Scott Henderson Discussion

[sermorel]

Hello, Scott !



When you are soloing over a vamp for sometime, do you try to keep your lines and ideas in "boxes" of ,let's say, 4 or 8 bars ?? That's our natural tendency,right ? To play ideas in multiples of 4. Do you think this way or you don't get stuck in this musical boxes ?

Man, solo over one chord can be much harder than playing over changes....Depending on the changes,of course...

Thank you, Scott.

[Scott Henderson]

Thinking in even numbered bars may be our natural tendency but it usually doesn't work over long vamps because it boxes you in and makes you play in a way that doesn't fit the situation. Listen to Bitches Brew, the grandfather of one chord vamps - lots of space, and hardly any 4 or 8 bar phrases played by anyone. They don't treat it like a 16 bar standard, and neither should we. In Tribal Tech, sometimes it wasn't even the number of bars which was ignored, it was the bar itself. No 1234, just 111111111111.

[sermorel]

Thanks a lot, Scott.

Sometimes it's hard to think freely and ignore some stuff that you grow up used to it. I saw Tribal Tech at MI in the early 90's and you guys played Footprints. The solos were like that,very out,but the form of the tune was kept. Amazing ! I'm trying to figure it out till this day !

[Scott Henderson]

Thanks, but I'll admit to getting lost sometimes when the phrasing got really out, especially from Covington. I see a lot of musicians tapping their foot when they play across the bar line or play fast rubato phrases - I think it helps and that's what I do. I think playing vamps is more difficult than playing changes - I've heard some bebop players who easily play over changes but can't play over vamps - it requires a different kind of creativity and "thinking outside the box". A changes tune kinda plays itself - a vamp needs a solo that not only has good lines, but it's own compositional quality. It's not difficult to play good lines on a vamp, but seeing the big picture and playing a whole solo which really tells a story over a vamp is hard! I feel like I'm successful at it about half the time.