“Alterman attributes his connection with the past to his love of history, his need to research jazz lineages and track the twists and turns of an artist’s career. When he was first becoming a jazz player, in high school in Atlanta, he indeed thought all of it was history. He got to New York and realized that the artists he listened to on recordings were still making music and he could learn directly from them.

Instead of performing a history lesson for the audience, Alterman simply strove to evoke an emotion. His approach became “this music makes me feel good, I bet it could make you feel good, too.” He added, “So it wasn’t really looking back on the past as much as it was connecting with the past and wanting to share that with the present.”

-JON ROSS