Scott Henderson Discussion

[dizzy]

Hey Scott
On your current trio albums does your drummer play to a click on the basic tracks?
Also. I was just listening to your version of continuum on tore down house. It is beautiful. Did you play to live drum kit and then overdub the congas? I love the static effect that the percussion creates.

I am generally interested in recording jazz compositions that is why I am asking this stuff. It seams like a difficult balancing act to get the tunes to sound like "an album" with layers and close micing but then also keep the improvising exciting. You balance this really well.

Thanks Scott

[Scott Henderson]

We always record with a click - it's so much easier to work when there are bar lines.

We played live in the studio on Continuum, but the guitar was only a scratch track - all the guitar on that tune is overdubbed, as well as the acoustic bass, congas, horns, just about everything. We had the studio set up for recording electric instruments so it didn't make sense to record all that acoustic stuff on the basic tracks. It was free to record them at home, except for the horns - I had to go back to the studio for that.

Thanks for the compliment but I have the same problems. It's hard to layer guitar and keep all the parts out of each other's way. There's panning, using different guitars, amps, pedals, and moving the mic around. Still, with all the choices, sometimes it's difficult to make the right ones. Jimmy Page was so great in the studio with layering, and of course Mike Landau. I'm pretty good with the Waves VEQ, so if I record something and I like the performance but not the tone, I can usually tweak it to fit into the music.

[dizzy]

Thanks Scott. It is helpful to know that you deal with the same stuff. Also humbling that it ends up sounding so great.