Joe Alterman feat. Houston Person

Street Date : February 7, 2025
Jazz
Joe Alterman Feat. Houston Person

This is an album that is quintessentially… jazz, deeply rooted in the classical tradition, and yet undeniably delightful. It offers the great pleasure of featuring guest saxophonist Houston Person, a master of Hard Bop who has shared the stage with some of jazz’s most illustrious figures, including Charles Brown, Lena Horne, Etta Jones, Lou Rawls, Horace Silver, Don Patterson, and Grant Green—just to name a few from a list so extensive it could fill an entire dictionary. Here, everything seems designed to envelop his sound in a rich, sonic voluptuousness, expertly supported by Joe Alterman on piano, Kevin Smith on double bass, and Justin Chesarek on drums.

Growing up in Atlanta, Georgia, pianist Joe Alterman was not immediately immersed in the sounds of jazz. While he quickly fell in love with the full spectrum of jazz styles and became a celebrated torchbearer of its traditions, his earliest musical passions lay in bluegrass and blues. It is perhaps no surprise, then, that when he began exploring the jazz pantheon, he was drawn not to bebop modernists like Bill Evans, but to blues-rooted titans such as Oscar Peterson, Ramsey Lewis, Les McCann, and Houston Person.

This album embodies a pursuit of a jazz tradition that is far from lost and is honored monthly with gems such as this one. Following Big Mo & Little Joe—an emotive and energetic 2023 album documenting Alterman’s close friendship and onstage collaboration with the late Les McCann—this purely acoustic ensemble continues to exude timelessness. Here, we see a modernity emerge in the themes, with particularly joyful interpretations. This is the kind of album to play on a rainy Sunday, guaranteed to infuse you with the energy needed to face the gloom and dampness. Even its title evokes an air of tradition, as steadfast as America’s reverence for brisket—an art form in its own right, with countless specialists guarding their seasoning and cooking secrets, akin to the guarded recipes of Belgian beers.

Alterman and Person bonded over their shared love of good food, particularly the comfort of Southern home cooking. Their exuberant, soul-jazz-infused interpretations of familiar standards, ballads, and blues pieces are as satisfying as the finest comfort dishes. As the esteemed critic Nat Hentoff once wrote of the saxophonist’s timeless sound: “Houston Person is as contemporary as an expression of love.” A sentiment we fully share for this album, which earns a well-deserved four stars. One might wish for more original compositions here, but it must be said that the minimalist arrangements leave all the joy in Houston Person’s masterful performance.

Thierry De Clemensat
USA correspondent – Paris-Move and ABS magazine
Editor in chief Bayou Blue Radio, Bayou Blue News

PARIS-MOVE, January 25th 2025

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