Scott Henderson Discussion

[dizzy]

Hey Scott

Do you think the way you improvise has been shaped by your composing?.
Has composing been an important part of your development as an improviser?

Thanks

[Scott Henderson]

Do you think the way you improvise has been shaped by your composing?

Not really - I’ve written some difficult chord progressions that were challenging to play over, but no more so than some of the tunes in the Real Book.

Has composing been an important part of your development as an improviser?

It’s one of the things which has helped. I don’t write music for the purpose of improving my playing, I just try to write the best song I can. After the composing is done, I always find fun and challenging things to play, which allows me to play the tune a little different every time, and that process helps to build my improvising vocabulary.

Finding your own style as a composer, or improvisor, is more about who you listen to, and not making the mistake of listening to a small amount of influences. My playing is very rhythmic, because for five years I was the only white kid in a funk horn band. I was listening to James Brown, Kool & The Gang, and Tower Of Power. My guitar tone often has a lot of gain, because I played rock and roll for many years and listened to Hendrix, Beck, Blackmore, and Page. My music is “weird” because I got into fusion and listened to Weather Report, Herbie Hancock, Mahavishnu Orchestra, and progressive rock bands like Gentle Giant, Yes, and Genesis. A lot of my ideas come from the jazz vocabulary because I became a huge fan of straight ahead jazz and listened to many of the great horn players like Coltrane, Parker, Cannonball, Miles and then more modern ones like Chris Potter and Shamus Blake. I discovered jazz guitar and first heard John Scofield, Wes Montgomery and George Benson, then Kurt Rosenwinkel, Larry Koonse and the younger generation of jazz guitarists. I love solo guitar players like Tommy Emmanuel, Ted Greene, and Phillip DeGruy and I like to work out little solo guitar things even if I’m nowhere near their level. Some of my music is influenced by great country players like Johnny Highland, Steve Trovato, Jerry Douglas and Albert Lee. Of course for every name I’ve mentioned, I haven’t mentioned 10 more who are equally as important to me.

Listening to all these different players has influenced me, but no individual musician has taken over my voice to the point where people can’t tell it’s me. They might hear an influence from Beck and Blackmore because I love me some whammy bar, or from Scofield because he was one of the first jazz guitarists I listened to, but most people say they can tell it’s me in two notes. I’ve taken great pains to also develop my tone to fit what I play, and influence what I play. Like everyone, I have good nights and bad nights, and the difference between them is huge to me, but usually not to the audience. To them I sound like Scott Henderson, and I’m proud of that, even if i don’t always play my best.

The word “clone” is about the worst thing you can call a musician, and it comes from listening too much to one person as an influence. But that’s never going to happen to you because you just read this!

[dizzy]

Scott
Thanks for laying that out in such a clear and informative way. I got a lot out of what you wrote.