Scott Henderson Discussion

[Birger]

I´ve just listened to some old tribal tech videos and I must say that you guys did some astonishing history back then. And your playing back in those days twisted our minds. "Is it possible to create those harmonic changes and also play through them?" And with that flow. This is fusion man! Now you skipped playing with keyboardists, maybee because your strong will to get further. Maybee a little mistake (in my mind)since I think you had an awesome fit together(tribal tech). But your creativity develops (bad english?) so I understand why you have to move on. But don't you ever forget what you did back in those days Scott cause we, your true fans won't ever forget, cause it ment a lot for us, and as a guitarist, one of the most important influences. Looking forward to buy your new record! /Birger (the biggest and most educated fan in northern europe, equipped with the most sensitive ears ever born-top resolution and transparent listening, and I also think that Zawinul is the most important music innovator ever)

[Scott Henderson]

Thanks for the kind words, and I definitely appreciate the Tribal Tech fans. I do believe we had our moments and made some cool music. That being said, I have a completely different perspective and don’t have the kind of fond memories that you do. To be brutally honest, the band was too close to Weather Report to have it's own voice, outside of saying that it sounded like Weather Report with a guitar player. I count that as a tremendous failure, having spent a lot of my career in the band, paying more attention to synth patches than growing as a guitarist. The first two records had acoustic keyboards and the band was on it’s way to sounding original, but hiring synth players was the nail in the coffin - after that, there isn’t one album review which doesn't mention Weather Report, and again, I see that as a failure to create our own sound.

The one thing I'm proud of is the way we were able to jam in the studio and then create compositions on top of the jams. To my knowledge, no band ever did that before, or if they did, I doubt at that level. I see that as something truly original and I'm proud to have been a part of it. Jamming in the studio was Kinsey’s idea, which if left alone would have just been a copy of what Miles did on Bitches Brew, but Willis had the idea to further produce the jams and make them sound like compositions - that’s the original part.

It’s no secret that I don’t like Kinsey. He’s a Zawinul clone without apology, and simply jamming in the studio to make records is copying Miles Davis. The Kinsey group was a direct copy of the Zawinul Syndicate, and what he’s doing now is an even more direct rip-off of Knower. The guy doesn’t have one original idea in his head, and I can't deal with that level of plagiarism. That's why I can't take Tribal Tech seriously. Not to mention that I spent a great part of my career being treated like a horn player by keyboard players, who don’t seem to realize that the guitar is capable of playing chords.

I’m very happy to be playing trio now, and it’s definitely not a mistake.

[Red Suede]

Well, as a lover of fusion quartets I thought you guys were brilliant, had your own thing....

[TaeKwonDonut]

Early in a career, its ok to sound derivative..Kinsey's Human Element project is direct ripoff of Zawinul/Weather Report...to be doing that now after a long a career shows no growth.. I remember when Berlins first album came out (yes I am that old), I bought it and was listening with a friend who remarked on Motherlode how good Holdsworth sounded. Now to me the note choices were totally different but I could see thinking the legato style was similar..If you took that tune today and then played something from Vibe Station, you'd be hard pressed to identify that as the same player. I think Sco also falls into this category.. there's a lot of players who do not..and to me that is that growth. As far as TT goes.. hey there's nothing like the slamming groove and build up of Face First, the guitar swells of Ominous, and the guitar solo on Black Cherry.. some of my fave moments in modern music

[Scott Henderson]

I'm not saying we didn't have some good moments. But we made some very bad decisions, and after dozens of reviews comparing our music to Weather Report, I wish we'd heard the wake-up call, changed direction or just broken up. The new band with Deron Johnson and Gergo Borlai could've been original sounding but by then it was too late - this economy doesn't favor fusion quartets, and to be honest I never want to play with a keyboard player again.

There was a time when I was in danger of becoming a clone of Holdsworth, Jeff Beck or Scofield. Many years ago I stopped listening to any of them because I wanted my own voice, and now I sound like me. Kinsey should have stopped listening to Joe 20 years ago, but obviously he's now listening to Knower instead. Nobody wishes him harm, including me. His friends just want him to stop embarrassing himself by directly imitating other musicians.

[Red Suede]

Well, you never sounded like anyone else what with your knowledge of harmony. You've always had a "thing" in my book.

[tribalfusion]

[Scott Henderson]

Yeah, i've heard that before, but I'm not one of those guys who comes off stage saying I suck (at least not all the time). My perspective these days is that the most important thing is to be original sounding. Tribal Tech was a great band, no doubt about it, but in my opinion playing synthesizer driven music when the synth sounds and concept were directly stolen from Joe Zawinul - it's crossing the line for me.

