music losing its identity. On another level, it’s almost philosophical: the “blanks” are where listening becomes visible. Leaving space forces everyone to make decisions in real time, to reveal taste, restraint, and imagination. In a culture that rewards maximalism - more notes, more production, more certainty - Hunter frames absence as a feature.
The subtext is trust: in the musicians, in the audience, in the idea that coherence can come from shared instincts rather than explicit instructions. The sly part is that “leaving a lot of blanks” isn’t laziness; it’s craft. You can only leave that much open if the underlying continuity is sturdy enough to keep the whole thing from collapsing into mush.
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
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