Articles by Joe Alterman

The Jazz Life

Les McCann and Me: Laughter, love, and the friendship that changed my life

by Joe Alterman
May 12, 2026

It was barely a month before Les McCann died that I was sitting in the dressing room at Birdland FaceTiming with him just before hitting the stage to celebrate my recent release, which was a tribute to Les and his beautiful original compositions. Two hours earlier, we'd been chatting by FaceTime in my hotel room when I told Les that I had to go because it was time for me to take a shower so that I could ...

History of Jazz

Music as Survival: Trumpeter Louis Bannet's Chilling Ultimatum at Auschwitz

by Joe Alterman
August 3, 2025

Before the war, violinist and trumpeter Louis Bannet was a celebrated jazz musician in Holland, often called “the Dutch Louis Armstrong." Once, before the war, he heard a knock on his dressing room door. “So you're the Dutch Louis Armstrong?" a deep, raspy voice said. “It's nice to meet you. I'm the American one." And just like that, he and Louis Armstrong jammed the night away. Then everything changed. Arrested and sent to Auschwitz, Louis Bannet faced a ...

History of Jazz

Jazz in Nazi Germany: The Music That Wouldn’t Die

by Joe Alterman
June 29, 2025

This article was originally published on Moment Magazine. Music, at its core, is freedom. It cannot be caged by ideology or controlled by propaganda. The Nazis understood that, which is why they tried so desperately to suppress it, to twist it, to erase it. And yet, even in those darkest of times, music found a way to persist--not as a passive relic, but as an act of defiance and expression, a refusal to be silenced. And ...

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Album Review

Tyree Glenn / Hank Jones Quintet/Sextet: Complete Recordings

Read "Complete Recordings" reviewed by Joe Alterman

by Joe Alterman
September 25, 2010

In the history of jazz, few pianists have been as prolific as the recently deceased Hank Jones. His tasteful and subtle playing is documented on literally thousands of recordings. Many of them are today known as jazz classics--benchmarks to the greatness of this music--and Jones' playing and support on all of them were crucial in creating those historic, beautiful and legendary legacies.For whatever reason, many of Jones' recordings have long been either forgotten, out of print, or very ...

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Album Review

Keith Jarrett / Charlie Haden: Jasmine

by Joe Alterman
September 11, 2010

Keith Jarrett, like Sonny Rollins, is quite hard to pin down. Like the iconic saxophonist, for many years now, the equally legendary pianist has been leaning towards the songs of his youth, and even earlier. Compared with their song choices of, say, twenty years ago, it would seem that these players have become more conservative over the years; that is, however, simply not true. Again, like Rollins, Jarrett's improvisations have evolved through the years, with an even greater searching and ...