TONYA MOSLEY, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. Russell Malone is known as one of the leading guitarists of his generation. Before starting his group, he performed with singer and pianist Diana Krall and Harry Connick Jr. Malone died last month at 60 while on tour in Japan. Self-taught, Malone started playing music at the age of 4 on what he described as a green, four-string plastic guitar. He fell in love with jazz after watching George Benson perform on TV. At the time, Malone was just 12 years old. He was also influenced by gospel, blues and R&B, country, pop tunes and even cartoons.
By the time he graduated from high school, he was playing gigs around Atlanta. He started as a professional musician in 1988, when he went on tour with organist Jimmy Smith. Pianist Bill Sharlap, who played with Malone, said he was an absolute natural musician. He had perfect time and rhythm. And you heard the whole history of jazz guitar in the way he played. Russell Malone recorded ten albums. Let's listen to a track from his album "Sweet Georgia Peach." This is the title track.
(SOUNDBITE OF RUSSELL MALONE'S "SWEET GEORGIA PEACH")
MOSLEY: Terry Gross spoke with Russell Malone in 2000. Here's Malone singing and playing on the song "Be Careful, It's My Heart."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BE CAREFUL, IT'S MY HEART")
RUSSELL MALONE: (Singing) Be careful. It's my heart. It's not my watch you're holding. It's my heart. It's not the note I sent you that you quickly burn. It's not the book I lent you that you never return. Be careful. It's my heart, the heart with which so willingly...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
TERRY GROSS: Russell Malone from his recent CD, "Look Who's Here." You strike me as somebody with a big voice when you're speaking who's singing in a much quieter voice. So what reaction have you been getting?
MALONE: You know what? A lot of people really like that song. They like my rendition of it. And I'm not a singer. I can carry a tune. I just sing the melody. And, you know, when you got a good song like that, you don't have to try to sell it. All you have to do is just sing it because, I mean, the lyrics are there. The melody is there. And, I mean, the harmony is - of the song is great. So all you have to do is just sing it.
GROSS: A song you've recorded twice is "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," both solo guitar versions. Is that one of the songs that you used to do in church?
MALONE: Yeah. In fact, I used to play it at funerals. I played it at my grandfather's funeral.
GROSS: Oh.
MALONE: "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot."
GROSS: So it's a song that really means a lot to you.
MALONE: It's a song that - well, all of those songs mean a lot to me. But that one in particular - it really - my heart aches when I hear it.
GROSS: This is from your previous CD, which is called "Sweet Georgia Peach." This is Russell Malone.
(SOUNDBITE OF RUSSELL MALONE'S "SWING LOW, SWEET CHARIOT")
GROSS: Russell Malone from his CD "Sweet Georgia Peach," "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot." It's a beautiful version of that. Now, you primarily taught yourself to play guitar. So clearly, you must have a very good ear, but what about things like fingerings? I mean...
MALONE: What about it?
GROSS: Did you learn that yourself? Did you just, like, make that up yourself, or did you have people to suggest fingerings before...
MALONE: I just figured it out, but, you know, as I - you know, when you get older and you become more exposed to other players, you find out what they're doing, and you try to pick up what you can from them. You know, every time Jim Hall or George Benson or somebody like that is playing, I always make a point of going to check them out or - and, if I'm lucky, sit down and watch them up close and try to walk away with something because nobody - I mean, there's only so much you can learn on your own.
GROSS: Were there any things that you figured out on your own and then you met a more experienced guitarist and realized that there was a better way of going about it, better way of, like, fingering the chord or whatever and you had to unlearn what you'd taught yourself and learn something new, which can be very difficult?
MALONE: Well, I'll give an example. I remember one time I was playing for Kenny Burrell. I picked up his guitar in the dressing room, and I started playing some solo guitar. And most guys - when they play solo guitar, they use the thumb, and when they play finger style, they use the thumb and the three or four fingers on the right hand. Now, I was playing with a thumb and the index finger. Now, that may seem crude or wrong to somebody. But the music came out right. And Kenny Burrell said, hey, man. That's a very unique way of approaching that style. George Benson - he saw me doing the same thing. He said, that's really weird, but it sounds so good.
So there's no right or wrong way to do anything, as long as the music comes out right. That's the bottom line. Dizzy Gillespie played wrong, technically. I mean, you didn't see any trumpet players playing with all that air in their cheeks. Wes Montgomery used a thumb when most guys were using a pick, but Wes Montgomery got around that guitar just as well as the guys that were using a pick. So does that make it wrong? No. The important thing is the music.
