Painter of the Invisible

by Jaleel Shaw

Overview

On 2025's Painter of the Invisible, alto and soprano saxophonist Jaleel Shaw illuminates the complexity of Black experience. It's an ambitious, deeply personal album that finds him balancing a dewy modal majesty and righteously angry, burn-out post-bop energy. Musically, it's a potent combination, and one he's been perfecting ever since he emerged in the early 2000s, both as a leader and as a member of legendary drummer Roy Haynes' band. Here, he leads his daring and empathetic small group featuring pianist Lawrence Fields, bassist Ben Street, and drummer Joe Dyson. Together they play a woody, organic brand of jazz that pulls from '60s hard bop, '70s funk, and even the astute yet swaggering post-bop that players like Terence Blanchard and Donald Harrison championed in the '80s. Thematically, the album finds Shaw exploring ideas of race, identity, and the social "invisibility" or disregard for Black people in modern society. To do so, he takes inspiration from both famous artists and people in his own life who have influenced and affected him. It's a thoughtful vibe that's made most explicit on the track "The Invisible Man," a motivic, modal piece in the John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter tradition whose title references writer Ralph Ellison's landmark 1952 debut novel -- where many of the themes Shaw is drawing upon were first given voice. Equally specific in emotion is "Tamir," a song whose defiant spiritual modalism works as tribute to the memory of Tamir Rice, the Black 12-year-old boy who was shot to death by police in Cleveland in 2014 while he was playing with a toy gun in a playground. That it also brings to mind Coltrane's classic 1963 song "Alabama," itself a response to the bombing of a Baptist church by the Ku Klux Klan in Birmingham that killed four Black girls, feels nakedly intentional. While anger and sorrow underscore much of Shaw's work here, the album is rife with a bevy of tonal emotions. The opening "Good Morning" has the rising-sun dreaminess of a classic Coltrane track and sets the tone for the dynamic journey Shaw takes you on. He immediately leaps into the driving and joyous "Contemplation," pushing his band with a throaty, Eric Dolphy-esque intensity. Equally affecting moments follow, including the late-afternoon ballad "Distant Images" (dedicated to Shaw's two grandmothers) with guitarist Lage Lund; their circular, refracted lines recall the work of composer Philip Glass. Similarly, the midtempo "Gina's Ascent" hinges upon the saxophonist's delicate interplay with vibraphonist Sasha Berliner. All of this before he sinks into the sun dappled, Fender Rhodes-accented closer "Until We Meet Again." With Painter of the Invisible, Shaw has crafted an impactful album full of indelible sonic and emotional layers. ~ Matt Collar

Product Details

Release Date:	07/11/2025
Label:	Outside In Music
UPC:	0195269361778

Tracks

1. Good Morning
2. Contemplation
3. Beantown
4. Distant Images
5. Baldwin's Blues
6. Gina's Ascent Intro
7. Gina's Ascent
8. Tamir (For Tamir Rice)
9. Meghan
10. The Invisible Man
11. Until We Meet Again

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Jaleel Shaw   Primary Artist