Russell Malone (1963-2024). A tribute by David O’Rourke  (2024)

The news of the death of guitarist Russell Malone on Friday 23 August 2024, at the age of just 60, comes as a totally unexpected shock. Fellow guitarist David O’Rourke remembers a friend – and one of the greats of the instrument.

David O’Rourke writes: The first time I ever heard Russell was also the same place many people around the world first heard him – on Harry Connick’s video, in concert and the song was “It’s Alright With Me” at a brisk tempo. Russell’s solo was fast, melodic, grooving and exciting in a way that only the masters could produce. I met him in person for the first time at New York City’s Zinno’s at a Bucky Pizzarelli/John Bunch/Jay Leonhart gig. Russell was meeting Bucky for the first time and showed SO much respect for Bucky who in turn introduced me to Russell. Soon after, he called wanting to come visit (my tiny Manhattan, East Village studio apartment). He played my L5 and I played him a cassette of Ted Greene’s now legendary solo album. He asked to borrow it and began absorbing the solo guitar style of yet another master as he formed his own very distinctive sound and approach.

I would run across him a lot, in Bradley’s, in the Zinc Bar with George Benson and Seleno Clarke, with Mark Whitfield. You always got a warm greeting. George got us both on stage together, for Jack McDuff’s tribute in Birdland – also onstage that night was Vinny Valentino and Dave Gilmore. I had two calls from in recent months and it was him just checking in with the jazz guitar family or as I now realize, the wider family of jazz musicians. In my last conversation with him, when I forced the topic in the direction of how moving it was to me that he contacted everyone and made sure to keep in touch. I mean EVERYONE! He reached out to young players who were somewhat star struck by him, knowing he would inspire them. Hr reached out to a fellow guitarist who was unable to play temporarily, due to a hand injury. Again with Vinny, we hung out a few years back with George when he came to town for a visit, wanting to catch up with that family I mentioned earlier – the guitar brotherhood. We had talked a few times about collaborating on a project where I would write the orchestral/strings and he would play. That day he said, with typical upbeat spirit and enthusiasm “Can you imagine the fun we’ll have looking back on whatever we end up doing, years later”. While we never got to do that project I should mention that he had called to write strings for a recording he was producing for a Japanese vocalist. The album was largely Beatles songs though one of the songs I had to arrange was a BeeGees selection called the First Of May.

I met with Russell to try to get out of him what he wanted from me, in the arranger’s chair and he basically gave me basic roadmap and left it up to me. He trusted me. The second song was “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” and I noticed he was not planning on playing a solo. This merited a phone call to double check and I talked him into it. I told him we’d be answering the question for years “Why didn’t you take a solo?” I arrived into the studio with the wonderful band Russel had assembled and we heard the first rundown of the charts he said to “O’Rourke! That’s beautiful” That album never came out but we had the memory of working together on it. His solo, by the way, was off the charts – especially the long outro where he wound it up like an any great story teller does.

I remember chatting with him about his time with Jimmy Smith and told me about how Jimmy told him to learn Bill Doggett’s “Honky Tonk Pts 1 & 2” and the famous Billy Butler solo on it – told him that people expect to hear that solo. That explained to me how he was able to go right into it one night in Harlem when we were all paying tribute to a lost jazz musician.

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Some memories that many people share with me about Russell:

• He came out to hear all his friend’s play (very few musicians do that, believe it or not).
• He paid very close attention to the elders, showed them the kind of respect they deserved and THAT seemed effortless for him.
• He encouraged young talent.
• When I mentioned how wonderful I thought it was that he always seemed to build people up he shared a quote with me “A candle loses nothing when it lights another candle!”
• Russell was also famous for his irreverent sense of humor and indeed his joke telling – at the Pat Martino celebration, when I arrived for the soundcheck Russel said, with that delivery of his “David O’Rourke! Come over here so I can rub you up the wrong way!”

UPDATE: Russell Malone’s family explain what happened, and are raising funds in his memory.

LINKS: Doug Doyle’s piece for WBGO
Obituary by Stephen Graham
Review from the 2015 Montreal Jazz Festival