Scott Henderson Discussion

[muddytrane]

Scott,
As I have stated before, Spears is one of my all time favorite albums. I love all of your stuff but Spears was the first one and when it came out originally it caught my attention and to this day I still can't go anywhere without it. I want to specifically ask you about the title track, which is also one of my all time favorites. Can you tell me about the writing of the song and the influences you were touching on. The reason I ask is because I hear all different styles of music in that tune, which is why I love it so much. Is that what you were trying for when it was written? It has such a great groove to it and I think is also one of the great blues tracks you have written. The horns are fantastic and at one moment have a smooth sound and then have an almost dixieland sound to them. Also there is a great piano solo (that's how keys are meant to sound SK!) Then your solo is what caught my ear all those years ago and I was hooked! Ever thought of updating it to fit the trio?

Also wanted to ask a question about your composing style. Are you one of those that wakes up in the middle of the night with a tune in your head and have to write it down? Do you like to just write during down time on the road? Do you work better when having to write for an upcoming album or hate that type of pressure having to write something? Explain what your composing style is and maybe how it's changed from Tribal Tech and writing with others to now just having to write for the trio. Also have you ever written something while on the road and try it out at a gig just something new to play live? Thanks for your time as always!

[Scott Henderson]

Spears was such a long time ago that I don't remember many details about the composing. The title cut has some arranging in it which is typical in big band writing, so maybe I was inspired by that. It's not a tune which could be played trio without ditching a lot of material - it was specifically written with keyboards in mind.

I have to go into composing mode to feel like I'm on top of my game. When I try to do it sporadically, I feel rusty. I'm getting ready to start writing for my next trio record, which means working about 8 hours a day for who knows how many months. I get ideas in my sleep sometimes, and there are times when I'm more inspired to write than others, but I believe in going to work and not waiting for "inspiration" in whatever form to hit - that makes it easy to have an excuse not to work. I've written some of my best stuff when I didn't really feel like writing at all. I don't remember which composer said this, but he's got it right - "The hardest part about writing is the application of the ass to the chair."

The only change from the Tribal Tech days is writing for guitar trio - it's obviously more challenging, but sometimes I miss the interaction with another soloist - maybe I'll have a guest horn player on a few tunes.

There's no time to write on the road - we play almost every night and travel every day.