Scott Henderson continues to blow minds along with his ever-evolving guitar mastery. From his early years mixing bop and Holdsworth to his magical Jeff Beck-meets-SRV blues-fusion machinations, Henderson brings all of it collectively on Karnevel!. It’s a trippy jazz-rock journey with a great deal of guitar, humor, and a killer rhythm part. VG met with Henderson to debate the highlights.

There’s connective tissue between Folks Mover and Karnevel!.
For these sorts of data, I just about do it a tune at a time. I don’t have a whole-album idea. I’m attempting to put in writing one thing completely different each time I sit down. I attempt to make the tunes completely different from one another. On the finish, I’ve 10 or 11 tunes, and I attempt to organize them in some sort of order that is sensible.

How did you method crafting the sound?
We performed quite a lot of this music for 2 excursions earlier than we went into the studio, and by then it felt very pure. So many issues occurred to those tunes on the highway. What bassist Romain Labaye performs on the album is superior to something I wrote for him on a chart. It’s not even a contest. Identical with the drums – Archie Ligonnière all the time comes up with killer stuff. After these guys add their personalities, the music sounds fairly a bit completely different than what I initially got here up with. That’s why we wish to tour; night time after night time, I give you cool issues I by no means would have thought up in my room. If I like them, they turn out to be a part of the tune.

On “Sky Coaster,” Labaye drops out. It’s simply you and Ligonnière enjoying drums. Was that improvised on tour?
That was written as a duet for guitar and drums. We get into these little rhythmic issues collectively, and it’s quite a lot of enjoyable. It’s extra concerning the rhythms than the notes. There’s no key, and I can play something I would like. So long as it’s rhythmically fascinating, that’s what I care about.

You’ve added some cool results to your arsenal.
There’s a music referred to as “Bilge Rat” – all these bizarre noises you hear on the left aspect are coming from the Empress Zoia. I cherished that patch a lot, and it was such an integral a part of the music that I reached out to the man who wrote that patch and paid him 100 bucks (laughs). I assumed, “This patch is like one other musician, and he needs to be paid!” Guys write these patches and provides them away on the web. I felt like this man was comping me throughout the entire music.

What’s the take care of the sitar?
It’s a Jerry Jones Electrical Grasp Sitar – the one I used to document “Manic Carpet” on Vibe Station. I spent extra time tuning it than enjoying it; the intonation is horrible (laughs), however it sounds nice on the document. That’s straight into my Fender Bandmaster with no pedals.

How about overdrive pedals?
My most important pedal was the RC Booster, however typically I’d put a Roger Mayer Voodoo-1 Traditional in entrance of it to get a little bit extra bass and punchiness. Placing a Vodooo-1 earlier than it’s an outdated Mike Landau trick. Should you put the Voodoo-1 earlier than a Tube Screamer or RC Booster, it provides huge low-end girth. I additionally use an authentic Klon Centaur, which is one among my favorites. I additionally used the L.A. Sound Design Buffer/Enhance by Dave Phillips. It doesn’t have fairly as a lot acquire because the RC Booster, however it’s actually big-sounding.

Which amps are you utilizing?
My 1971 Marshall plexi and a Bandmaster modded by John Suhr; he added a Grasp Quantity to the Marshall. I’m additionally utilizing Kerry Wright cupboards and IRs of them captured at York Audio, in Nashville. I can’t inform which is the speaker and which is the IR.

You created a horn part with guitars.
“Covid Vaccination” is a tribute to Tower of Energy. I like that band. Each horn on that may be a completely different pedal. Quite than play chords like I do reside, I tackled it like a horn association. I used a wah half-opened, and a distortion pedal for the trumpet sound, a fuzz for the saxophone, and a Trombetta Rotobone for the trombone. I additionally tuned manner down and used a fuzz tone for a sax half. I took horn-arranging classes from Tower of Energy. I’m fairly proud of the way in which it got here out.

This text initially appeared in VG’s Might 2024 problem. All copyrights are by the writer and Classic Guitar journal. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.