Sean Malone

Instrument(s)Bass guitar, Chapman Stick, piano, keyboards, guitarLabelsRoadrunner, AudioImage, Sensory, Season of MistFormerly ofCynic, Gordian Knot, Aghora, Dream Theater, Cygnus, Gary Willis, Mike Portnoy, Paul Gilbert, Steven Wilson, John Wesley

Sean Malone (April 12, 1970 – December 7, 2020) was an American musician who played primarily fretless bass guitar and Chapman Stick. He was most famous for his work with progressive metal band Cynic,^[1] in which he developed a strong partnership with the drummer Sean Reinert. Malone and Reinert played on several records together outside Cynic, making them one of the most favorable modern progressive rhythm sections. Malone also did a number of session jobs for various bands and musicians.

Career

Music

Early in his career, Malone played as a session member for groups ranging from latin jazz and bossa nova to British pop music. His first high-level experience in metal music was in 1993 with the progressive metal band Cynic from Florida. Malone became Cynic's bassist quite unexpectedly; the band had a scheduled recording of their debut album, Focus in a studio in which Malone was working as an assistant engineer, and session musician. The band had suddenly parted ways with Darren Macfarland (who also had a brief stint with Atheist), and hired Malone to play bass on their soon-to-be-recorded LP. Malone proved to have ideal musical chemistry with the group, and ended up touring for Focus in 1993.^{[citation needed]}

After the band's first split, Malone continued to work as a session bassist, performing on over fifty records. He has also authored four books, "Music Theory for Bassists", "Dictionary Of Bass Grooves", "Rock Bass", and "A Portrait of Jaco: The Solos Collection" (a book of transcriptions of Jaco Pastorius' bass solos) for the Hal Leonard Corporation. In the academic field, Malone has papers on theory and music cognition published and given presentations at conferences such as the Society for Music Theory, The International Conference of Music and Gesture, and The Glenn Gould Conference, and has taught at the University of Central Missouri and Carnegie Mellon University as assistant professor of music theory.^{[citation needed]}

Malone made one album under his own name, Cortlandt, which was released in 1996 and reissued in 2007. He also assembled and recorded the Gordian Knot debut, Gordian Knot, released in 1999. The album has contributions from Trey Gunn (King Crimson), Ron Jarzombek (Watchtower, Spastic Ink, Blotted Science) and John Myung (Dream Theater). A second Gordian Knot album, Emergent, included performances from Bill Bruford (Yes, King Crimson), Jim Matheos (Fates Warning), and Steve Hackett (Genesis, GTR), as well as Cynic members Sean Reinert, Paul Masvidal and Jason Gobel.

He re-joined Cynic with Reinert and Masvidal in May 2008 and recorded on their comeback album titled Traced in Air, which received very high critical acclaim. The album was released 14 years after the release of their previous and highly successful Focus. However, he did not tour with the band because of his university teaching priorities. In September 2011, Cynic confirmed that Malone has recorded on their EP titled Carbon-Based Anatomy.^[2] On December 12, 2012, Cynic announced that the band has entered the studio in a trio mode with Malone to record the new album, Kindly Bent to Free Us.

In Vancouver on July 6, 2014, Malone performed live on stage with Cynic for the first time in 20 years since the Focus era.^[3]

Other ventures

Malone took a scholarly approach to the subject of pencils, and spent years documenting the cultural significance of the Eberhard Faber Blackwing 602 pencil. He also travelled around the US and Germany, interviewing both Eberhard Faber IV (head of Eberhard Faber in the US) and the late Count Anton von Faber-Castell (head of Faber-Castell in Germany). He was known in pencil circles as the creator of both Blackwing Pages and Contrapuntalism.^[4]

Malone was interviewed on camera for the 2015 documentary film No. 2: The Story of the Pencil. He mentioned completing almost 300 pages of a pencil book, though he doubted the commercial viability.^{[citation needed]}

Malone was a Glenn Gould scholar. He restored and archived the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Glenn Gould video recordings^[5] and documented his research about him. He published the article "Glenn Gould and the Nature of Competition" in Glenn Gould Magazine.^[6]

Death

On December 9, 2020, Paul Masvidal announced that Malone had died.^[7] On September 3, 2021, Masvidal publicly announced that Malone died by suicide on December 7, 2020. He would subsequently release a new version of "Integral" featuring a bass track recorded by Malone as a tribute, with half of the proceeds going to suicide prevention organizations To Write Love on Her Arms and The Trevor Project.^[8]

Discography

References

Inline citations

General references

• Malone, Sean. (2006). Music theory : [a practical, easy to use guide for bassists]. Milwaukee, Wis.: Hal Leonard. ISBN 0-634-05715-4. OCLC 74323960.
• Pastorius, Jaco. (2002). A portrait of Jaco : the solos collection. Malone, Sean. Milwaukee, WI: H. Leonard Corp. ISBN 0-634-01754-3. OCLC 50389175.
• "Why Is Hollywood Obsessed With This Pencil?". The Hollywood Reporter. August 9, 2013. Retrieved December 30, 2020.
• Eby, Margaret. "An ode to the Blackwing 602, Vladimir Nabokov's favorite pencil". Daily News. Retrieved December 30, 2020.
• Faber-Castell. (2013) The Fan: The pencil blogger. Faber-Castell Topics.
• Faber-Castell. (2015) Sean Malone visits Eberhard Faber. Faber-Castell: Our Company.
• "ISBN 9783791382722 - Stationery Fever: From Paper Clips to Pencils and Everything In Between". isbnsearch.org. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
• Brian. "Sean Malone: Clairefontaine Music Pad". Goulet Pens Blog. Retrieved December 30, 2020.
• Moist, K., Banash, D. (2013) Contemporary Collecting. [Lanham, Maryland] Scarecrow Press.
• Stein, Sadie (August 13, 2013). "Secret Erotica, Jane Austen, and Other News". The Paris Review. Retrieved December 30, 2020.
• "ISBN 9781846686160 - Adventures in Stationery: A Journey Through Your Pencil Case". isbnsearch.org. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
• "ISBN 9783899556759 - The Pencil Perfect: The Untold Story of a Cultural Icon". isbnsearch.org. Retrieved December 29, 2020.

External links

• Sean Malone discography at Discogs