Russell Malone

It seems like I always had to work harder than other people. Those nights when everybody else is asleep, and you sit in your room trying to play scales. I just wonder where I was when the talent was being given out, like George Benson, Kenny Burrell, Eric Clapton… oh, there’s many more! I wouldn’t want to be like them, you understand, but I’d like to be equal, if you will.

The guitar is just a wonderful instrument. It’s everything: a bartender, a psychiatrist, a housewife. It’s everything, but it’s elusive.

Jazz music is a style, not compositions; any kind of music may be played in Jazz if one has the knowledge.

My music is Jazz.

I still insist that American performers are the best performers in the world.

Your ear is the final judge to what sounds right and what sounds wrong.

I can play all I know in eight bars.

I don’t do something because I think it will sell 30 million albums. I couldn’t care less. If it sells one, it sells one.

If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it ‘Chuck Berry’.

Playing ‘bop’ is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing.

The majority of people mistakenly feel they don’t need a live musical experience.

Play what you know and then play above that.

Well, if you find a note tonight that sounds good, play the same damn note every night!

The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician. Things like old folks singing in the moonlight in the back yard on a hot night or something said long ago.

Jazz improvisation is the art of drawing without an eraser.