Jerome Sabbagh
Biography Jerome Sabbagh
Jerome Sabbagh
Saxophonist and composer Jerome Sabbagh was born in Paris in 1973 and has been living in Brooklyn since 1995. A prolific forward-thinking composer, as well as a musician with a deep connection to the well of the jazz tradition, he has recorded nine albums as a leader.
Jerome Sabbagh’s latest recording is Vintage (Sunnyside, 2023), an album of original compositions and standards which features legendary pianist and NEA jazz master Kenny Barron in intimate duets, as well as in a quartet setting with Joe Martin and Johnathan Blake.
Jerome Sabbagh’s longstanding group with Ben Monder, Joe Martin and Ted Poor, a band which has been together since 2004, has released three albums, the critically acclaimed North, Pogo and The Turn, which was listed as one of the best albums of 2014 by the Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, DownBeat, Ottawa Citizen and France Musique. Jerome has also recorded an album exclusively devoted to standards, One Two Three, in a saxophone trio setting with Ben Street and Rodney Green. I Will Follow You is a freer project featuring European drum legend Daniel Humair and Ben Monder. Plugged In, sparked by a CMA/FACE grant, is an electric project co-led with Jozef Dumoulin, with Patrice Blanchard and Rudy Royston.
Jerome Sabbagh also co-leads the Jerome Sabbagh/Greg Tuohey Group, which recorded No Filter with Joe Martin on bass and Kush Abadey on drums, and performs as part of the collective trio Lean with Simon Jermyn and Allison Miller.
As a sideman, Jerome Sabbagh was one of Paul Motian's last saxophone players. After one gig together, the legendary drummer asked him to play for a week at the Village Vanguard, in his "New Trio" with guitarist Ben Monder, in September 2011. He also has been involved with pianist Laurent Coq's quartet, Guillermo Klein's Los Guachos and the Marta Sanchez Quintet.
Jerome Sabbagh has shared the stage with Al Foster, Victor Lewis, Bill Stewart, Jeff Ballard, Greg Hutchinson, Billy Drummond, Nasheet Waits, Eric McPherson, Justin Brown, Eliot Zigmund, Andrew Cyrille, Damion Reid, Mark Turner, Melissa Aldana, Reggie Workman, Vicente Archer, Matt Penman, Matt Brewer, Joe Sanders, Steve Cardenas, Lage Lund, Mike Moreno, Gilad Hekselman, Dan Tepfer, Pete Rende and Jean-Michel Pilc, among others.
He has played in some of the world's most famous festivals, including Newport, San Francisco, Paris, Tokyo and Medellin. In 2011, 2017, 2018 and 2019, DownBeat selected him as a rising star. He was one of the only European-born musicians on the list.
Owing to the success of his albums The Turn and No Filter on vinyl, Jerome Sabbagh has also become sought after as a producer, having overseen the vinyl versions of Matt Slocum’s With Love and Sadness and Michael Weiss’ Soul Journey, as well as worked on several other releases, including the Dan Tepfer/Lee Konitz duet album Decade, and Dan Tepfer’s Eleven Cages. He recently founded the all analog label Analog Tone Factory with Pete Rende, and aims to produce more records for the label.
“French New York-based saxophonist Jerome Sabbagh has been turning heads with his series of elegant inside-out efforts over the last few years... There’s a consistent feeling of exploration on display tempered with an unforgiving discipline - a great combination.” — Peter Margasak | DownBeat
