Karla Harris and the Joe Alterman Trio
Atlanta, GA
Grant amount: $14,924
Performances
Winyah Auditorium. Georgetown, SC. 6/17/2022
Middle C Jazz Club. Charlotte, NC. 6/18/2022
Hayesville High School. Hayesville, NC. 6/21/2022
Tina McGuire Theater. Asheville, NC. 6/24/2022
The Peacock Playhouse. Hayesville, NC. 6/25/2022
About the Artist
The members of the quartet are: Karla Harris - vocals, music selection and co-band leader; Joe Alterman - piano, music selection and co-band leader; Kevin Smith - bass, and Justin Chesarek - drums and percussion.
This band first performed at a January 2020 concert at the Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center in Georgia. While the group has performed in prominent events in towns outside of Atlanta, the pandemic has only allowed for one-off performances (not touring). Individually, the band's principal artists, Karla Harris and Joe Alterman, do have touring experience in their resumes.
Karla’s performance credits include events such as the Sarasota Jazz Festival, Portland Jazz Festival, Oregon Coast Jazz Party, Nantucket Arts Festival, Atlanta Jazz Party, and a TED Talk. Her tours have been typically been tied to new music releases. Highlighted recent tours would a 10-day tour in France on a Jazz cruise, another tour in the Sarasota / St. Petersburg, Florida area, and several smaller tours in the Portland, Oregon area.
Her latest CD, Certain Element's, charted on the prestigious Jazz Week chart. Legendary smooth jazz artist Dave Koz featured one of her songs on his SiriusXM radio show, The Dave Koz Lounge. The album’s first single, a remake of the ’60s hit “Cherish,” is heard on contemporary jazz stations across the globe.
Joe Alterman is a jazz pianist and journalist born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. He studied music at New York University, where he earned both his Bachelor's and Master’s Degrees in Music. While there, he had the opportunity to study with greats including Don Friedman, Joe Lovano and John Scofield.
Joe continues to perform at many world-renowned venues including the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Birdland and New York’s Blue Note, where he has opened, many times, for Ramsey Lewis. His tours are typically based in the New York City and the Chicago venues.
Alterman has released four critically-acclaimed albums, his most recent being 2018’s More Cornbread. He was profiled three times by iconic journalist Nat Hentoff and was the subject of Hentoff’s very last piece on music in March 2016.