Analog Tone Factory has announced Tenor saxophonist Jerome Sabbagh's tenth album, 'Heart.' It is his first album as a leader, and on the newly formed label, he runs with pianist and engineer Pete Rende.
'Heart' is scheduled for release on Friday, Aug. 30, on CD, Vinyl, and reel-to-reel.
'Heart' captures a sophisticated, artistic meeting between renowned New York bassist Joe Martin and drummer Al Foster.
"Al is my favorite living jazz drummer, and I've been trying to record with him for a long time," Sabbagh said. "Over the last 12 years, I've sat in on gigs with him and developed a rapport that finally came to fruition with this album.
He shared that he and Martin started playing together around 2003, and he has played with him more than any other bassist. He added that he can do anything, but his priority is to make the band sound great and to ensure everything is locked in on every front.
'Heart' and 'Vintage,' its immediate predecessor, a quartet that includes Kenny Barron, is unlike the music on any of Sabbagh's first eight LPs. They were released on labels such as Sunnyside and Bee Jazz and featured what he described as "original music that doesn't always sound like standards."
On the other hand, Sabbagh uses the vocabulary of swinging mainstream jazz to tell his stories in 'Heart' and 'Vintage,' where he is accompanied by two masters who stimulated his imagination during that period and nourished his early development.
On 'Heart,' recorded in June 2022, Sabbagh and Foster have an album-long conversation while Martin triangulates within the flow, showcasing Sabbagh's warm sound, facile ear, and harmonic flexibility, which attracted employers like Chris Potter, Kurt Rosenwinkel, and Sabbagh (on four previous albums and several hundred gigs).
Furthermore, Sabbagh said that standards and original music are complementary for him, and he has worked hard to connect both sides of my playing. Now, he has a deeper understanding of how he wants to play the saxophone and those tunes.
