Scott Henderson – a Hendrix-flavored blues champion (2007)

On the last day of March 2007, the day before everybody starts lying left and right, we caught yet another of the more anticipated blues/rock events of the year in our neck of the woods. The venue for the Scott Henderson Blues Band show was, once again, the increasingly established concert spot Bluesiana Rock Cafe in Velden (Austria). As expected, the show started a good 45 minutes late, as it pretty much always does, which, also as always, gave the hard-working waitresses plenty of time to badger people into buying as many drinks as possible. I’m slowly coming to realize that this sales policy is a permanent fixture at Bluesiana. As a warning and a reminder to future visitors, I suggest you calmly show up 45 minutes late to one of the upcoming gigs, so you’ll catch the start of the show just in time, and your lungs get to enjoy a few extra cubic meters of fresh air, given the club’s lousy ventilation. The other option is to show up on time and, thanks to the friendliness and chattiness of the owner Gudrun, strike up a short conversation with her and get through the painful wait among the otherwise boring Haider-style Carinthians. But enough with the formalities, let’s get to the most important thing, the music.

Scott Henderson’s hard-hitting trio served up its first notes, as I said, exactly 45 minutes after the official start. Before that, we had the chance to watch his eminence, who by the way looks anything but starry in a worn-out T-shirt, “carrot-colored” jeans and Nike sneakers, come over to switch on the PA himself and leave us to another 10 minutes of daydreaming while it warmed up to working temperature. Once the show got going, though, it was a completely different story. Besides the man himself, Scott’s trio consists of bassist JOHN HUMPHREY and the young but well-established drummer ALAN HERTZ. Despite being a trio, the music sounds very full; thanks to how tightly they play together and their virtuosity, the guys fill the space and your ears down to the last corner. Where you’d expect melody to dominate harmony in a blues trio, with the Henderson trio it’s exactly the other way around. Although Scott always insists he’s more of a blues-rock musician, his music tells a different story: jazz roots and jazz techniques are decisive in the way he plays and creates music. So-called “easy listening” is completely out of the question here, and the crowd that comes to his shows reflects that. Anyone meeting Scott for the first time, or by chance, would probably be only half satisfied with the show, but if you know what to expect, it’s a whole different story.

The guys split the show into two parts: the first lasted a little over an hour, and the second ran for the rest, up to two and a half hours. In between they treated us to what they called a short break, which dragged on for 30 minutes, but we survived that too. While playing, Scott makes it clear whom he’s rubbed shoulders with over his long career. In his playing you can spot the touch of Chick Corea, Joe Zawinul, violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, and I could go on.

Although Scott can be a complete jazzman, this show was still bluesy in style, closest to the music he developed through his work with bassist Gary Willis and the renowned lineup Tribal Tech. He recorded 9 albums with them, honing and shaping his trademark sound and playing style, which has earned him the flattering title of “jazz guitarist of the year…” more than once. On top of that, he also proves to be a good mentor on stage, which you can tell from his body language and the cues he gives the other two band members. Scott has also recently put out instructional material, namely the DVDs “Jazz Fusion Improvisation” and “Melodic Phrasing” and the book “Jazz Guitar Chord System”. If we set aside his greatness and focus on the other two, John and Alan, you could easily underestimate and misjudge them based on their rather superficial backing playing. The picture turns completely around, however, in the short but punchy solo spots Scott handed them in the second part of the show. Clearly the leader’s monopoly in the band is just too strong, and the duo’s room to breathe is measured out in Spartan portions. The bulk of the Scott Henderson Blues Band thus stays reserved for Scott’s own self-expression and musical outpouring, though most power blues trios suffer from a similar syndrome. We got to experience exactly the same picture a good month ago, when Eric Sardinas occupied the Bluesiana throne.

The show flew by, and only at the end did we realize what an atmospheric musical journey Scott had taken us on over those good two hours. A master is a master, and apparently that’s also appreciated by that handful of still-uncorrupted critics in the music world who lifted Scott onto the throne that rightfully belongs to him in music today. We just hope Scott comes back to Bluesiana someday, because we definitely will.

Text and photography: Thomas Breznik