Inside The Saxophone Mind

Jaleel Shaw is a heavy player. He is also a super nice guy and our conversation was one of the highlights of my week. Jaleel is killing it in New York right now and is a member of the Roy Haynes Quartet,Tom Harrell’s “Colors Of A Dream” and has also performed with Christian McBride, Jason Moran, the Mingus Big Band, Pat Metheny, Stefon Harris, Roy Hargrove, Chick Corea, Dave Holland and Jimmy Cobb and others. Jaleel was born and raised in Philadelphia and we talk about some of the influences that had on his music and life, as well as what growing up around extremely talented musicians did for him. After coming of age in Philly, Jaleel attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston and became the saxophonist that would soon take the jazz world by storm. In this episode we talk about what it is like to play with legends such as Roy Haynes and Tom Harrell, some of the things that Jaleel worked on to get to the level of a world class saxophonist, and his approach to composition that has led Jaleel to a fruitfu