Aug 27, 2024 12:09 PM
Remembering Russell Malone, 1963-2024
Guitarist and bandleader Russell Malone died Aug. 23, while on tour in Japan, after battling end-stage kidney failure.…
He recalls trying to connect his love of Black music to his background by playing with his father and experiencing “the depth of feeling and the soul, and the anguish, but also the affirmation in his sound.” Redman also discovered a brotherhood with other African-American musicians, including Blade.
The drummer mentioned that he and Redman were just recently talking about Floyd’s killing. Their experiences as jazz musicians—generally being treated with respect and deference wherever they go, engaging positively with people of all races and backgrounds—seem like they’ve sprung from a world different from what so many people who look like them encounter every day.
“It makes me feel sometimes like I live in a bubble,” Blade said. “We make music and we sort of exist in that idealism. So, how can we send more of that out into the world?”
Redman, who once considered becoming a civil rights attorney, sees music as a reconciliation: “Part of the genius of jazz is that it ultimately resolves these inherent tensions [of Black and white culture]. In its best expression, you get these opposing elements, but somehow, some sort of transcendence is reached where there’s a sort of resolution, some affirmation in the face of all this anguish and heartbreak. It’s a privilege to play the music.”
Like many musicians, both performers are looking to engage with the call for social justice. Perhaps the music they’ve created—following in the footsteps of jazz masters who worked to address societal ills—is their best answer.
But even amid the tumult of the past several months, Blade embodies the eternal optimist: “Martin Luther King [said], ‘Where do we go from here?’ [King] was asking that question, and we’re still having to ask that question. I just hope that we all can go there together.” DB
Aug 27, 2024 12:09 PM
Guitarist and bandleader Russell Malone died Aug. 23, while on tour in Japan, after battling end-stage kidney failure.…
Sep 24, 2024 12:02 PM
Benny Golson, one of the greatest composers and saxophonists of the bebop era, passed away Saturday, Sept. 21, at his…
Sep 17, 2024 11:40 AM
The 18th Annual Hyde Park Jazz Festival will be held on 13 unique stages across Chicago’s Hyde Park, Kenwood and…
Oct 23, 2024 10:10 AM
Claire Daly often signed her correspondences with “Love and Low Notes.”
The baritone saxophonist, who died Oct.…
Oct 2, 2024 11:35 AM
John McNeil, a trumpeter, composer and educator who built an accomplished and progressive career in jazz despite a…