Scott Henderson Discussion

[muddytrane]

Scott,
First time caller! I'm a long time fan that has all your recorded music and goes way back with your career. I read the topic of Tribal Tech history and I not only agree with the others about the great music made I also agree with and understand what you talk about in terms of decisions that had to be made (or should have been made!) and growth as a player. I won't dwell on the topic here (done over there!) but I will make the comment that Spears was and still is one of my favorite all time albums! What I would like to ask is I saw where you mentioned influences and it was the first time I read where you mentioned the late great Johnny Winter as an influence. Can you talk a little about his influence on you and are there any other blues players (other than the "greats" you've talked about in the past) that you currently listen to or have been influenced by. Any thoughts on players such as Ronnie Earl, Jimmy Thackery, Hamilton Loomis, Joe Bonamassa, Chris Duarte, Josh Smith, Kirk Fletcher and Brian Setzer. Also any thoughts about other departed players such as Danny Gatton, Lenny Breau, Johnny "Guitar" Watson, Albert Collins and Hollywood Fats. Keep up the great work making music for all of us to hear and for keeping the blues alive! As the saying goes, guitar players attempt to play all types of music in their careers but always end up back where they started, playing the blues when they get older and done playing around with their careers!

[Scott Henderson]

The first time I heard Johnny Winter was on the Live Johnny Winter And album, and I was blown away. Both he and Rick Derringer played great on that record and I've been a fan ever since. I'm also a big fan of Ronnie Earl, Chris Duarte, Kirk Fletcher, Lenny Breau, and Albert Collins. Josh Smith is a great player and we did a gig together last year - really fun.

[muddytrane]

I wanted to follow up with another question. How much time would you say between family, teaching, gigging, touring, recording and picking up dog poop do you get a chance to check out other players? That includes seeing anyone live and listening to their music. Do you even try and check out others for influence or ideas or at this point in your career just spend most of your time working on your own music and refining your playing. I've talked to other guitar players and it varies from player to player as to how much they try and get from other players so I was interested in your thoughts. Thanks.

[Scott Henderson]

If my friends tell me about a great player or album, I'll buy it and listen to it in my car - I hardly ever listen to music at home. I still enjoy transcribing, but mainly from horn players these days. Most of my time is spent on my own music, because it takes a hell of a long time to write an album's worth of music, plus rehearse, tour, record, overdub, mix.... I don't see how any musician who's serious about his own music has all that much time for checking out other stuff.

[Kevin Thomas]

Scott,

You say that any serious musician can hardly find time to listen to music.
Don't you think that it is a part (not to say a big part) of a musician's work? I think listening to other's music is what feeds yours.
Also, if you're a professional musician, I assume that you love music and you like to listen to. Would you be happy if you had time to listen to more music? (though when you spend all day long in music, you might enjoy some time with no sound at all) (btw... I heard that when you listen to Scott Henderson, the silence that follows is still Scott Henderson)

Or maybe it's just that you don't want to be influenced by good musicians! (Bruce never said who was that guy who don't want to listen to good guitarists, will you tell who it is?)

Kevin

[Scott Henderson]

Yes, listening to music is very important, especially when you're a student of music - it's inspiring and necessary for growth. However things change when you have a career. I'm not one of those jazz musicians who steals the changes from Stella and writes a new head for it - I think that's incredibly lame. It takes a long time to put a real album together, and it doesn't leave much time to listen to others. I still listen to music, but only in the car, and my transcribing is done at school with my students.

I don't want to start a rant, but I think many jazz musicians are lazy when it comes to making records. They write a few lame tunes that sound like they were written on a napkin in five minutes, then go into the studio and play just like they do every day. Not a lot of effort there in my opinion. That's why Weather Report is one of my favorite bands - great playing on great compositions. A lot of work went into making those records, and it sounds like it. Joe Zawinul never listened to anyone else because he woke up at 7 every morning and went into his studio to compose. Not comparing myself to him, but I'm not a student anymore and I have a lot of work to do. When I take a break, I'd rather see a good movie than listen to music.

Sorry, I don't know who Bruce was talking about - I don't even remember the conversation.

[Kevin Thomas]

That makes sense. The mystery of inspiration : hard work, sheer genius, steal from other musicians, hazard, hear a melody in a dream and remember it, receive holy inspiration from Whoever... each musician has its own sources.

The guy I was talking about... Bruce said he'd seen a video where a guitarist said that he purposely didn't listen to guitarist, not to be influenced by them. And if I remember well you said that you knew the guy, and that you had identified several guitarists that had influenced him.

[Kevin Thomas]

did I write hazard????

"hazard" looks a lot like "hasard", the french word for chance, or coincidence, which was what I meant.
Though, many musicians have hazardous inspiration.

[Scott Henderson]

Now I know the guy you're talking about, and he's a bullshitter. I'm sure there's a French word for that too. I don't want to mention his name because I try not to say mean things about people in public, even though I've failed miserably a few times.

We all have our influences, and there are even some very famous guitarists who like to think of themselves as innovators who have none. Of course, that's bullshit, especially when it's easy to hear who they've listened to. Innovation doesn't come from living in a bubble - you can be influenced by others and still bring something new to the table.

[muddytrane]

Scott's answer to my follow up question made complete sense to me. The main point I asked and he made was at this point in his career, which is he spends most/all of his time writing/composing his own music. Listening to others is done in the car as an aside and a great place to hear something else. He made the comment about many jazz players being lazy when making records and that kinda hit the nail on the head at what I was getting at. Some blues players also do that in that they don't write much new music and just rely on playing covers or standards. I've talked to some guitarists that listen to a lot of others music and they don't write much on their own and it shows, although you can hear the influence of those that they listen to. It's nice when they at least do new arrangements for a fresh take on a standard/cover. I also know and have talked to ones that don't listen to any music outside of their own because they are trying to find their own voice and don't want to get caught in a rut sounding like somebody else. I read where Scott mentioned that early on he started sounding like Holdsworth and wanted to get away from that. It makes total sense when you want to be known for your music and not someone else's.