Philly’s saxophonist, composer, bandleader, and educator Jaleel Shaw emerges as a leader again after 13 years. Shaw has collaborated with a wide range of jazz giants, including Roy Haynes, Roy Hargrove, Nate Smith, Christian McBride, and many others. He is currently a fixture in both Dave Holland’s Quartet and Trio. Finding time to make a solo album was challenging in his busy schedule, and Painter of the Invisible comes almost exactly twenty years into his career as a recording artist.
The album celebrates heroes, both musical and otherwise, with Shaw composing all tracks and producing the album. His core quartet includes pianist Lawrence Fields, bassist Ben Street, and drummer Joe Dyson, with guitarist Lage Lund and vibraphonist Sasha Berliner guesting on two tracks each. Shaw primarily plays alto saxophone, switching to soprano on one track.
Shaw’s clear, warm alto tone is on display instantly in the brief, spiritually tinged “Good Morning.” “Contemplation” belies its title, a burner with Shaw exploring every reach of his horn with the rhythm section in full locomotive throttle, also exemplified in Field’s dynamic piano solo and Dyson’s energetic turn on the kit. The contemplative portion appears in Shaw’s unaccompanied outro. Street and Dyson introduce “Beantown,” another free-flowing, uplifting piece where Shaw issues his trademark fluid clusters for a full five minutes before passing to Fields. The tune is his tribute to his time at Berklee.
The tempo and mood change dramatically in “Distant Images,” a heartfelt tune penned for his grandmothers, Pinky and Virginia. Lund, a key member of Melissa Aldana’s ensemble, guests here on the first of two, adding animated color to the ballad, with Shaw growing intensely expressive in the latter half of the piece. Similarly, Shaw gets deeply emotional in “Gina’s Ascent” for his cousin who passed away in 2020. The intro is a duet with vibraphonist Berliner, who continues into the main body of the piece with her bright, scintillating solo. Dyson’s brushwork on this track is remarkable. These two family pieces show a side of Shaw rarely seen in his sideman gigs as he approaches these ballads so emotively.
Besides family, another central thread of the album is James Baldwin. The first ot the two compositions is “Baldwin’s Blues,” which has Shaw blowing fiercely but free of squawks and shrieks as he soars over the rumbling rhythm section. The penultimate track may well be “The Invisible Man,” a poignant, driving piece drawn from the title of one of Baldwin’s most famous books and delivered in the context of people who have always been overlooked in some way. As a Black man, Shaw confesses to feeling invisible at times. Hence, the album title. Again, Lund injects vibrant, bluesy lines into the piece, and Fields plays with fervor over the steady groove from the bass-drum tandem.
Shaw addresses social justice in “Tamir,” for Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy murdered by the Cleveland Division of Police in 2014. Shaw conveys mourning in much the same way as Coltrane’s famous “Alabama” in the first section. That may seem a bit hyperbolic, but the lasting feeling of that portion of the piece is quite similar. Street, in his strongest individual statement on the album, follows suit. The music becomes intense, reflecting anger in the second section before returning to the opening theme.
When Meghan Stabile, the celebrated arts patron and Revive Music Group founder, suddenly passed in 2022 at age 39, it was a significant blow to the jazz community, especially at Berklee and in New York City. In a rare move, Shaw turns to the soprano saxophone in “Meghan,” inspired by her giving and passionate spirit. In yet another switch, Fields plays the Fender Rhodes on the closer, “Until We Meet Again,” another devastating ballad, mainly devoted to the memory of saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Casey Benjamin, whose unexpected passing in 2024 also shocked the jazz community. Shaw also has important musicians such as David Sanborn, Roy Haynes, Lou Donaldson, and his mentor, Rayburn Wright, in mind as he delivers his briefly stated but powerful commemorative lines.
Shaw masterfully delivers one of the most deeply felt albums in recent memory. Let’s hope we hear the next one well before another 13 years transpire.
