Scott Henderson Discussion

[Matt]

Hi Scott

Was listening to the Zawinul Syndicate version of 'Little Rootie Tootie' for the first time in a few years yesterday and was really blown away by the section where you and Joe Z are playing that transcribed Monk solo together. I think it's also the section that the horns play together on Monk's 'Town Hall' album.
Were you involved with transcribing that section or was it read straight from the original 'Town Hall' charts?
Also, how the hell do you play the head of Little Rootie Tootie on guitar?! At that tempo, it's a bitch...

Cheers
Matt

[Scott Henderson]

I never had the original Monk transcriptions - I just had a chart for the melody and transcribed solo which Joe wrote. I hardly used the chart at all - I'm much faster at learning by ear than by reading music.

The melody isn't that hard but the solo is one of the harder things I've ever learned, along with the Cannonball solo that I learned for Jeff Berlin's Champion album. Solos from piano or horn players don't always lay very easily on the fingerboard so you have to figure out how to facilitate moves you'd never make on your own - I think it's fun, but definitely hard work.