Isn't It Romantic

Jazz masters Joe Alterman (piano) and Houston Person (saxophone), friends in life and on the musical stage, come together for a very special Valentine’s Day treat for all the hopeful romantics out there! Person brings his legendary velvety tone and Alterman plays with consummate charisma in an intimate concert of romantic favorites and American Songbook selections including, of course, “My Funny Valentine."

Houston Person, born in Newberry, South Carolina in 1934, remains the King of the Boss Tenor Sax and nothing, it seems, can stop him, now in his seventh decade of performing.

He has more than 75 albums under his own name and has recorded with Etta Jones, Lena Horne, Lou Rawls, Dakota Staton, Horace Silver, Charles Earland, Joey DeFrancesco, Charles Brown and more. To Houston, "it's important that jazz is relaxing - something that when the end of the day comes, after a hard and frustrating day out in the world, it relieves you, relaxes you and makes you feel good.” He smiles, adding, "You always want that dance feeling there, too - that happy, happy feeling."

Atlanta native Joe Alterman expresses a certain upbeat naiveté, with a broad smile and bright eyes that make you feel welcome. At first glance one might not guess that this is a man hailed by greats; Ramsey Lewis describes his music as "happy music with tasty meat on the bones," Les McCann states "Joe's on a 'blow your mind' level," and Ahmad Jamal calls him "a very special artist."  Journalist Nat Hentoff championed three of Alterman’s albums, as well as his writing (Joe wrote liner notes to three Wynton Marsalis/JLCO albums), calling one of Joe’s columns “one of the very best pieces on the essence of jazz, the spirit of jazz, that I've ever read, and I’m not exaggerating."

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