Although Scott Henderson has never played the UK under his own name, contemporary guitar fanciers may remember him for his visits with Chick Corea’s Elektric Band and The Zawinul Syndicate. They may also know him from a number of albums issued on independent US labels, of which Reality Check is the latest.
Perhaps the most impressive Tribal Tech album (Tribal Tech being the collective name for the Henderson-Willis partnership) was Spears, issued on Passport in the mid-eighties. That record was notable for its strong, colourful writing and soloing, and still stands apart from all that followed for the clarity of its arrangements. A string of subsequent TT albums are memorable mainly for unsubtle barrages of heavy metal textures. Reality Check has some of those, but there are many welcome points of return to the uncluttered aesthetic of earlier days.
Imagine a combination of the sound of Weather Report circa Night Passage (Worlds Waiting is a mirror-image of that record’s Dream Clock) with interludes of jazzed-up r’n’b (Nite Club is a classic reading of the style) and the guitar styles of John Scofield, Allan Holdsworth and Jimi Hendrix and you have, more or less, the gist of this programme.
There are lulls in the action, but the rhythm section can motor, and when Henderson burns, it’s clear why he’s one of the most well-regarded and influential ‘jazz-rock’ guitarists of his generation.
Discography
Stella By Starlight; Stella By Infrared High Particle Neutron Beam; Nite Club; Speak; Worlds Waiting; Susie’s Dingsbums; Jakarta; Hole In The Head; Foreign Affairs; Premonition; Reality Check (69.19)
Scott Henderson (elg); Gary Willis (elb); Scott Kinsey (kyb); Kirk Covington (d). Hollywood, CA, November 1994.
(Mesa/Bluemoon 2-92549)
