Russell Malone - Learning from The Masters

back in 1986-87 jimmy smith you remember the jazz organism Smith he came to Atlanta Georgia right so we were all excited man there was this buzz the great Jimmy Smith is going to be in Atlanta Georgia so at the time I was working a gig at this place called the Crowne Plaza was a hotel so after we finished our gig we went down to where Jimmy was playing he was playing at a place in Atlanta called Pascal's law carousel so we got there that night and man Jimmy just you know he was he was everything you'd expect that you would expect and then some played so great so anyway he finished the first set and uh after the gig was over after the set was over he was sitting at the bar drinking a cognac and one of the local musicians a saxophone player named SIL Austin he had a hit back in the 50s with Danny Boy but anyway I've done some gigs around Atlanta with SIL so he introduced me to Jimmy he said Jimmy this is a this is Russel Malone and up-and-coming young player he's got some he's got some potential so Jimmy looked at me he sized me up where's your box you mean my guitar that's just in the car he said well go get I don't know what you could do you know Jim it was rough like that hey what you can do so anyway I'm like yeah all right so I go up to the car and get my guitar and I have a girlfriend within my little entourage of musicians and they were like hey you want to play with Jimmy Smith I see yeah and I was caddy you know so anyway he played one tune and then he called me up and he kicked off a blues to do do don't but didn't know the tune of is called the sermon so anyway he sets the tune up and after he plays the melody he motions for me I'm standing on this side of him to his left he motions for me to start soloing so I start to solo and I played a whole lot of crowd-pleasing stuff just to you know just to get house and you know my girlfriend she's out there cheering for me and all my buddies they're like hey yeah yeah so I'm like yeah I have my chest stuck out feeling good about what I just done right so anyway Jimmy's checking this out so he Chloe plays a little bit then closes the tune out then this is when he starts to play a ballot he played this ballot by David raxin called Laura and I didn't know the tune and that's one of those songs that you just don't hear your way through it's got a lot of things happening harmonically so he he plays the tune and I'm like struggling trying to hear where it's going and then he gets through a course of the melody and then emotions for me to solo and I'm he kicked my behind from Genesis to revelations and I'm like oh my god man and the more I struggled the more difficult he made it for me he started you know playing all of these weird harmonies and then he was playing you know in one time you know his hands were playing and you know playing a time but his foot was doing something else you know I'm like God done it why is he doing this so anyway I got embarrassed I pretty much got month behind handed to him so anyway after the song was over I'm really embarrassed and so he said yeah Russell Malone ladies and gentleman and he looked at me he said you know whenever we let youngsters sit in with us we always like to make sure that they learn something and he looked at me said did you learn something young man I say yes sir and so I sat down man I was so embarrassed and my buddies were teasing me and my girlfriend was like yeah you got you got some work to do so anyway Jimmy plays one more tune closes up set goes back to the bar drinking more cognac talking Wasilla Austin and he had his back turned to me so I was going to go home because I was really embarrassed but I wanted to thank the old man for letting me sit in with him so I tapped him on the shoulder he turned around and before I could get the next sentence the next sentence out of my mouth he got in my face pointed his finger in my chest he said let me tell you something he's all those guys that you're trying to play like and he named this long list of guitar players George Benson Kenny Burrell Wes Montgomery Pat Martino Grant green Dunn else was he named only these guitar players and then he said all those guys that you're trying to play like I knew them and I taught them too then he said don't you ever get on my Bandstand with that foolishness again talk about being mortified but anyway he said what are you doing I said nothing he said come to my room come up to my room so I kiss my girlfriend goodbye say I'm gonna hang out with Jimmy Smith so we went up this room at around midnight and we hung out from 12 o'clock to about 6:30 the next morning it was one of the most beautiful one of the most surreal experiences of my life now have you ever met Jimmy Smith now I'll tell you Jimmy is an interesting guy because as long as he is I've been public and he has an audience around him he's always on you know he's always on but in a one-on-one situation he was a completely different person and man I had my guitar with me and I would uh I remember we were going through the spittoon and it was the body and soul of Skylark but I was playing he asked me to play these songs for him and I'd play some things and then he put his hand on the neck of the guitar and then he make suggestions as to what types of substitutions to use and we talked about music a lot but he also talked about his life he talked about but power he talked about luck Joe Davis and another thing that was really interesting too was we started to talk about Wes Montgomery and and this happened on more than one occasion man where you know we I would bring up wes montgomery's name and that's one of the only times I ever saw Jimmy Smith tear up you know he's tell you what he would talk about Wes and he said that when he when he in West played it was like a beautiful marriage that's the way he described it as a beautiful marriage so that was really an interesting experience man and I I joined his band the next year I stayed there with him for two years yeah so yeah so that was one of the times when I got my behind handed to me but man I missed that guy man I miss Jimmy Smith yeah so I've had a couple of experiences like that where you know I had to get that that reality check well Kenny Burrell gave me one I have to tell you this one I'll be brief one time we were in a plan of giving Philadelphia I was playing with the pianist and organist she's no longer with us she just died a couple years ago and he was Trudy Pitts and her husband Bill carnea but anyway I was doing a gig with them man at this place called the major in in Philadelphia it's no longer there anymore so uh Kenny Burrell was in town and he popped in on me man I was like oh my god that's Kenny Burrell so I'm feeling good seeing one of my heroes or my idols he can't who came out to check in on me so anyway we were just playing it was one of those gigs where we just planned standards and the audience they were you know they were they were older people who wanted to hear songs but I noticed there was a crowd of kids young musicians well they weren't kids were they're around my age and I noticed every time I would play something weird or dissonant they'd be like yeah Russell Malone yeah you taking it out man yeah yes I'm really innovative stuff you're doing so you know I kept on doing this you know while the rest of the band would just you know they'll just try to swing so anyway after the gig was over I walked over to where these guys were sitting and they were talking about how yeah man you're really taking it out you're doing some innovative things man yeah you're pushing the envelope so anyway I said thanks so I went over to a Kenny Burrell was sitting and I have the nerve I had the audacity to say the Canterbury laughter we exchanged pleasantries I said he would hear what I'm working on I said that kidding a row how stupid can you get but anyway but Kenny I'll never forget his disposition turned from friendly to very stern and I sat down on this side of him and he put his arm around me and he proceeded to chastise me the way that a father would chastise a son and I never forget him telling me he said you know first of all we all know that you can play the guitar you have the ability and the facility to do whatever you want on that instrument but it takes a lot of courage to play what the situation calls for he said you know look at the Pete look around the room look at the people that you plan for look at the band that you're playing with he said now that what you played up there may have worked well in another situation but it didn't work here and he told me he said yes you know you just--just--just play what the music calls for you know any time you start to try to prove anything to anybody then the music isn't honest it's not honest I never forgot that this is Russell Malone guitarist and I rock jazz you

Channel: irockjazzmusictv

Views: 83,431

Rating: 4.9825177 out of 5

Keywords: Russell Malone, Jimmy Smith, and, Kenny Burrell, Irockjazz, John Moultrie, John Broughton, jazzphoto, facebook/jazzphoto, jazz, arts, social, performing, media

Id: g_k7iwHjmE0

Length: 10min 0sec (600 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 09 2011

Reddit Comments

[u/Vortesian]

What an amazing player. Super nice dude too.

[u/NaKoMusic]

Wow, there was a lot of insight there. I need to start going to more jam sessions again and get my ass kicked, haha. It really is the best way to learn.