MOSLEY: Guitarist Russell Malone speaking with Terry Gross in 2000. We'll hear more after a short break. This is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF RUSSELL MALONE'S "HEATHER ON THE HILL")
MOSLEY: This is FRESH AIR, and we're listening to Terry's 2000 interview with guitarist Russell Malone. He died last month at the age of 60.
GROSS: You have a great story about the first time you sat in with the organist Jimmy Smith...
MALONE: (Laughter).
GROSS: ...When you were still pretty young. Would you tell that story for us?
MALONE: Well, he was playing at a place called Paschal's La Carrousel in Atlanta. This was back in 1986. And I had been listening to Jimmy since I was knee-high to a grasshopper, so I knew his music. And I got off my gig at the Holiday Inn and drove down to the club to see him play. Before he got on the bandstand, I mean, the way he walked around the club, the way he approached the bandstand - I mean, he just had this aura about him. I mean, there are just certain guys - when they're away from their instruments, they're still swinging. They have this charisma.
GROSS: (Laughter).
MALONE: You know what I mean?
GROSS: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
MALONE: Milt Jackson was like that. Even when he was away from that bandstand, he was just still grooving, man, and that's the way Jimmy Smith was. But anyway, when he got on the stand - when he got on the bandstand, he played beautifully. And then he closed out the set, went over to the bar, and he was talking with this saxophone player - one of the local guys, a fellow by the name of Sil Austin. And so Sil introduced me to Jimmy, and said, hey, you know, this is Russell Malone, a fine up-and-coming young guitarist. He said, oh, yeah? He said, you got your guitar? I said, yes, it's in the car. So he made me go get my guitar.
And I came back, and he played one or two tunes, and then he called me up to sit in with the band. And I had some of my buddies there with me, and I had my girlfriend at the time with me, so I'm feeling really good. And everybody was excited because here's the hometown kid getting a chance to sit in with the great Jimmy Smith. So he kicked off the first tune, which was a blues, and I'm feeling all good about myself. And I'm playing all of this crowd-pleasing nonsense that didn't have any substance to it, and the crowd went wild. And, you know, I'm catting up there (laughter), feeling good. So Jimmy's sitting back, and he's paying attention to all of this. So he ended the tune. Then he went into a ballad which I didn't know, a tune called "Laura" by David Raksin. You know that tune?
GROSS: I do, and it's...
MALONE: It's a...
GROSS: ...It's a haunting melody, but it's also - it doesn't have predictable - it doesn't have a predictable melody line or chords.
MALONE: See; that's the thing. See; that's not one of those tunes that you can just hear your way through. You have to really know that song.
GROSS: It's the theme from the movie, by the way.
MALONE: Yeah.
GROSS: Yeah.
MALONE: Yeah.
GROSS: For listeners who don't know it. Yeah.
MALONE: So you have to really know that song. So he plays the melody, and I'm here - I'm there, trying to hear what he's doing, and then after he finishes the melody, he motions for me to take the first solo. And the harder I struggled with the tune, the more complicated he made it for me, because he started throwing in all of these different substitutions and changes...
GROSS: (Laughter).
MALONE: ...And started doing tricks with the rhythm. And I was really embarrassed. I was mortified. So he ended the song, and he says, yeah, it's Russell Malone on guitar. So I got off the bandstand, my spirit dragging, sat back down next to my girlfriend. And he looked over at me, and said on the mic - he says, now, whenever youngsters sit in with us, we always like to make sure that they learn something. And he looked at me and said, now, did you learn something, young man? And I say, yes, yes (laughter).
So anyway, he played one more tune, ended the set, went back over to the bar, and he's, you know, having a drink with some friends. So I was so embarrassed, I was going to leave, but I figured I'd better stay around and thank him for the opportunity. So I walked up to him, and I was about to say, Mr. Smith, thank you for letting me sit in. But before I could get the sentence out of my mouth, he looked around and he said something to me, and I will never forget this as long as I live. He looked at me and poked his finger in my chest and said, let me tell you something. He said, all those guys that you're trying to play like - George Benson, Kenny Burrell, Wes Montgomery, Pat Martino. He gave me this long list of guitar players. He said, all of these guys that you're trying to play like - I knew them, and I taught them, too. And I never forgot that.
So anyway, I stayed around. I didn't leave. I stayed around until the last set was over. And then we went up to his dressing room at around midnight, and we hung out there till, like, 6:30 the next morning. And I had my guitar with me, and I was playing for him. And he, you know, when you get - I don't know if you've ever met Jimmy Smith, but Jimmy is an interesting guy. He's a bit of a character. And when there are a lot of people around, he tends to put on this act. You ever seen people like that?
