Joe Alterman, Adam Dorn and Special Guests at Rizzoli Bookstore

Joe Alterman and Adam Dorn (aka Mocean Worker) and special guests
Rizzoli Bookstore 
Les McCann Tribute / All About Jazz 30th Anniversary Party
New York, NY
May 3, 2026

A landmark birthday calls for a party, preferably with live music. And that's just what was thrown for All About Jazz on Sunday to celebrate the website's 30 years of history.

In remarks to open the festivities, AAJ founder—and still the site's publisher—Michael Ricci recalled a 1998 New York Times feature story about the then-new phenomenon of jazz content going online. The piece cited some 300 websites. Only two of them endure to today, Ricci said. "All About Jazz and MilesDavis.com."

Jazz and a hang-loose celebration don't always easily co-exist, at least when it comes to contemporary styles of the music. But the organizers of Sunday's event, held at the Rizzoli Bookstore under the auspices of Ludovico Granvassu, publisher of All About Jazz: Italia and host of Mondo Jazz, created a joyous exception.

The concert was an exuberant set of soul-jazz in tribute to the late Les McCann. There's nothing cerebral about this groove-oriented jazz hybrid, of which McCann was a prime practitioner from the early 1960s into the 2000s. And few bands could sustain the effervescent vibe of McCann's infectious music better than this one. 

The reasons are partly personal. Though far from the same generation as McCann (who died at 88 in 2023), both of the band's leaders knew—and adored—the man since they were in their teens.

In remarks that deepened the warm vibe of the show, pianist Joe Alterman talked of how an encounter in which McCann challenged him to play the blues turned into a friendship in which the two talked almost daily for more than a decade. In turn, bassist Adam Dorn (aka. Mocean Worker) said he met McCann through his father—the legendary Joel Dorn, who produced McCann—and found the keyboardist to be similarly nurturing.

The leaders' love translated into music that not only captured the essential ingredients of McCann's music—a relentless soul groove into which funky, jazz-infused solos are woven—but its irresistible spirit as well. As the set proceeded, much of the audience, who packed the bookstore's high-ceilinged back room, were tapping their toes and flashing smiles.

The music's appeal stemmed partly from a deliberate lack of pre-planning. "We decided we'd only meet at soundcheck, and take it from there," Dorn disclosed to the crowd. Even then, a lot was left open-ended, as trumpeter Steven Bernstein  said in a chat after the show. "Me and John [saxophonist John Ellis] had a couple of melodies. The rest we just took as it came." No charts graced the stage.

Yet the results were anything but tentative or disjointed, even from the two hornmen who most needed to be in sync during the funky heads of the tunes. Those compositions were not penned by McCann, but by Alterman in a canny—if you will—channeling of the pianist's style. The tunes are captured on Keep The Line Open (MOWO! Inc., 2025), an album from Alterman and Dorn.

The rhythmic foundation—so critical to successful soul-jazz—came from a veritable summit meeting of jazz percussionists. Lenny White, a master drummer known for his deep and propulsive groove, quickly grasped the rhythmic essence of every piece, despite his (presumed) relative unfamiliarity with them. Next to him, and equally inventive and locked in, was Daniel Sadownick—a first-call percussionist in multiple genres—on congas, cowbell, tambourine and more.

The demands of playing soul-jazz, even this well, is sometimes dismissed by music snobs, who equate jazz mastery with using complex harmonies, tricky time signatures, and the like. Yet the ability to sustain a groove that's rock steady, and holds attention without a sense of stasis, is a virtuosity unto itself. Add in the exuberance and joyousness of Dorn/Alterman and company and the result was a bona fide feel-good experience.