Jerome Sabbagh: Plugged In
Tobias FischerA bit of foreign intrigue at play within this jazz combo, mostly redolent of a French bouquet given that sax-player/leader Sabbagh is French by birth, and his keys partner, Jozef Dumoulin, is Belgian.
What results is a sort of Weather Report 2.0, with Sabbagh not stretching his tenor sax too far, nor getting too noisy with it, leaving the weird stuff to Dumoulin, whose tones and outbursts can be real curveballs, even dissonant at times without going all-out skronk. But that’s the first half of the LP; the second half holds more interesting things for the casual chill listener; less experiment and more club. Ideally you’d want to see these guys make up their minds as far as an overall vibe – as I’ve said countless times, not everyone enjoys being jolted out of their reveries with electronics squawking unbidden samples into their headphones.
The talent – certainly Sabbagh’s thick, smart approach – is more than adequate to stumble upon greatness.
By Eric Saeger
Homepage: Jerome Sabbagh
Homepage: Bee Jazz Records