Scott Henderson Discussion

[analogholic]

A real treat for us Scott and Zawinul fans!
Awesome that you play the Weather Report tune Madagascar!
Enjoy!!!

Zawinul Syndicate at Newport Festival 1990

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lBv0QOeQd8

Scott, any special memories of this line-up and tour?

[Scott Henderson]

My memories of playing with Joe are difficult for me. He was used to listening to Wayne Shorter play every night, but he had to listen to me. I've said this before - I was way out of my league playing in that band. I think the way I play now, I could've added something to the music, but back then I played a lot of notes and not many of the right ones - pretty embarrassing. From a completely selfish viewpoint, I learned a lot by playing with him, and still continue to learn from him when I listen to his records - he was one of the best musicians of all time.

[TaeKwonDonut]

I am paraphrasing but I remember reading an interview with Joe where he said something like that the next great musician had to be someone who's playing was as free as the human voice and he said you were very very close. I am sure you saw it but in case you didn't, there it is.

[Scott Henderson]

Joe had a honeymoon period with all his musicians, saying great things about them in the press. After a year or so, that always changed. After a gig in Austria, I overheard him saying to our manager "Henderson can't play shit - he ain't heavy". I surprised him when I laughed and said "you're just now figuring that out?"

He respected me very much as an ensemble player, and years after I left the band he told me that I was the best ensemble player he'd ever worked with. But as an improvisor, I can't shine Wayne Shorter's shoes, and Joe knew that.

[countandduke]

The times that I have improved the most as a musician have been when I played with musicians that where/are much better than me. Same thing in sports. Good musicians/sportsmen raise the bar so that can often be the "kick in the pants" that we often need to get better.

Scott, I've read that one of your goals in life is to help others as much as possible. Maybe Joe felt the same way, he obviously saw something in you and maybe he wanted to water that seedling and watch it grow.

When someone gets too happy with their abilities, I think they cease to grow so when I hear you or Holdsworth say they don't care for their playing even s year or 2 ago it's somewhat disappointing for us regular cats because I'd LOVE to be able to play like you or Big Al but I also realize that what you mean by that statement is that you've actually grown as a musician and THAT is a good thing!

I also think Joe's "honeymoon period" served 2 purposes. One, it helped the player feel comfortable and relax in the and but then that period can only last so long or the musical growth won't exist. So the negative comments he may have said were most likely meant as a kick in the ass.

My optimistic .02 of course. 😀
Chris

[sieuminh]

Scott I wish you were my uncle, I mean musically, or literally as well, or something ... you know what I mean!!!

What I mean is that it's cool to see how you view yourself as a musician. Do you think people like Shorter have a very special gift, or that they have a way to dig deeper into their own psyche and channel more creativity?

[Scott Henderson]

I believe some musicians are more gifted than others. When I hear the oldest Wayne Shorter records, he sounds just as amazing to me as he does on his most recent recordings. Maybe he'd disagree, I don't know.

I don't consider myself gifted, but I've worked really hard my whole career to improve. I doubt that most musicians would enjoy listening to recordings of themselves from 20 years ago - to me it's like fingernails on a chalkboard. I can say without a doubt that I didn't have the maturity as an improvisor 20 years ago to be on the same stage with Joe Zawinul. His gig was about "less is more" and creativity.

On the other hand, when I hear old videos of me playing with Chick Corea, it sounds like a better fit. That gig was about chops. After me, Chick hired Frank Gumbale, who has twice the chops I do.

Long after I left Joe's band, I was asked to sit in with him at Catalina's for a song. I played really melodic and left a lot of space. Joe looked at me as if to say "OK, you finally got it." That was some redemption for me.

[Red Suede]

Gifted. Came on the planet with a spark and then did/doing the work. Just like my friend Lyle Workman........

[guitmac]

What you did on Mercy, mercy, mercy on The Immigrants record it's one of the most cool, spicy, profound and "dirty" guitar playing of all times! You don't like that neither?

[Scott Henderson]

Actually Joe was really happy with what I played on that tune, so if he was happy so was I. It's my live playing in the Syndicate which disappoints me more than what I played on the records. Joe's solos were always incredibly melodic and told a story. My solos were busy and chaotic by comparison, but it's just who I was at that point in time. That was 20 years ago, so I'm not beating myself up about it.

[tribalfusion]

[Scott Henderson]

Joe's gig wasn't always like that - when I first joined the band we were playing songs like From Venice To Vienna and other harmonic compositions, mixed with the jamming. Over time, the one chord jams took over, and I found myself improvising a lot over vamps, which isn't easy to do all night in the style I chose to play - which unfortunately was the wrong one. "Taking a solo" wasn't even the right concept for that music.

I hate to say this about Joe since I respect his playing and writing with Weather Report so much, but it seems like he was highly influenced later in his career by Salif Keita, and his band became much more about world music than jazz. After I left the band, Joe stopped hiring guitar players who solo, and all he wanted from the guitar was a "melodic conga".

I told Kinsey one time, if you're gonna copy Joe, why not copy the brilliant player/composer from Weather Report, instead of copying Joe copying Salif Keita? I saw the same bored faces at Joe's gigs that I saw at Kinsey's - people wondering when someone was going to actually play. I guess the guitar fans were relieved when I'd play a solo, no matter what it sounded like - at least something was going on. Later when Joe hired a lead singer, the whole thing made way more sense, and long solos didn't fit the music at all.

Again, the first year in the Syndicate wasn't like that, and I was sad to see Joe leave all that amazing harmony behind and go in the other direction. By the time I left the band, I never wanted to hear another one chord vamp, so doing Kinsey a favor by playing his bullshit loop music for two tours was way beyond the call of duty.