Scott Henderson Discussion

[BS]

The first time I heard you, was on Zawinul’s “The Immigrants”, which I remember as a great record with several strong tunes. Especially “March of the lost children”, both the tune itself, but also your short but elegant guitar solo was a favorite! Do you have any thoughts on this record, and on recording with Zawinul in general?

[Scott Henderson]

Ha ha - you guys are always exposing my weakest moments....
I was in no way, shape or form ready for that gig. I think in the army they call it "unfit for duty."

I was in the middle of a search for tone and this was one of the most awful periods - a Yamaha solid body guitar and I don't even remember what amp. (probably subconsciously trying to forget it). Even the engineer commented on how bad my tone was.

My playing was equally as bad - the exception being my short solo and melody on Shadow and Light - I can live with that. My playing on No Mercy For Me was from the basic tracks, and as much as I begged Joe to let me re-do it, he wouldn't.

At least there was some comedy - I was overdubbing on one of the songs and said, no I don't like what I just played. He said, well why the fuck did you play it then?

[BS]

He, he - interesting!!

I remember being a bit dissapointet when "Black Water" arrived, mainly because I found the tunes less interesting, but was this session a better experience for you?

[Scott Henderson]

Even worse. My tone had improved by then, but with Joe it was one take and you better be done. I was lucky when he left for dinner and I had an hour alone with the engineer to play a solo on Little Rootie Tootie. On the third or fourth take I played a killer solo - totally nailed the changes and it was swinging like crazy. I was really proud of it until Joe came in and said "you sound like Charlie Christian - I don't want want bebop in my band. Play the fuckin' blues." So I did one more take, which was basically some disconnected pentatonic licks, and he said "great, that's it." I never listened to that song when the record came out because I knew my solo was a piece of shit. I think I only have two other solos on that record, and they suck too.

It's still hard for me to believe that after all the genius Wayne solos on all those WP records, Joe would want the bullshit I played on his Syndicate records. If I'd been given more time, I could've made a much better contribution, but it is what it is.

[Red Suede]

Probably just didn't want to hear more jazz lines. I've read that Miles did the same thing to Mike Stern when he first joined. They just wanted the contrast, a different flavor......

[Thelonious Beck]

[BS]

As far as I remember you and Zawinul played a transcribed Monk-solo in unison on Little Rootie Tootie... so he had already included som pretty heavy bebop elelements in there..! I totally see your point regarding the contrast to his work with Shorter. But there was also a big contrast compositionalwise. While some of the WR-stuff were massive compositions, more and more of the things he did in the later ZS-period seemed to be one chord vamps without much going on with regard to composition at all, so maybe he was struggling to renew himself in general?

[Scott Henderson]

I guess so. He was listening a lot to Salif Keita, an African pop singer. To be brutally honest, I didn't hear a lot of difference between Joe's one chord vamp music and Salif's, except for more keyboard sounds. Joe basically went into world music toward the end of his career, and vocalists took the melodies instead of sax or guitar. I don't even think guitar solos fit in that kind of music, and after I left the band he never hired another soloist - maybe that's my fault!

[BS]

I guess renewing oneself, keeping things fresh and interesting year after year is the greatest challenge for most top level musicians.
One guy who I think managed to stay fresh at pretty mature age was Jim Hall. Even though his career highlight may have been “The Bridge”, IMHO he was still writing kind of angular tunes with surprising twist and turns late in his career. I think a lot of it was kind of hidden by the musical context and his soft jazz guitar tone, but some of the stuff he was playing was really hip, and if it had been played on a strat through an overdriven tube amp, I think it could have sounded like a 20-year old cat!
What is your relation on Jim Hall, and have you ever looked into his compositions in more detail?

[Scott Henderson]

No, I haven't. I like his playing a lot but I never considered him a composer, so I guess I've missed it. Which album demonstrates his best composing? I'll be happy to buy it and check it out.

[BS]

He actually majored in composition at Cleveland Institute of Music and I think he considered himself just as much a composer and arranger as a player. In addition to his compositions for the more traditional traditional jazz settings, he also wrote for orchestra, string quartets etc. His record «By Arrangements» and «Textures» are the most obvious examples with regard to focusing on this aspect of his work, but I think some of his more «jazz oriented» originals found on other records are more interesting. I think this version of his tune «Subsequently» is a better example of what I was thinking of:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oJ0Xbt7GUw

In his own book, "Exploring Jazz Guitar", he explains a bunch of his own compositions, recommendable reading! His use of motivic development is as obvious in his compositions as in his improvisations, so I guess you have some common ground there..!?

I also like «Waltz New», his theme based on the Someday my prince will come changes. This is featured on the trio record he did with Michel Pettrucciani and Wayne Shorter called «The power of three». This one also features a version of his extended blues "Careful".

Most of his record seems to be a mix of standards and originals, so it´s a bit tricky to recommend one record, but I think «Subsequently» (with Larry Goldings among others) and «These Rooms» (featuring Tom Harrell) have some nice examples.

Hope this can be of some kind of help!

[muddytrane]

BS definitely knows Jim Hall! Just to add my two cents, Textures is a great album and really shows Jim's composing skills. Just love his early work with both Chico Hamilton and of course Sonny Rollins. He is one of the greats!

[BS]

To a certain degree I think even Wes might be a bit overlooked as a composer. While many of the well known Charlie Parker tunes were only new heads on the blues, rythm changes or other common chord forms, many of Wes´tunes seems to be put more effort into and to a larger degree could be regarded as «new compositions». «Just Do it» might be a good example of this, actually a quite fun tune to blow on.

[larue nickelson]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT77qQqdSNc

great Jim Hall writing and playing