Scott Henderson Discussion

[Sam Yoon]

How does your trio handle the sound problems? I saw Tribal Tech in the 90’s and you guys were not playing very loud compared to most bands. My band is so loud that my ears ring after concerts.

[Scott Henderson]

You probably saw us in a good venue, and thankfully we got to play in a few. Here in LA, Baked Potato and Alva’s are great rooms because their owners invested in good acoustic material. Not everything needs to be covered, but in the case of a club I recently played with Josh Smith called The Brig, hard surfaces on the floor, walls, and ceiling made it an extremely loud room. Even though I still had a blast playing with those guys, it was annoying when the club owner kept asking us to turn down - and we weren’t playing loud at all. And he wonders why neighbors complain about the volume. When I did my live record at La Ve Lee, I asked the owner to put foam on the ceiling, just over the stage area - it made a huge difference and that’s why we got a good sounding record out of that place - plus having Bob Bradshaw as the engineer didn’t hurt!

To answer your question - and not to bad mouth Willis and Kirk, but in the old Tribal Tech days they’d be considered a loud rhythm section by anyone’s standards. The volume I needed to play to hear myself over them made my ears ring after concerts too, but only in rooms that amplified the volume of the band. In good rooms like the one you saw us in, it didn’t seem loud to me either.

I hate to put the blame on drummers, but it really does start with them. A drummer needs to know how to play softer than he usually does when needed, and still enjoy the music. A reviewer really slammed Kirk when we were playing in a seriously loud club, and Kirk was hitting hard as ever. The reviewer saw a lot of people wearing earplugs, hated the volume and left. In his review he wrote “a good show ruined by the drummers inability to adjust to the venue”. After that Kirk started bringing a smaller kit to loud clubs. In my opinion there also needs to be more respect for drummers since they play an acoustic instrument. Drummers shouldn’t be forced to put drums in their own monitor so they can hear themselves. If Alan can’t hear himself, and the stage is too small for us to move further away from him, Travis just walks over to the bass amp and turns it down - it’s not rocket science. I turn my amp down too, and then we can’t use our volume pedals and gadgets to turn up later. The amps are down and that’s it - end of story.

If I want to hear myself louder without having to turn up my amp, I’ve come to rely on the monitors more. I know most guitar players hate them, but I usually throw a towel over the horn and it seems to work. Fold the towel as much as you need to tame the high end - it’s usually easier than trying to EQ the monitor, which can take a big chunk out of your sound check. We also set up differently according to the venue - if it’s a “snare drum causing a migraine” room, we set up further away from the drums. If it’s a huge stage but the room is dead, we set up really close to the drums, no matter how dumb it looks. I’ve had too many shows ruined by volume problems and thankfully I’m playing with musicians who care as much as I do about making the gig musical.

[dizzy]

I know exactly what you mean about loud bassists and drummers. The thing that pisses me off is when the bass player is playing too loud. So the guitar turns up loud enough to be heard and then the guitar player gets blamed for being the loud one because the frequencies that the guitar creates hurt people's ears more then bass frequencies. Then everyone is telling you to turn down and you get drowned out by the bass player who was always the problem to begin with. I get mad just writing this.

[kirk95]

Bass is without a doubt the hardest thing to deal with when it's too loud, but often it's not the bass guitar, it's just the low frequencies. In a lot of rooms, I can't even hear what notes the bass player's playing - all I hear is a loud rumble that's nearly impossible to play over.

I'd like to meet the person who invented the idea of putting the sub-woofers under the stage so I can kick his ass. This is often the problem - and the only thing I've found helpful is to tell the engineer "look, we know the audience needs to hear some low end, but if that low end compromises our performance, then that's bad for everyone. Get rid of some low end until we're both unhappy, and that's a compromise."

I've never had much of a problem with bass when the sub-woofers are off to the side, unless it's an extremely boomy room, and then the same solution applies. We don't bring our own sound man on the road, and sometimes we have to deal with guys who mainly mix rock and metal bands - they think the low end should rattle peoples teeth until they fall out. That's one of the reasons I carry an RC-3 loop pedal, to go out and listen to the band during soundcheck. There have been times when the low frequencies from the kick drum were drowning out the other drums, and the sound man thought that was normal. WTF? Anyway, we try to solve these low frequency problems at soundcheck so the gig doesn't suck.
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[dizzy]

Some sound men suffer from the same thing that you talk about with some musicians.....close mindedness. If they would listen to kind of blue weather report and mozart along with metal and rap and radio hits they would be able to mix many styles of music. Instead they treat every show like they are mixing tool or 9 inch nails.

[Scott Henderson]

There was a time when we were traveling with our own sound man, and I realize what a luxury that was. A loop pedal really is a must when you run across a sound man who you suspect doesn't know what he's doing. Then you can walk out to the board and hear what your fans are gonna hear. For musicians who are inexperienced with boards and EQ, it's a wise move to learn about it. Today at soundcheck there weren't any towels, so I just told the monitor guy to get rid of anything over 5k in my monitor using a shelf. All of a sudden, the monitor sounds great. I'm very used to going out to the board and adjusting the mistakes of heavy metal sound guys. A bad sound man can literally ruin your show, so sometimes you have to take control of the situation.

