Has there ever been a greater guitar soloist over one chord than Scott Henderson (with stiff competition John Scofield, Frank Gambale, Frank Zappa, John McLaughlin and a few more)?

Give him 32 bars of G-minor and he’ll find any manner of exciting, propulsive, envelope-pushing angles, without ever resorting to jazz, blues or fusion clichés – an aspect of the Florida-born guitarist’s playing very much in evidence during this enjoyable visit to a sold-out Ronnie’s, promoting new studio album Karnevel!.

Henderson’s trio (with Romain Labaye on bass and Archibald Ligonniere on drums) has been together for almost a decade now, and it’s developing into almost as potent an outfit as the final iteration of the guitarist’s previous group Tribal Tech.

His opening unaccompanied solo touched on ‘Stella By Starlight’ before settling into a subtly-building trio version of ‘All Blues’, featuring a neatly reharmonized section and a nod to Larry Carlton’s masterful 1986 take on the Miles standard. Karnevel!‘s title track was pitched somewhere between King Crimson and The Zawinul Syndicate, Henderson paying tribute to his former boss (and Ellington?) with a brilliant big-band-style chord tag.

‘Covid Vaccination’ was a witty update of Tower Of Power’s ‘Soul Vaccination’ and a showcase for Ligonniere’s excellent grooves. Henderson produced some stunning five-over-four licks and Labaye laid down his second decent bass solo of the evening – he has chops to burn but wisely doesn’t bother copying Jaco or Jeff Berlin (both of whom have played with Henderson), sticking to cogent, attractive melodies.

Scott’s amusing between-song patter was much in evidence (‘Trump? We’re from California, we hate the mother*cker… How many of you are drunk? That’s OK, we are. You have to be either drunk or high to play this tune’) as was his remarkable propensity for using every nook and cranny of his axe – he can even make music from the sound of the whammy bar moving around in its socket.

A great version of ‘Face First’ paid tribute to Tribal Tech – ‘the band with that fat guy on drums’ – with Lina Mastalska’s guest guitar adding some much-needed variety/harmony. Then a long drum solo developed into a brief flirtation with Weather Report’s ‘Madagascar’, which in turn gave way to some slamming Second Line rock’n’roll and a furious Stevie Ray Vaughan-style Texas shuffle. Only Henderson’s band could have pulled off this switcheroo, rounding off yet another memorable night of world-class playing. Guitar fans: if Henderson plays in or near your town, go.

Scott gives a good interview about Karnevel! and his career here.