For those unaware, growing up in Atlanta, Georgia, pianist Joe Alterman wasn’t raised with the sounds of jazz in his ears.

Though he’d quickly come to love the full panoply of jazz styles and become an acclaimed torchbearer for the music’s tradition, Alterman’s first musical passions were bluegrass and the blues.

So perhaps it should come as no surprise that when he did start exploring the jazz pantheon, it wasn’t bebop modernists like Bill Evans that lured him in – it was blues-rooted greats like Oscar Peterson, Ramsey Lewis, Les McCann, or Houston Person.

The connection that Alterman felt with those greats as a listener has, in many cases, long since been surpassed by the connections that he’s made with his heroes as a collaborator.

Following on the heels of 2023’s rollicking and emotional Big Mo & Little Joe, documenting his close friendship and onstage partnership with the late McCann, comes Brisket for Breakfast, a joyous live recording pairing Alterman and his Atlanta-based trio with Person’s burly embrace of a tenor sound.

1. The Second Time Around [7:45]
2. That’s All [8:35]
3. Only Trust Your Heart [7:43]
4. Never Let Me Go [5:05]
5. Namely You [8:44]
6. Since I Fell For You [8:59]
7. You Are My Sunshine [7:25]

Having been recorded at a pair of concerts in Georgia: one at the Breman Museum & Cultural Center in Atlanta and a second a few weeks later at the Savannah Music Festival, this compulsive listening of a recording opens on the robustly dulcet Sammy Cahn/Jimmy Van Heusen standard The Second Time Around and then we get the languishing lesser-known classic That’s All and the playfully joyful Only Trust Your Heart brought forth.

With their chemistry evident throughout, up next is the low slung ambiance of the Joseph Scott hit Never Let Me Go which is in turn followed seamlessly by the fervently sculpted Namely You, the set rounding out on the emboldened beaty of Since I Fell For You, coming to an all too soon close on the melodious swing of the gospel-tinged You Are My Sunshine.

Musicians:
Houston Person, saxophone
Joe Alterman, piano
Kevin Smith, bass
Justin Chesarek, drums

Out February 7th, 2025, Brisket for Breakfast lives up to the down-home bonhomie and southern-fried soul suggested by its title. Aside from their shared musical philosophies, Alterman and Person have bonded over a mutual love of good food, particularly southern home cooking, and their exuberant, soul jazz-inspired interpretations of familiar standards, ballads and blues goes down with the savory warmth of the best comfort food.

As the revered critic Nat Hentoff once wrote about the saxophonist’s timeless sound, “Houston Person is always as contemporary as an expression of love.”

“Every time we’re on stage together,” Alterman says, “from the first note I hear I feel so lucky to be in the room with Houston, let alone playing with him. His sound makes me realize how great it is to be alive.”

“We play the good stuff,” adds Person with a characteristic chuckle. “I really like the spontaneity that comes out on a live album, and Joe and I have a lot of fun with live performances. He plays with a lot of humor and he’s just an all-around nice guy.”

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