Pic(k) of the Week: Joe Alterman

  Click on the image for a larger, hi-res version (on Flickr).

Atlanta-based pianist Joe Alterman and his trio delivered a rollicking performance at the Inman Park Festival.

Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
26 April 2026.

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Joe Alterman

Joe Alterman is an Atlanta-based jazz pianist, composer, and storyteller known for blending joyful swing, deep groove, and heartfelt narrative into every performance. A bandleader with an international touring career, Alterman has performed across the U.S. and Europe and released numerous acclaimed albums spanning solo piano, trio, and soul-inflected jazz. Deeply influenced by mentors such as Les McCann, Ramsey Lewis, and Ahmad Jamal, his music emphasizes melody, feel, and emotional connection over flash. In addition to performing, Alterman is a radio host on Atlanta’s NPR affiliate WABE and a sought-after cultural curator, weaving history, humor, and humanity into his concerts. Whether on stage or over the airwaves, his mission is simple: to remind listeners that jazz is joyful, accessible, and very much alive.

📷 More photos of Alterman and his trio: here.

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Inman Park Festival

The Inman Park Festival & Tour of Homes takes place in Inman Park, one of Atlanta’s oldest and most scenic neighborhoods. First developed in the late 1800s, Inman Park features an abundance of historic homes and several scenic parks.

The Festival began in the early 1970s as a means to attract attention for revitalization efforts in the community. Now, it is a full weekend jam-packed with events: music, kids' activities, a Tour of Homes, a marvelous street parade, an artists’ market, not to mention some of the city’s best people-watching. It is organized annually by the Inman Park Neighborhood Association on the last full weekend in April.

📷 More festival photos: here.

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Joe Alterman: Blue Moon

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Pic(k) of the Week: Pre-concert preparations

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Bassist Teja Veal prepares for Rhonda Thomas' Red Dragonfly concert.

Inman Park Festival: City of Atlanta (Inman Park), Georgia, USA. 26 April 2025.

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Rhonda Thomas at Inman Park Festival.

Soul/jazz vocalist Rhonda Thomas incorporates jazz, soul, gospel, house, and funk in her music. From 1997-2008, Ms. Thomas was a background singer and soloist for soul music legend, the late Isaac Hayes. She has also performed with Roy Ayers, Roberta Flack, Eric Roberson, Avery Sunshine, Frank McComb, Stephanie Mills, The String Cheese Incident, and others. She performs internationally, in her own right.

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Rhonda Thomas with Isaac Hayes: Do Your Thing.
Montreau Jazz Festival, 2005

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Pic(k) of the Week: Black Sheep brass

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Black Sheep Ensemble performed during the WigWag Art & Music Festival — "a hyperlocal art and music festival, celebrating local artists and musicians" — in Avondale Estates, Georgia, USA. 31 May 2025.

Black Sheep Ensemble is a modern brass and percussion band from Atlanta, Georgia. Our performances are rooted in Second Line traditions but with a repertoire that blends Prohibition-era Swing, Jazz, Balkan, Latin, Ska, Punk, and more into one danceable sound. We bring a crowd to its feet and keep them there. Low brass belts out the bass line while drums drive the rhythm.

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Black Sheep Ensemble: St. James Infirmary.
Clips of live performances, in 2020, in New Orleans, Atlanta, and Boston.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Wasted Potential @Porchfest

The trombonist for Wasted Potential brass band performs during Oakhurst Porchfest, in Decatur, Georgia, USA. 14 October 2023.

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What is Porchfest?

In 2007, Lesley Greene and Gretchen Hildreth had an idea in Ithaca, New York: What if we had an afternoon when porches all over the neighborhood became stages and everyone just meandered from yard to yard, listening, hanging out, and connecting/reconnecting with their neighbors? Porchfest, the ultimate grassroots music festival, was born. 100% resident owned and operated, it’s been going and growing every year since. And in that time, other neighborhoods all around the country have taken the model and run with it.

The Oakhurst neighborhood in the city of Decatur, Georgia, launched its own Porchfest in October, 2015. The success that materialized that year — more than 130 performances in four hours — took us all by surprise and culminated in what Georgia's music tourism bureau called 'very likely the most diverse lineup of any festival' in the state. And, now, on Saturday, October 14, 2023. from noon to 7pm, we'll do it all again: 210 performances on porches and lawns, all around Oakhurst.

— Oakhust Porchfest

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Who are Wasted Potential?

Wasted Potential Brass Band is Atlanta's pop up party starter. Powered by tuba goodness, this brass band got their start playing on the streets of Decatur, Georgia. WPBB features a second line street beat, southern horn section, blues vocals and sousaphone as bass. Find them in Atlanta, Georgia, playing festivals and bars. They're what fun sounds like.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Happy International Jazz Day!

Happy International Jazz Day!

Here: Keeping clave time with Orquesta MaCuba, at the Inman Park Festival in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

I shot this image on 23 April 2022...but International Jazz Day is celebrated today and, in fact, every year on the 30th of April. Jazz lives!

International Jazz Day is an International Day declared by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in 2011 "to highlight jazz and its diplomatic role of uniting people in all corners of the globe." It is celebrated annually on April 30. The idea came from jazz pianist and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Herbie Hancock. Jazz Day is chaired by Hancock and the UNESCO Director-General [Audrey Azoulay]. The celebration is recognized on the calendars of both UNESCO and the United Nations.

— Wikipedia

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Pic(k) of the Week: Blues through the balustrade

As seen through the balcony balustrade, concert-goers (and beer drinkers) gather round Cincinnati, Ohio-born blues guitarist/vocalist Stacy Mitchhart during his performance at Bourbon Street Blues and Boogie Bar, in the Printer's Alley district of Nashville, Tennessee, on 2 February 2018.

In 2003, Mitchhart received the 'Albert King Most Promising Guitarist Award' at the Blues Foundation's International Challenge, in Memphis, Tennessee and has won a Grammy and been nominated for two more, according to Wikipedia.

Don't forget the blues!

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