Edinburgh Jazz Festival

Scott Henderson

Rose Theatre

Rob Adams

four stars

SCOTT Henderson made possibly the most honest opening pitch for post-gig CD sales we’re likely to hear at this or any festival. You don’t want to know what the Floridian guitarist’s trio needs the money for (it’s not drugs) and he’s a bit of a wag anyway, but if he wanted to break the ice, he succeeded brilliantly.

Henderson was making his first appearance in Scotland – cue an aside about finally making it to a country named after him – and it was long overdue, especially considering his pedigree of having worked with keyboard giants Joe Zawinul and Chick Corea. Both of these musicians’ influence appears to have stayed with him as despite being every bit the guitar hero, with the ability to create an extraordinary variety of tones in his deep exploration of melodic possibilities, there’s often a pianistic quality to his harmonic structures.

Zawinul came into direct focus when drummer Archibald Ligonniere and bassist Romain Labaye led off a superb trio reading of his Weather Report classic Black Market, with Henderson’s guitar recreating the original’s street atmosphere, and there’s also much of his protégé, Jaco Pastorius, in Labaye’s marvellously fluent, punchy bass guitar work.

The concert opened with another familiar piece, Miles Davis’s All Blues, and while its relaxed jamming-like quality allowed the musicians to introduce their individual chops it was the more involved nature of what followed that really left an impression. Henderson’s not just about energy, although he generated plenty of it; his own mellower compositions could be songs and the attractiveness of his writing, allied to the trio’s skill and power made for a truly satisfying debut.