Scott Henderson

The podcast revolution shows no sign of letting up, and its effect has been felt in the jazz world too.

I’ve come across a couple in the last year or so that I return to on a regular basis – The Jazz Bastard features two ‘strikingly-handsome, middle-aged men’ kvetching very amusingly about their musical peccadilloes (their annihilation of Robert Glasper’s recent Art Science was particularly memorable). And I’ve featured Leo Sidran’s The Third Story before.

Guitarwank is a different proposition altogether. It features two world-class guitarists – Scott Henderson and Bruce Forman – talking jazz, pop, Trump, tech, Star Trek, touring and all kinds of other stuff.

It’s an irreverent hoot, only very occasionally veering into guitar-bore territory, and also gets points for being open to featuring excellent non-guitarist guests (keyboard player Scott Kinsey and drummer Marvin ‘Smitty’ Smith so far).

Forman is a new name to me, but the solo artist and Jimmy Knepper/Richie Cole sideman has the quick wit of a born stand-up. Henderson is also razor-sharp and always candid about his illustrious solo career and high-profile work with Tribal Tech, Joe Zawinul, Chick Corea, Jean-Luc Ponty and many others.

Here are some top picks from throughout Scott’s career. Visit his website to buy all the albums mentioned below.

‘Continuum’ from Tore Down House (1997)

Tribal Tech: ‘Signal Path’ from Tribal Tech (1990)

Tribal Tech: ‘The Big Wave’ from Illicit (1993)

Tribal Tech: ‘Face First’ from Face First (1994)