Scott Henderson Discussion

[BS]

I had the pleasure of hearing you with your trio in Norway this fall, a very nice experience! However I´ve spent quite some time lately listening to the HBC-record, and even though the concept itself might seem a bit risky, I think it comes out really well, and you really add something different to the already excellent versions by the masters themselves (Shorter, Zawinul, etc), so I really enjoy this record. However when it comes to the more traditional triplet divided swing stuff, like Footprints in this case, this seems to be the weakest part of the setlist to me. Even though you play even these tunes incredibly well, especially the use of electric bass in a guitar trio setting playing swing based tunes, is a bit disturbing to me. One of the few exceptions coming to mind who managed to really make this work, is Scofield´s current trio with Swallow and Stewart, which swings incredible well, but apart from that I can´t think of any jazz guitar trios who really nailed it using electric bass (I consider Bright Size Life something completely different). Have you ever recorded with a double bass, and do you have any thoughts on this issue in general?

[Scott Henderson]

I think acoustic bass is a better instrument for straight ahead jazz, but I don't play a lot in that style. The electric players I play with don't play acoustic, otherwise I'm sure they would on the few jazz tunes we play. One thing for sure - electric players can play jazz better than acoustic players can play funk or other styles of music than swing, so I'm happy to stick with electric bass because I think it's a more versatile instrument. If I ever did a straight ahead jazz record, which I'll never, ever, ever do, I'll definitely use acoustic bass.

[paskiainen]

hah, I thought this thread would have been about double bass drumming....of Virgil Donati...well, maybe not.