Vintage is French-born, New York City-based tenor player Jerome Sabbagh’s third album. The Turn from 2014, No Filter from 2018, reviewed in Audiophilia, and now Vintage (2023). Each brings a project-like feel, with Sabbagh using sidemen to suit the occasion and his inspiration. Sabbagh is a leading player on the New York live scene where he regularly holds court at Bar Bayeux, a Brooklyn jazz club.

For this project, we get the “Jerome Sabbagh Quartet”, including the legendary pianist Kenny Barron, one of Sabbagh’s favourite bass players, Joe Martin, and Barron’s regular drummer Johnathan Blake. Barron is now 80 years old and still playing like a prince. Barron also has some prestigious day gigs including professor of keyboard harmony at Rutgers and professor of jazz piano at Juilliard.

The very talented Sabbagh chose wisely. This is a superb quartet. Each player brings an equal amount to the table, a daunting task for all involved when playing with someone like Kenny Barron, who was Stan Getz’s pianist for many years.

The tracks are a mix of Sabbagh originals with some Monk and Strayhorn. Either swing, Latin or ballad, the quartet nails the arrangements as though they’ve been together for a lifetime. It feels very spontaneous and the results will give you some idea of the supreme, confident musicianship of all concerned.

The set begins with the title track “Vintage”. It is a Sabbagh original and features a hard-driving swing, with great rhythm accompaniment and solo sections from Barron. It ends with a cool Latin coda.

“On A Misty Night” (Tadd Dameron) is a beautiful track and has a gentle to-and-fro between Sabbagh’s lyric tone and Barron’s tasteful ballad soloing. And always great to hear fine bass playing take the lead.

Kenny Barron is a legend and at 80 years old, the Juilliard prof is still laying down monster tracks. His whole tone intro to Billy Strayhorn’s “A Flower Is A Lovesome Thing” hints at Debussy and his years as prof of keyboard harmony at Rutgers. Exquisite. Tasteful. As is Sabbagh’s treatment of the melody.

Another Sabbagh chart, “Elson’s Energy” is a wonderful uptempo Latin number where drummer Johnathan Blake gets to shine. And it’s here, with Barron’s tasteful chording and Joe Martin’s driving bass, where Sabbagh weaves his magic above the fray. You can hear the high quality of the recording jump out of the speakers. Fabulous ensemble, here.

The angular ensemble in Monk’s “We See” is tight with Barron doing his best kerplonk piano playing to capture the essence of Monk. The quartet sounds like it’s been playing together for years.

The superb set ends with another Monk track, “Ask Me Now”. Sabbagh’s lovely tone is front and centre while the giant Barron directs traffic with chordal playing of genius. A beautiful, thoughtful chart to end the record.

(From L to R) Kenny Barron (piano), Joe Martin (bass), Jerome Sabbagh (tenor), Johnathan Blake (drums).

While Sabbagh’s previous recordings were very good, with Vintage, Sabbagh has propelled himself to the front rank of young tenor players before the public. He’s a fine composer and a superb player. And like all great musicians, he knows how to surround himself with excellence.

The recording is from Audiophile Demo Land. Warm, detailed, great bass from Barron’s left hand, plucky string bass and splashy-as-hell cymbals all with a focused Van Gelder-style recording. No higher praise from me. And always present, Sabbagh’s ethereal sound floating above, slightly left.

Recorded all analog in the main room at Oktaven Audio (Mount Vernon, NY) in November of 2020, the music was sent to multitrack analog tape by Ryan Streber and mixed to ½- inch tape at 30 ips on a custom Ampex 351 tube tape recorder by Pete Rende. Mastering by Bernie Grundman and pressed at Gotta Groove on 180g vinyl. My copy was flat and the vinyl was silent.

Sabbagh has no less than Swiss superstar audiophile high-end manufacturers DarTZeel and Stenheim as recording sponsors. Like his beautiful production (amazing artwork), Sabbagh aims high.

$40 for a standard LP edition, $55 for a numbered copy, and $70 for a signed numbered copy. A reel-to-reel copy is also available upon request. Purchase here (no financial affiliation).

I was in touch with Sabbagh and he provided some background information:

Re DarTZeel and Stenheim. They helped finance it and I was able to assess the acetate I got from Bernie Grundman and the test pressings I got from Gotta Groove on DarTZeel amps. That was really helpful! It’s nice to see high-end audio brands willing to get involved and support musicians. Given how hard it is to finance these projects, and how expensive they are, it’s a welcome development. I think there is synergy between wanting to make great-sounding records and designing great-sounding gear so it makes a lot of sense to collaborate!

Stenheim is going to help produce the next record, which will come out on an analog label I am creating with my friend Pete Rende (who mixed “Vintage”), Analog Tone Factory. darTZeel will likely support that as well. It’s really encouraging!

My question about mastering the CD.

Straight transfer from the tape: once at 192/24 (high res), for all the streaming services, once at 44.1/24 with dithering to 44.1/16 dine by a Lavry 3000S. The converter for both transfers was a JCF Latte, which I like. No down sample. Another pass from the tape sounds better, according to Bernie Grundman (and I would agree!)

No EQ anywhere.