Recording of the Month

Jerome Sabbagh: Heart
Sabbagh, tenor saxophone; Joe Martin, bass; Al Foster, drums
Analog Tone Factory ATF 001 (LP). 2024. Jerome Sabbagh, Pete Rende, prods.; James Farber, Pete Rende, Aki Nishimura, Ben Miller, Bernie Grundman, engs.
Performance ****
Sonics *****

It's rare for an artist to win Recording of the Month honors for consecutive albums released within a few months of each other, and frankly, I don't feel great about it. But I cannot pass over Heart, the latest album from Jerome Sabbagh, which he recorded in a distinguished trio with Joe Martin on bass and the legendary Al Foster on drums.

In the eternal audiophile conflict between good music and good sound, I take music every time. But while the music here is, to me, very good, it's the sonics that make Heart an essential choice. I expect to hear it at next season's hi-fi shows; I'm quite certain that I'll hear it in Stenheim and darTZeel rooms, perhaps alongside Sabbagh playing live, since Stenheim and darTZeel are listed as Heart's executive producers.

As you'd expect from such sponsorship, Heart is an audiophile project start to finish. It was recorded by James Farber at the Power Station in New York City. I heard some of this music played there live, in Studio A; I learned from that experience that if you want to make a great-sounding record, you start with a great-sounding acoustic space. Production credits go to Sabbagh and Pete Rende, who also gets credit for an engineering assist. Rende and Sabbagh recently cofounded a new music label, Analog Tone Factory, tagline "No computers were harmed in the making of our records." Heart is ATF 001.

Farber recorded live to half-inch, two-track analog tape on a custom, tubed Ampex 351 running at 30ips. No overdubs or edits were made. The album was mastered by Bernie Grundman, who also cut the vinyl, direct from analog tape, using the all-tube system at Bernie Grundman Mastering. Sabbagh auditioned the lacquers and test pressings at François Saint-Gérand's Ana Mighty Sound, an important Paris-based hi-fi dealership. The 180gm LP was pressed at Gotta Groove Records in Cleveland, which seems to have joined the elite class of record pressing plants.

Heart mixes standards with original compositions and covers a range of styles, all laid back. Even Sabbagh's fast runs seem measured, thoughtful, and controlled. His sound is uniquely mellow for a tenor saxophone; as I wrote in my review of Sabbagh's Vintage, it almost sounds like he's playing an alto.

It's hardly a surprise that Martin and Foster make an interesting, tasteful rhythm section. Heart makes me think of Sonny Rollins, perhaps because he was so fond of this format; think Way Out West and A Night at the "Village Vanguard."

Heart launches with Duke's "Prelude to a Kiss," with Foster taking the lead but no solos, followed by Wayne Shorter's "E.S.P." Next comes the title track, a Sabbagh composition, followed by a melodic "Gone with the Wind." These last two pieces swing. At this point, I'm starting to think this is Al Foster's album, not Sabbagh's; Foster is usually in the background—"Prelude" is the exception—but he's always in control.

Side 2 leads off with "Right the First Time," one of two fully improvised pieces on the album (the other is "Lead the Way," the third track on Side 2; all three musicians get authorship credit on both of these tracks). According to the press notes, Sabbagh "asked Al if he'd mind if we played something open and see where it goes. We did five or six entirely free pieces, and Al said he'd never done that before. We picked these two, which really captured the intense listening going on." The two "free" tracks are not at all the same, yet they share the sense of good taste and thoughtful refinement that pervades the album.

Track 2, Side 2 is Benny Carter's "When Lights Are Low," played, as the notes point out, with Carter's original bridge, not Miles Davis's version. The album closes with another standard, "Body and Soul."

It's a lovely mix of tunes with no unifying style but with a distinctly unifying feel: playful, quiet, joyful, self-possessed.

In addition to the LP, which I auditioned, Heart is available on CD, which I haven't heard, at analogtonefactory.com. "The analog to digital transfer for our Compact Discs is made from the master tape by Bernie Grundman on a JCF Latte converter, directly at 24/44.1. This method requires a dedicated pass from the tape, in real time. It eschews downsampling, and we think it sounds better. The dithering from 24 bits to 16 bits is done through a Lavry 3000S." Hardcore analog folks with big budgets can instead choose among several reel-to-reel formats. Hi-rez files (24/192 PCM) are available at Bandcamp. Sabbagh told me that DSD256 files are in preparation.

Earlier, I wrote that although Sabbagh is the leader, I found myself thinking this was Foster's album. The press notes explain why; they also explain the album's feel, which I commented on above. Heart was "designed to spotlight Foster," with "a strong emphasis on interactions, choices, and being in the moment," Sabbagh said. "I've found that with fewer people, the more direct the connection." I think Sonny Rollins tapped into the same thing. "This was stripped down and wide open, and

Al said he really enjoyed the freedom and directness." That's exactly how it feels to listen.—Jim Austin