The rollicking country blues feel of opener “Lone Jack,” for instance, is a tribute to R&B icon Ray Charles, in particular his country-influenced classics like Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. The title is the name of the Missouri hometown of pianist and producer Pete Rende, also Sabbagh’s partner in Analog Tone Factory and the song’s co-dedicatee. Both “Michelle’s Song” and “High Falls” were written for personal acquaintances of Sabbagh’s, the former a tender ballad buoyed by Martin’s elegant bass, the latter a Brazilian-flavored tune evoking memories of a scenic waterfall in Upstate New York and of seeing João Gilberto perform at Carnegie Hall.
“Lunar Cycle” is a play on Sam Rivers’ “Cyclic Episode,” from the saxophonist’s 1965 debut Fuchsia Swing Song. The piece also shares genetic material with Rivers’ work in its ability to straddle the line between edge-walking audacity and indelible melody. This stems in large part from the heavy influence that Sabbagh draws from singers, which emerges through the warm vocal quality in his own playing. That aspect is also showcased on “The Break Song,” dedicated to Stevie Wonder, a soulful tune that serves as an ideal set-closer for the quartet.
Waits’ gift for explosivity and Monder’s mastery of noise-metal extremes come to fore on the blistering “Mosh Pit,” dedicated to Trent Reznor of the pioneering industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails (and now an acclaimed, Oscar-winning soundtrack composer). “[Nine Inch Nails’] Downward Spiral and The Fragile were both important records for me,” Sabbagh says. “I listened to them a lot, and I found their energy, their creativity, and their unique mix of rawness and sophistication really appealing.”
Another formative experience for Sabbagh was seeing the great drummer Paul Motian play at the Village Vanguard. Even more crucially, Sabbagh and Monder were called to form a new trio with Motian that played a week on that venerated stage shortly before the drummer passed away in 2011. Those experiences, and the singular floating yet grounded sensation generated by Motian’s airy-sculptural approach to the drums, are captured on “Vanguard.” The album closes with “Unbowed,” an homage to the indefatigable Kenny Barron.
As always, Sabbagh has a strong sense of matching artwork with content on his releases, choosing impactful imagery that echoes the album’s themes in oblique yet poetic fashion. The pictures that grace the front and back covers of Stand Up! are both the work of Italian photographer Michele Palazzo, who also provided the cover shot for Heart. The front cover’s play of light, reflection and distortion suggest a Blade Runner sci-fi dystopia; the reverse is a stark black and white image of a lone human figure dwarfed by a looming, oppressive concrete wall. Both conjure the threat of cold, anti-human forces and the desire for escape.
A return to a more human-centered approach is key to Sabbagh’s efforts with Analog Tone Factory, which aims to capture the live sound of bands as effectively and as beautifully as possible, and eschews digital manipulation to do so. On each of the label’s releases, the band records together in one room to analog tape. For ultimate fidelity, Stand Up!, the third release on Analog Tone Factory following Heart and Chris Cheek’s album featuring Bill Frisell, Keepers of the Eastern Door, was recorded live to two track on 1/2 inch tape at 30 ips on a custom tube Ampex 351 tape recorder by famed engineer James Farber. It was mastered in the analog domain by the legendary Bernie Grundman.
Humanity converging to create something of beauty – that is the spirit summoned by Stand Up! “It’s so important to me that this band is still together after all these years,” Sabbagh says. “If you’re going to go out on a limb and take chances to try to come up with something you’ve never played before, you need trust, and we have that in this band. Jazz is social music. We come up with ideas when playing with other people that we wouldn’t necessarily discover by ourselves. That’s one of the great beauties of this music, and a big part of what attracts me to it.”
Production Credits
All compositions by Jerome Sabbagh (SACEM)
Recorded by James Farber at Power Station, New York, live to 1/2 inch two track analog tape on a custom tube Ampex 351 at 30 ips, November 7, 2024
Assistant Engineers: Pete Rende, Matthew Soares, Omisha Chaitanya
Mastered by Bernie Grundman at Bernie Grundman Mastering, Hollywood
Produced by Jerome Sabbagh & Pete Rende
Executive Producer: Ana Mighty Sound
Graphic Design: Element-s/Jérôme Witz
Photos by Michele Palazzo
Band & Session Photography by Adrien H. Tillmann
Analog Tone Factory would like to thank John Chester, Dave Dintenfass, James Farber, Bernie Grundman, Tim Chapman, François Saint-Gérand, David Smith, Marie Griffin, Beattie-Powers Place and the NY State Council on the Arts.
Special Thanks to Ana Mighty Sound for supporting Analog Tone Factory from the very beginning, and for continuing to do so.
This album is dedicated to my early teachers, without whom I would not play music: Annick Chartreux, Philippe Chagne, Jean-Louis Chautemps and Eric Barret.