Russell Malone Tribute Show

Published September 17th, 2024 at 5:46 pm

In August, the jazz world lost a revered guitarist who played a role in some of the most important albums of the 1990s. Russell Malone performed with Harry Connick Jr., Diana Krall and others before continuing his career as a successful solo performer and band leader until his death at 60. He recorded guitar on Diana Krall’s When I Look in Your Eyes, which was nominated for three Grammys and won Best Jazz Vocal and Best Engineered Album, Nonclassical at the 42nd Grammy Awards. Malone died unexpectedly of a heart attack while on tour in Tokyo with bassist Ron Carter. 

Malone was scheduled to perform Sept. 19 at The Outpost in Albuquerque as part of the 18th Annual New Mexico Jazz Festival. The show will now be a tribute to Malone featuring guitarist Bobby Broom who has worked with legends like Miles Davis and Sonny Rollins. The Bobby Broom Tribute to Russell Malone will feature pianist Rick Germanson and bassist Vincent Dupont both of whom performed with Malone for many years. Broom shares memories of Malone, talks improv and craft with The Paper., and says goodbye to one of the greats.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The Paper.: Did you know Russell Malone personally?

Bobby Broom: I’m trying to think when we became acquainted. He must have been here on the road with Harry Connick. I had a steady engagement on Sunday night in Chicago and he showed up one night. I have a picture of us all the way back in the mid ’90s. We were both on the road somewhere and we were hanging out. So we knew each other for quite a while.

Russell was such an affable personality and he had a deep love of jazz music and all of its musicians, and really all musicians. It was apparent upon his passing because the reaction from the jazz world was profound. This is a very niche kind of art. It’s a specific, fringy kind of thing that we do, and we lost a great one.

Will you be performing Russell Malone songs?

I will be doing a few of them, and then we’ll just play, that’s the nature of jazz music. Russell and I did a duo gig in New York at Mezzro, which is a club in the village. This was October of last year, so fairly recently. We didn’t talk too much about what we were gonna play. We each had a couple of things that we wanted to do, but a lot of it was kinda left up to the moment.

I did make it my business to talk to [Malone’s] band members and ask about a few things, but I certainly won’t be doing a whole set of his original music. The spirit of the music will embody what the tribute is about.

Is improvisation part of what you usually do live?

Well, that’s part of the jazz practice. Improvisation is one of the main features of the art of jazz — improvisation in terms of expressing oneself as a musician and then collectively. We have a set repertoire that is ever-changing, and it ebbs and flows, and some tunes come in and out of favor over periods of time. Generally, we should be able to get together and call off 10 or 20 songs before too long that we all know and can play. Part of the process is being able to operate in the moment and knowing music well enough, knowing the music on your instrument and having an intimate relationship with music that you’ve heard. Songs that are part of our culture, it’s a little bit of all of that.

When were you approached to do the show?

Maybe a week or so after Russell passed. I was taken aback and obviously saddened by his passing. We just spoke on the phone maybe about 10 days before it happened. When I got the call it was thoroughly unexpected and it took me a minute to wrap my brain around the idea of doing it.

Have you ever been to Albuquerque before?

I have. I was there with Sonny Rollins. Russell was around, he was playing, so it must have been some kind of jazz festival. There’s a video of an interview Sonny did the day of the performance. Russell was in the audience and he asked a question to Sunny. It was 2007. The title that’s on YouTube is “Sonny Rollins Live in New Mexico.” You don’t see Russell, you just hear him ask questions.

I remember playing there. I remember I went to some kind of hot springs by myself. I think I rented a car. I knew I wanted to get out of there before it started getting dark, I’m not a wilderness kind of person.

Gofundme for the Malone family