Review: Jerome Sabbagh’s ‘Stand Up!’

Over the last few years, tenor saxophonist Jerome Sabbagh has released recordings thst featured his dulcet tones with several jazz elders – Kenny Barron (Vintage (Sunnyside, 2023)) and the late drummer Al Foster (Heart (Analog Tone Factory, 2024)). With Stand Up! (Analog Tone Factory, 2025), Sabbagh returns with this twenty-year running quartet with guitarist Ben Monder, bassist Joe Martin, and newly added drummer Nasheet Waits for their first release in over a decade. In part, the delay came because the leader wanted to capture the band on his own label, Analog Tone Factory, which specializes in performing live in the same room, recording exclusively to analog tape. But even as time progresses, so much remains the same. The album takes its name from a composition the quartet recorded on their second album, Pogo (Sunnyside, 2007), nearly twenty years ago in response to the political environment of the time. And while much has changed between the second Bush administration and the second Trump, the heart of the work retains apt in the continued political circus.

“Lone Jack” opens the record with a smooth, flowing country feel, nodding to Ray Charles’ work on Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music (Tangerine, 1962). It is a rather unusual opener, even more so after hearing guitarist Monder play strains that seem to meld a twangy Telecaster with a pedal steel through one guitar. The song takes its name from the Missouri hometown of pianist and producer Pete Rende, Sabbagh’s partner in his label.  The music stays at a slow simmer for the ballad “Michelle’s Song,” featuring a strong, elegant solo from Martin. “Lunar Cycle” borrows from Sam Rivers’ “Cyclic Episode” that appeared on Fuchsia Swing Song (Blue Note, 1965). While Rivers is known for his edgy stance, Sabbagh and Monder deliver melodic lines in the piece, making it accessible. Waits churns it up on the kit.  

Sabbagh claims that much of the warm lyricism in his playing owes to his affinity for vocalists. That’s on clear display in the soulful mid-temp ballad “The Break Song,” dedicated to Stevie Wonder. “High Falls,” like “Michelle’s Song,” is dedicated to a special friend and stays on the mellow side, with Brazilian tinges and sharp picking from Monder. 

It’s not until the sixth track, “Mosh Pit,” that the quartet explodes behind Waits’ thunder, Sabbah’s ferocity, and mostly Monder’s aggressive attack reminiscent of recordings by The Bad Plus and with recent outings by Donny McCaslin. The tune is dedicated to Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails , whose Downward Spiral (Nothing/Interscope, 1994) and The Fragile (Nothing/Interscope, 1999) are among Sabbagh’s favorites.

The quartet quickly moves to more ethereal tones in “Vanguard,” dedicated to the late Paul Motian, with whom Sabbagh and Monder were trio mates shortly before the drummer passed in 2011. The piece is closer is the sublimely gorgeous ode to Kenny Barron, “Unbowed,” featuring highly sensitive playing from each member. 

While the music on Stand Up! does not ostensibly take an antagonistic or rallying stance to the politics of our era, the album art does. Italian photographer Michele Palazzo uses light effectively on the front cover to suggest a sci-fi dystopia. On the back, he depicts a lone human figure set against an intimidating concrete wall. This cold, threatening imagery, however, belies the music, which is varied but largely gentle and warm.  

‘Stand Up!’ is out now on Analog Tone Factory. It can be purchased on Bandcamp.