Scott Henderson Discussion

[BS]

“Rituals” is one of your tunes that I like the most, but what is your own feelings regarding this one?

How do you compare the two different versions from “Nomad” and “Well to the bone”?

[Scott Henderson]

One is good and the other sucks. The last time I listened to the Tribal Tech version, I thought I'd throw up. I played the melody in a horribly stiff way, with the thinnest tone ever, and the arrangement sounds like we're trying to be Journey - very dated and funny. Then there's the Zamfir pan flute synth sound... holy shit, talk about corny.

The Well To The Bone version sounds much more organic, all the tones are good, and I like the mixture of acoustic and electric guitars. Most importantly, somewhere between 1989 and 2002, I learned how to phrase.

[BS]

Ha, ha – no one can blame you for not being self critical!!!

BTW - is that the only recording of you playing acoustic guitar?

I think the way the harmonically static A-section resolvs in the harmonic movement in the bridge is nice, maybe a bit reminiscent of "Festival of ghosts.."?

[Scott Henderson]

I've played acoustic on other records, but sometimes it's just a layer and not a major part of the tune. Same as You on Dog Party, Twilight in Northridge on Dr. Hee, Revenge Stew on Face First, and Continuum on Tore Down House are all acoustic guitar tunes.

I like to switch between one chord sections and changes sections in my music. I think Weather Report was one of the first modern jazz groups to really utilize that. Chord progressions which sound great under the melody aren't always fun to improvise on, so one chord sections can be fun for solos, and they offer a nice break from the harmony, especially if it's complex.

[Kevin Thomas]

Hi Scott,
I'm used to the Well to the bone version, which I like. After reading the thread, I went on Youtube to listen to the Nomad version, and I agree with you.
I wonder if the Nomad version was like it was because that was what you wanted at the time (which would make sense phrasingwise and tonewise), or because you were influenced by members of the band (which would make sense Zamfirwise).

Asia and India dates are there, I cross the fingers for Europe!
Kevin

[Scott Henderson]

The Nomad version is just an example of how musicians make mistakes. My tone was better on Jeff Berlin's Champion record, and my first album Spears, than it was on any of the Tribal Tech albums which followed, up to Thick, when I went back to using a Marshall. Lesson here - if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Also, my playing and producing drastically improved in those ten years, which should be true for any musician.

On every Tribal Tech album, there are amazingly bad playing and production flaws, because we thought we were capable of producing the albums ourselves, and we clearly weren't. We had little to no experience in the studio and were learning as we went. An experienced producer would've made those records much better, but we couldn't afford one anyway, so they are what they are. The funniest solo is mine on Renegade - I didn't have any vocabulary for that 6/4 feel, so I'm clearly playing lines meant for 4/4 and they don't fit the groove at all. It's one of my most embarrassing solos.

One of the worst albums is Face First. Experienced engineers will think I'm kidding when I say it was mixed on Yamaha NS-10's. Many good engineers use them, but exclusively for mixing the top end. Unfortunately we used them for the whole mix, so on any other set of speakers, the bass is way too loud. We call that album "Bass First". The funniest example is The Crawling Horror, where the walking bass is twice is loud as the solos.

Reality Check has some really bad problems, but the funniest one is on the song Stella By Infared... The album was recorded at Ocean Way, which at that time was one of the best studios in LA, but due to Kirk's total lack of experience in the studio and an engineer who wasn't able to fix it, the drum sound on that tune is one of the worst in recording history... has to be heard to be believed.

Thick and Rocket Science are our best efforts as far as production, but X has some problems due to being recorded at 44.1 and not being mastered correctly. Also (totally my fault), the guitar solo on Mech X is ridiculously loud and the bass is totally missing. Ouch! Bad mixing 101.

[tribalfusion]

Jeez. You are closing in quickly on Holdsworth for artist most openly critical of his own work!

I get where you are coming from Scott but I would like to say as respectfully as I can muster....you are too down on your old albums and playing.

[Scott Henderson]

I guess from the outside it may look like that, but I think most artists have a self-critical side, and it gives us the motivation to improve. I don't know too many musicians who are happy with their work from 20 years ago... if they are, they probably haven't improved much. Part of my growth comes from looking back, seeing my mistakes, and trying not to make them again. Right now I think Vibe Station is a great album - ask me in 20 years and I might have a different opinion.

[BS]

I see your point, and I totally agree that most good musicians are self critical and quite rarely very happy with their own playing in retrospect, which is probably a must to be able to continuously improve as a musician.

Pat Metheny is a big favourite of mine, and he seems to be one of these guys who has always been, and still is, working very hard to improve. By comparing what he does now to what he did 35 years ago, there’s no doubt that he’s a much more accomplished player now. On the other hand I think there is a certain freshness that seems to be a bit lost on the way. Stylewise “80/81” is not too far from some of the stuff he does with his Unity Band now, but I think there’s an edge to the stuff he did on “80/81” that’s not there with the Unity Band. My point is that even though playing, sound etc have improved massively, there might be qualities to the older work that is worth appreciating.

And then there’s the constantly changing element of aesthetics. For instance I think Steve Lukather’s guitar solo on “A thousand years” From “The Seventh One” is nice, but soundwise it’s totally outdated and sounds very 80’s. Does that make a solo that seemed to be perfect in 1988 to be bad in 2016?

[Scott Henderson]

Some music gets dated and starts to sound funny, but some music seems to never get dated, and becomes timeless. I'd like to think that at least some of my music is the latter, but it's definitely not the TT version of Rituals!

That being said, Tribal Tech was a great band, despite some obvious problems, and though I wish it hadn't taken us so long to finally get to our most original sounding period, I'll always be grateful that I had the opportunity to work with such great musicians.

[paskiainen]

It's true that stella by infrared doesn't have the greatest production, but it's one of the greatest songs ever. The interplay between you and Kirk is just awesome and that solo, ahh, it has everything which makes a solo stand out. Great phrasing, bluesy aggressiviness, holdsworthian legato, just freakingly awesome. I get goosepumps whenever I hear it. And the song, who the hell doesn't love altered dominants over heavy riffs...?

And thanks so much for the guitarwank (but drop the guitar prefix since it's basically just wank). Great stuff. I'm already half-way through and addicted to it as hell.

[Scott Henderson]

That song was a real disappointment to me - it's one of my favorites but it didn't get the production it needed. The drum sound is pathetic and the keyboards aren't loud and clear enough. Those are some bad-ass voicings and sometimes they're buried. It's not a tune I could play trio because there's too much going on, but I'd like to re-record it and make it sound like it should.

Thanks, glad you're enjoying GuitarWank.

[muddytrane]

Scott,

You mention that you would like to re-record Stella By Infared, are there any other TT tracks that you would like to re-record? Albert Collins did a whole CD of re-recording some of his favorite tracks and it sold very well. Any thoughts on the possibility of this ever happening.

[Scott Henderson]

Stella is the only one I can think of. Rituals was a "must re-do" tune, but I think most of the music I wrote for Tribal Tech was either done "right enough", or I don't like the songs well enough to do again. As far as the solos, I'm sure I could play better ones on all that music, but it's not worth re-recording a song just to play a better solo.