We got a young lion of Jazz, Jaleel Shaw, to talk about his latest album as well as other things in a recent email conversation...
LCF:Let me ask you something…What are you presently listening to?
JS:Right now I'm listening to alot of Sonny Rollins. Mostly bootlegs of live recordings actually. To me, he was one of the greatest improvisers of all time. I'm also listening to alot of Keith Jarrett, JDilla, and Qtips new album Renaissance,
Knowing you for practically your whole life, I know you have had many musical influences. What musical or life experiences influenced your latest work, "Optimism"?
Well, for this album I basically drew from all of my influences from many genres... So I can say everything from the music of John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, and Andrew Hill, to music by J Dilla, A Tribe Called Quest, Radiohead, and the music of West Africa.
Since you have been playing with jazz great Roy Haynes, what is the most valuable bit of knowledge has he offered you concerning your technique?
Roy always wants to make sure I know the right melody for the songs we play. Many times if he asks me what I want to play before we go on, he'll ask me to play the melody. If I make a mistake, we'll go over it until I get it right... Sometimes he even asks me to sing the lyrics...
Ok man, this is my last question! If you could put together your dream ensemble for just one gig, who would you include and what would be the venue?? That's a hell of a last question, huh??
That's difficult... there are a couple bands I'd like to play in... One would be a Quartet with Mulgrew Miller, Christian McBride, and Brian Blade. I would also like to play with Herbie Hancock, Steve Nelson, Dave Holland, and Brian Blade in a quartet.
To be honest, I love playing with my band... Lage Lund on guitar, Johnathan Blake on Drums, Ben Williams on Bass, and Aaron Goldberg or Aaron Parks on Piano
I also play trio sometimes with Dwayne Burno and Johnathan Blake or Nasheet Waitts on drums... Those have been some fun gigs... Sometimes we play with Mark Turner on Tenor too.
(haha! Part 2 of the last question) And why?
These are all some of my favorite musicians. I've been a fan of Steve Mulgrew and Herbie for years. They are extremely melodically creative musicians that I know I could learn so much from and have so much fun playing with.
Blade, Johnathan Blake, and Nasheet Waits are 3 of my favorite drummers. I think Blade is a very sensitive player. His sense of dynamics is immaculate. He's always listening. Johnathan Blake is like a brother to me. We've been playing together for over 15 years, so he knows my every move, swings hard and supports me. Nasheet is a very creative drummer that is also very supportive and also swings hard...
Lage, Aaron and Aaron are some young great players that I love to play with.. They're all very creative musicians that are carrying on the tradition of the music and are also pushing it forward. Dwayne Burno and Christian McBride and Ben Williams are 3 of my favorite bassists... And they can all SWING. Mark Turner.. has been a big influence on not only my musical life, but my personal life too. He's an extremely humble, focused musician... I'd say he's one of the strong innovators of jazz music today.
Thanks a lot Jaleel!!!
More information on Jaleel Shaw, please visit: http://www.jaleelshaw.com & http://www.myspace.com/jaleelshaw
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