[Ricky Myers]

I’ve been a Tribal Tech fan for many years, but I understand the financial problems with a quartet, and the frustration that guitar players can have working with keyboard players. I know you’re working on a new album and I want to support all you guys. Do you know about upcoming projects from Scott and Gary? How’s your album going?

[Scott Henderson]

Slowly. It’s a layered record so I spend more time looking for tones than playing notes. Plus I keep leaving town for touring, and I have a 10 year old and three dogs. I’m working hard on the record whenever I get the chance to work.

Willis is doing a new album with Gergo Borlai on drums. Willis is a great writer and a seriously hard worker - there’s no doubt that whatever he comes up with, it’ll be original sounding and worth hearing. Kinsey was supposed to be part of that project but I heard he isn’t anymore, which doesn’t surprise me.

If you’re waiting for a new record from Scott, you may be waiting awhile. His new album has been finished for over a year. Abstract Logix was the only label interested in him, but they don’t seem to be anymore. I think they’ve learned they can’t release an album of one chord loops and expect many people to buy it. When I was on the road with Kinsey’s band, the promoter in Budapest was really disappointed in the low turnout - I said to him, “well, the music is a bit harmonically challenged”. He said “Music? What music?” Anyone can tell the difference between a song and a one chord jam - that’s why Kinsey’s gigs at the Baked Potato are attended by about 10 people. By now he’s probably given up on putting that record out - he’s working on a pop record for his girlfriend who plays bass and sings. I hope for her sake she has her own tunes, or her career will start in the toilet where his ended.

[Ricky Myers]

Wow Scott, you seem to be really down on Scott Kinsey. do you think the personal problems you had with him are affecting how you feel about his music? no offense…

[Scott Henderson]

None taken, and sorry if I made it sound that way. Actually I think he’s an amazing player, and I owe him a lot. He’s the one who brought the element of looseness to Tribal Tech, which we desperately needed because before him the music was way too arranged in my opinion. His influence led to jamming in the studio with no pre-written material, and then composing over the jams in post production while keeping all the cool interplay from the basic tracks. It’s a fun way to make records, and without Kinsey I never would’ve experienced it.

I respect him so much as a musician, that it’s been painful for me (and some of his other friends) to watch his career. He didn’t do anything for three years after Tribal Tech stopped playing, and then when he finally started a band, it was a direct imitation of the Zawinul Syndicate, complete with vocoder, samples of African singers, and to fill the role of the guitar player/ human sequencer, a Mac playing one chord loops. What a waste of genius level harmonic abilities, not to mention career suicide. Nevertheless, I tried to help him by talking my agent into booking two tours with Scott as band leader, but he’d only book it if I was in the band too, so I agreed. The tours weren’t successful, and the agent dumped the project. After awhile I bailed too, because I couldn’t bear to hear another note from that vocoder, and I was sick of playing solos over inflexible loops which trampled over everything I love about improvised music. This was long before I had any personal problems with Scott.

I like one chord jams, and the good ones happen because of dynamics and interaction - Miles and Weather Report are perfect examples. Imagine Bitches Brew chained down by a loud, monotonous electronic loop going non-stop through the record - all hope of interaction and dynamics gone.
Check out Brown Street on the Weather Report 8:30 album - that’s the way to do a one chord jam! Incredibly melodic and interactive playing by Wayne and Joe - with not much more than a major scale as their vocabulary. They managed to make a long jam continually interesting - without a loop.

Using a Mac as a band member reminds me of guitar clinics. The computer is a necessary evil for that, but in my opinion, jazz audiences sense the artificial nature of it and don’t like it much. Scott has the talent to write great tunes, and he’s quite aware that composition isn’t overrated. He’s also a brilliant acoustic jazz pianist, but won’t take anyone’s advice and show that part of his talent to the public. I have no doubt that he’ll eventually dump the Kinsey Syndicate idea, and find better uses for his computer like spreadsheets and porn. I’d love to see him find his own original direction and have a chance at a career.

OK, I’m done talking about keyboard players - forever!!! One last statement, but you have to imagine it being said with great enthusiasm by Alfalfa from The Little Rascals.

“I guess Herbie Hancock is about the best piano player there is!”

[basehead617]

[Scott Henderson]

Herbie is one of my heroes and I wasn't being sarcastic - it's just funny to imagine Alfalfa praising him. He's my favorite jazz pianist, with nobody else as even a close second. I'm aware of how great Keith Jarrett is, but he just doesn't touch my soul like Herbie does. Maybe it's because I can't stand Keith's squealing while he plays, plus he's a dick. Anyway, Actual Proof was my introduction to Herbie when I was a kid, and I've been a huge fan ever since. That being said, there are other keyboard players who I look up to more for their composing abilities, like Joe and Chick - and I'm talking about Joe's writing in Weather Report, before he got into the one chord vamp thing, and Chick's writing... well, from a long time ago.

I was just listening to Herbie's playing on Liberty City from Jaco's Word Of Mouth album - unbelievable!

[harmonicator]

[peter_heijnen]

[countandduke]

LOVE me some Herbie! I often wish Oscar Peterson would have gotten into the funky/jazz fusion stuff because I think he was one of, if not THE best jazz pianist.

My .02