It’s the first Tuesday night of the month at Temple Israel and, impious as it sounds, the joint is jumping.
That’s because Dave Altschuler and his swing band are back at the synagogue for their monthly dance party/temple fund-raiser. Altschuler hoists his big tenor saxophone and blows the opening bars of Glenn Miller’s “In the Mood.”
When it comes to classic swing and big band, Altschuler is always in the mood. The Alameda trumpeter and sax player has long been a fixture on the local jazz scene. Now he makes his solo recording debut with “Songs of Love,” a new CD of standards.
“These are songs I grew up with,” says Altschuler of the album. “All are love songs, but done in different styles: some swing, some R&B, one with a Latin feel.”
Among the 14 tracks are songs like “It Had to Be You,” “Since I Fell For You,” “How Deep is the Ocean” and “When I Fall in Love.” Keyboardist Doug McKeehan and singer Kate Pittard join Altschuler on several tracks.
Being a Jewish jazz musician is no great novelty, but not many players, Jewish or not, can handle trumpet and saxophone with equal aplomb. Altschuler, 55, has been swinging both ways since the New York native first picked up a trumpet at age 8 and a sax a couple of years later.
He landed his first professional gig at 14, and later played the wedding/bar mitzvah circuit when his family relocated to St. Louis. His early heroes included players like Clark Terry, Clifford Brown, Zoot Sims and Stan Getz. The Beatles and the Stones were mere afterthoughts. “I didn’t have a passion for rock,” he says. “It seemed too simplistic to me. I was into big band jazz.”
Being a Jewish jazz fan didn’t go over well with some of his fellow high school students in St. Louis. “When I was in 10th grade,” he recalls, “every time I got on the bus, one kid said ‘Here comes Jewball.’ This went on a couple of weeks. I always identified as a Jew and felt my Jewish identity very strongly. Finally I took my trumpet and smashed his head and punched him in the stomach. No one said a word. He never bothered me again.”
He put his trumpet to better use as a musician. One of his gigs was playing in a St. Louis riverboat on the Mississippi River. Another, playing in the house band at the Tanzville, an Orthodox Jewish hotel in the Catskill Mountains. Says Altschuler: “I remember waking up every day to the sound of davening.”
In 1971, Altschuler came to California because, as he puts it, “I was not crazy about living with the tornadoes” in Missouri. He went on to graduate from SFSU with a bachelor’s in social welfare. That led to a career as a social worker, including a long stint at the old Jewish Community Center/Montefiore Center in San Francisco.
But he never stopped playing music. For more than a decade, he was a member of the late Walt Tolleson’s big band, and he has performed countless gigs with his own band. He also teaches sax and trumpet.
A father of two grown daughters and grandfather of two, Altschuler has plenty to keep him busy these days. But music remains central to his life.
And as for the surprisingly high number of Jews involved in jazz music, Altschuler has a ready explanation.
“Jews, Italians and blacks are in jazz in high numbers,” he says. “When you’re a minority, self-expression is more important and it comes out in more ways.”
Dave Altschuler’s “Songs of Love” CD is available for $12. Contact: [email protected].