Jazz pianist Joe Alterman will lead a musical tribute to legendary record producer Milt Gabler this weekend, performing classic songs and sharing a virtual conversation with the late music executive’s nephew Billy Crystal.
The Sunday event is part of the Jewish concert and culture series Neranenah. It will take place Sunday at 7 p.m. at the Studio Theater on the City Springs campus in Sandy Springs. Tickets are $50 to $125.
Alterman’s quintet, along with vocalist Karla Harris and spoken word artist Adan Bean, will perform classics that Gabler produced, such as “It Had to Be You,” “Rock Around the Clock,” and “LOVE,” which the music executive also co-wrote.
“It will feel like a living room concert,” Alterman said.
That vibe is synchronistic with the Neranenah name, a Hebrew word that translates to “Let’s come together and sing.”
Between songs on Sunday, pre-recorded segments of a conversation between Alterman and Crystal will be shown, with the actor sharing funny personal stories and memories.
Crystal inducted Gabler into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.
In the 1930s and ’40s, Gabler founded Commodore Records and worked with Decca Records.
Under his Commodore enterprise, Gabler was the first person to sell reissued records that were unwanted by the original record labels, according to Alterman and jazzstandards.com.
He eventually began to produce original recordings on Commodore Records, including Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” in 1939.
“She brought it to her record label, which was Columbia, and they didn’t want to touch it,” Alterman said. “She was devastated, so she went to her friend, Milt Gabler…”
During Sunday’s show, the audience will hear Crystal share stories about what it was like growing up around musicians and what inspired him to be a comedic actor, Alterman said.
“Billie Holiday took Billie Crystal to his first movie,” Alterman said. “She was his babysitter. She called him “Mr. Billy,” and He called her “Mrs. Billie.”
The pianist said one of his favorite stories that Crystal shares is about celebrated trumpeter and vocalist Louis Armstrong.
“This is more funny hearing him say it, but he said Louis Armstrong used to come to his Passover Seders — and you know [Louis] had that very raspy voice. And [Crystal] said, ‘My grandma just looked at him one time and said, Hey Louis, Can’t you just cough it up?'”
Alterman, executive director of Neranenah, said it’s been important to honor the bond between Jewish and Black musicians. The 36-year-old’s personal mentors have included the late pianists Ahmad Jamal, Les McCann and Ramsey Lewis, whose piano Alterman has inherited, he said.
Sunday’s show will be followed by a Neranenah event next month that recognizes more Jewish contributions to American music.
The event, “The Brill Building Era & Beyond,” will spotlight how the New York office building became a creative hub for such iconic songwriters as Carole King, Burt Bacharach, Neil Sedaka and more.
Billy Crystal has (had) family in Atlanta dating back to the 1940s, if not before. His mother Helen’s sister (Crystal’s aunt) Jean (Regina) lived here in Midtown and was a practicing physician as was her husband. Both lived well into their mid-90s.