Joe Alterman (pianist, storyteller, cultural curator)

You talked about it a little bit on Jazz Now.

But I was listening to Right On from More Cornbread.

Yeah.

I did Thursday and I listened to it again before the interview today.

And there are influences in your play that I can...

It reminds me of Les McCann.

Oh, yeah.

You can have big influence.

Go ahead, my man.

Yeah, no, I was just going to say, you know, that was...

Yeah, Les is...

When I first heard him, it sounded like...

And I don't think I could put it into words at the time, but I really resonated with the sound.

And it felt like I was hearing myself in the future if I practiced or something.

And so I always really...

His sound, when I listened to him, it wasn't just that I enjoyed it.

Something about it felt kind of personal.

It really related to me.

And then meeting him, I found out that I not only resonated with his sound, but the two of us, we really...

I mean, we would... get on the phone and he'd, you know, sometimes he'd preach to me like a preacher.

Other times we just tell dirty jokes, other, you know, we could go anywhere.

And, and, and it was just so, uh, and he talked to my dad, you know, he wanted to, uh, become ordained to be the, the, the, the rabbi at my wedding.

I mean, we had such an amazing friendship and, and, And he had stories, like every situation I was in, I would share stories with him.

And he always had, you know, another story that not only could top my story, but I would learn from it.

Like, you know, a few months before I met Les, I was at the Blue Note and I opened for Hiromi.