Maybe we as musicians don't like to admit it, but after working on music for a year and putting out a record, the things reputable critics say about it is important. I don't think there are many musicians who'd like to be consistently compared to another band in every review of their albums - plural. I know I didn't.

To close this thread, I'm not happy with my decision to put synthesizers ahead of studying guitar for as many years as I did, but I know we made some cool music and I'm happy that people like it.

[Kevin Thomas]

Hi Scott,

I'm bringing back the TT/WR thing. Please feel free to reply on this site, on guitarwank podcast, or not at all (I would understand if you are sick of still talking about this after years.

I was wondering if what made you stop TT was you not being happy enough of your own work, or was it only what the critics said. I mean, did you think you sounded to close to WR, and then it was worse when you read it in reviews. Or were you proud of what you did, and when reading the critics you went "Damn!They're right!" (in which case maybe you should have said "Fuck'em, we're great and our fans think so! Keep doin'!".

I hope you're doing well on tour.

Kevin

[Scott Henderson]

I quit Tribal Tech at least three times between ’95 and ’98, but I always came back because at that time I guess I was too lazy to start a whole new thing. Eventually I recorded Dog Party which led to a solo career and I wish I’d done it many years earlier. After being a sideman for many years, it was amazing to record and tour with my own music - but from a playing standpoint, I was in the same rut with Tribal Tech that I’d been in all those years as a sideman because they were all keyboard dominated bands, especially Tribal Tech. My playing was pretty much ignored by Kinsey, even after we changed his position to the middle of the stage so we could interact more. That turned out to be about 10% more than 0.

The Weather Report comparisons made me even more frustrated, mainly because they were true - and they weren’t just coming from reviewers. Scofield made a derogatory comment about us in one of his interviews, and so did several other prominent musicians - normally I wouldn’t give a fuck what any of them said, but again, their comments were right on the money and that made me depressed. As I said before, hiring Kinsey was the main reason we were compared to WP - he hadn’t been hired by several very famous band leaders for that reason. One of them told me “if I wanted Joe, I’d ask Joe.” Even though it wasn’t a very polite thing to say to me since I did hire Kinsey, what he said made total sense.

Again, I’m not saying we din’t have our moments, but playing trio is much more fun, and I feel like I never would’ve grown as a guitarist if it wasn’t for the demise of Tribal Tech. If I want to hear synthesizers, I’ll listen to Weather Report.

[Red Suede]

Well, continue on, man. You're a great player.....

[Kevin Thomas]

Now I understand what you did towards the end of "palm moon plaza". This one note thing start to make sense to me.
You just played that one note, again and again, thinking "Kinsey's not even listening to me. I'm gonna play that one note until he gives a fuckin' look at me!"

How funny it would be if you told me it actually happened like that (but I heard a lot of the X album has been done by sending files, so it probably did not happen this way)

Kevin

[Scott Henderson]

That would be funny but it didn't happen that way. Actually, Palm Moon Plaza represents the band at our very best. That tune was improvised in the studio, and very little was added afterwards. It shows what we could do when everyone was really listening to each other and not playing at a deafening volume. I'm happy with the way X turned out - very interactive jamming, but also enough harmony to keep it interesting. The records are much better than the live shows in my opinion, unless we were playing strict arrangements since those tunes sounded the same every night. Too bad the tunes which were supposed to be loose and interactive on stage never were - mainly because of the unbelievable volume.

[Matt]

I think Gary Willis is getting off a bit lightly in this thread. He's surely a big part of why people often compared TT to Weather Report too. I remember a friend at college hearing something from 'Nomad' years ago and saying something like, 'That guy sounds like a bad copy of Jaco'! I'm not saying I agree, but I know where he was coming from. He just heard a fretless and lots of 16th notes!

In terms of keyboard playing, the 'Tribal Tech' album with David Goldblatt didn't sound much like WR at all. That could have been a direction to go in.

Yes, Kinsey sounded increasingly like Joe Z as the band went on but actually his earlier tunes like 'After Hours' and 'Foreign Affairs' don't sound much like WR at all, to my ears.

Agree completely about 'Palm Moon Plaza', by the way, that's outstanding.

[spellbound]

Scott,
I really understand what you are saying, and while I discovered you through Tribal Tech, I was thrilled when you started making trio records.

I've had similar 'keyboard player experiences' and am now playing in a trio.
It's literally producing some of the happiest moments of my life.

You've always been a great inspiration to me. I love GuitarWank. I look forward to it every week, and it makes me grin like mental patient during my commute !