GROSS: Mm-hmm (ph).
MALONE: When they have an audience, they put on this act. But when it was just the two of us one-on-one, he - I got so much information from this man. And, you know, it's funny - whenever he would talk about Wes Montgomery and Bud Powell and Art Tatum and all of these people, he would get very emotional. You could see the tears welling up in his eyes.
GROSS: One of the things I really like about this story is that after he kind of makes a point of putting you in your place on the bandstand, then you become buddies - you know, like, within an hour of that (laughter), or an hour or two, you know, and you stay up all night together. He's teaching you all these things. It's like he showed you up, but he really, apparently, did mean well. And...
MALONE: Well, that's what you call - that's a perfect example of tough love. You know, tough love. It's just like, you know, here I was. I was this cocky kid. And I made the mistake of - and this was a very foolish mistake - of thinking that just because I had heard - I'd listened to his records and I, you know, learned some of the solos or whatever, learned some of his songs, I thought that that's the way it was going to be. But I was in for a rude awakening.
GROSS: What are some of the musicians or some of the recordings you've listened to over the years that are quite a distance away from what you actually play, but you love what they do and it's influenced you in some way or another? You know, things that we'd be...
MALONE: You mean aside from jazz?
GROSS: Yeah, or even within jazz.
MALONE: OK.
GROSS: Things that we might be surprised that you really like and feel very strongly about.
MALONE: Well, I like a lot of different things, Terry. There's one record that I've been listening to called "New Moon Shine," by James Taylor. It came out about nine years ago, which is - it's a great record.
GROSS: This is singer-songwriter James Taylor.
MALONE: James Taylor, yeah, "Fire And Rain" James Taylor.
GROSS: (Laughter) Right, right.
MALONE: Yeah.
GROSS: What do you hear in him?
MALONE: Well, James Taylor - he's got honesty, man. I mean, he's got the passion, and he writes great songs. The man writes good songs. Jim Croce I like. I love Jim Croce. I like Patsy Cline. I like Sam Cooke. As far as jazz goes, let's see. One of my favorite records is a record that was recorded by Oscar Peterson and Milt Jackson and Ray Brown years ago called "Very Tall." Great record. I listen to a lot of different things, Terry. I'd be here all day telling you about what I listen to.
GROSS: You have a song that you do on your previous CD, the "Sweet Georgia Peach" CD, called "Someone's Rocking My Dreamboat." I've never heard of that song before. Where did you find it?
MALONE: You're not going to believe it when I tell you this. Are you ready for this?
GROSS: Yeah.
MALONE: Are you sure you're ready for this, Terry.
GROSS: I'm sitting down.
MALONE: OK - Bugs Bunny.
GROSS: (Laughter).
MALONE: I kid you not.
GROSS: (Laughter). What, did he sing it in a cartoon? - because Bugs is the great vaudevillian of the Warner Bros. cartoons.
MALONE: You watch some of those old cartoons and there are a lot of great songs in there. But this - one day, I was watching Bugs Bunny. And he was skipping through the forest singing this song. (Singing) Someone's rocking my dreamboat. Someone's invading my dream. We were sailing along and singing the song, and suddenly something went wrong.
And I was just so taken by the melody (laughter). And so I said, I got to find this tune. So I found a recording of the Ink Spots doing it.
GROSS: (Laughter)
MALONE: Remember The Ink Spots?
GROSS: Sure do.
MALONE: (Singing) If I didn't care.
GROSS: (Laughter).
MALONE: (Singing) And would I be sure that this is love beyond compare? Would all this be true if I didn't care for you? (Scatting).
Anyway, so much for that.
GROSS: (Laughter).
MALONE: No, but The Ink Spots - I have a recording of The Ink Spots doing that tune, and I had to record it. I should play that again. I haven't played it in a while.
GROSS: Oh, it's a great song. It's great. One extreme to another - Bugs Bunny to The Ink Spots.
MALONE: Yeah, Bugs Bunny. That's where I first heard that tune.
GROSS: Yeah. Well, I think it's only fitting that we end with "Someone's Rocking My Dreamboat."
MALONE: (Laughter).
GROSS: Russell Malone, it's been great to talk with you. Thank you very much.
MALONE: Thank you, Terry.
(SOUNDBITE OF RUSSELL MALONE'S "SOMEONE'S ROCKING MY DREAMBOAT")
MOSLEY: That's Russell Malone. He spoke to Terry Gross in 2000. He died late last month. Coming up, Justin Chang reviews the new film "His Three Daughters." This is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF RUSSELL MALONE'S "THE ODD COUPLE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
