Ar
Entertainment
Power Popster
"What I Like About Jew" creator Sean Altman
seeks a career post-Rockapella.
ERIN PODOLSKY
Special to the Jewish News
t wasn't long ago that every 7-year-old this
side of Sesame Street was singing the theme
song from Where In The World Is Carmen
Sandiego?, and you'd be hard-pressed to find
one who couldn't identify the distinctive-looking tall
guy with the cornrow mullet who led the vocal
stylings of the TV show's house band.
The band's name is Rockapella, and former mem-
ber (and former braid-wearer) Sean Altman is work-
ing hard to make a name for himself: his own.
Currently, Altman is traveling the country doing
"house concerts," a recent music phenomenon in
which artists go from city to city performing in peo-
ple's living rooms; he'll be doing two such shows,
one in Ann Arbor on June 14 and one in West
Bloomfield on June 15.
While the idea might be a bit foreign for those of
us used to shows with fancy lights and sound sys-
tems, Altman says it's a great way to showcase a
smaller talent who can't fill the big arenas.
"The idea of trying to-be a pop star seemed like a
completely elusive dream," he says of the early days
of his career, before PBS made him (and his hair)
something of a celebrity.
"That there was a middle
ground, that you could be a work-
ing, money-making musician and
not be a huge star — it didn't
even occur to me that people did
that. My only role model for that
was people who played in wed-
ding bands."
Born in California and raised in
the Bronx, Altman calls himself a
"child of the late '60s." He grew
up a member of a Conservative
synagogue but didn't have much to do with the reli-
gious aspects of Judaism after turning 13.
"I remember the rabbi said in his sermon at my
bar mitzvah that he was confident I was not going to
become a 'bar mitzvah Jew.' And as he was saying
this, I was thinking, 'Yep, that's me,"" recalls Altman.
"But ironically, I'm very active in several musical
Jewish-related things, so I seem to have come full
circle. I've never been particularly religious, but I've
always felt very connected with my Jewish roots."
And he isn't averse to some of the more social
parts of being Jewish today: he met his fiancee on
JDate, a Jewish online dating service.
The Singing Busboy
It all started musically for Altman in the first grade,
when he says he first realized he could carry a tune.
Erin Podolsky is a Huntington Woods-based freelance writer
6/7
2002
78
After a stint "trying to become a really good athlete,"
the tenor rediscovered his love for music between his
sophomore and junior years in high school.
"I was working as a busboy at a resort in the
Catskill Mountains. Up there. that summer I saw a
barbershop quartet comprised of college students, and
I was just completely smitten with vocal harmony."
Altman returned to the city and formed an a cappel-
la trio with high school classmates David Yazbek (who
went on to compose the score for Broadway's The Full
Mon, as well as co-write the Carmen Sandiego tune
with Altman) and future Rockapella-mate David Stix.
He hasn't stopped singing since.
As an undergraduate at Brown University, Altman
sang in countless bands and a cappella groups, allow-
ing music to jettison his parent-pleasing goal of
becoming a lawyer.
"I think at the time music didn't seem like a viable
option like 'I'm going to be a career musician' —
because I wasn't an instrumentalist and I wasn't even
writing songs. I was just a singer, which seemed like
it was always going to be just a really nice hobby. .
"So I was preparing to be a lawyer. Or at least in my
head I figured, OK, I guess I'll be a lawyer,"' he says.
Altman formed Rockapella several years after gradua-
tion, with three other Brown buddies.
"We never had any aspi-
rations to make any
Altman -
money," he says, but after
released his
a few years of singing on
second solo
New York City street cor-
album,
ners to collect enough
`alt.mania,"
change for the lunch spe-
last month.
cial at a nearby Chinese
restaurant, the members
of Rockapella found
themselves auditioning for
— and winning — the
role of sound effects
machine-cum-house band on PBS's Where in the
World Is Carmen Sandiego?
The show ran from 1991-1996, beaming Altman
into millions of households on- a daily basis and
gaining Rockapella enough fame to cut a few
albums and go out on tour.
What I Like
Since leaving Rockapella in 1997, Altman has been
keeping busy with a full load of projects. His second
solo album, alt. mania, was released last month, and
has already sold more than 500 copies — despite
being distributed almost exclusively on his website:
www.seanaltman.corn
And for the past several years, he has produced
sporadic installments of the "What I Like About
Jew" concert series with writing partner Rob
Tannenbaum, an entertainment journalist.
A semi-annual event that packs New York's Knitting
Sean Altman: "For me, [being Jewish is] like
being part of a very small club that has this
strange food and rich history."
Factory on Christmas Eve and pops up at other loca-
tions throughout the year, the show originally grew
out of their need for a venue to perform their satirical
holiday tune, "Hanukkah With Monica."
"We created the event just so we could get up
there and sing that song, and we invited some other
Jewish singer-songwriters to sing with us. From
there it blossomed into what it is now," Altman says.
He and Tannenbaum are working on a What I
Like About Jew musical, which Altman hopes will be
complete sometime next year.
"I do "What I Like About Jew" entirely for fun,
and if we occasionally make some money, that's
great. But it's my fun comedy side-project. I find it
ironic and really nice because I've never been spiritu-
ally connected with the religion, but it's always been
a big part of me.
-
"I look forward to the traditions of the religion, to
the seders and to meeting my dad at the Second
Avenue Deli."
Altman trails off. "For me, it's like being part of a
very small club that has this strange food and rich
history."
And while that small club might include a lot of great
musicians, Altman says his talent is strictly his own.
"I have a really good recording of my grandfather
singing `Maoz Tzur.' I've played it a couple of times
in concert just to show people that I earned all of
my talent. On the recording he sounds so horrible
— it sounds like the worst, most off-key singing.
"I play it to prove that none of my skill was genet-
ic. I had to work really hard to . get where I am." ❑
Sean Altman will perform house concerts 7
p.m. Friday, June 14, in Ann Arbor and 7:30
p.m. Saturday, June 15, in West Bloomfield.
Tickets are $10 for each show.
For information on the Ann Arbor show, e-mail
seana2show@yahoo.corn. For the West Bloomfield
show, e-mail kanderson2000@aol.com .