Tune in to Experience Talks, our weekly “Radio Magazine for the Experienced Listener,” on Sundays at 5:00 PM PT on KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles, 98.7 FM Santa Barbara, 99.5 China Lake, 93.7 N. San Diego, streaming live online, and now syndicated on up to 100 Pacifica Network stations! Experience Talks is produced by the non-profit EngAGE, Inc.
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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 27 @ 5 PM PT
JOHN ALTMAN
Host: JOHN SEMPER JR.
This show is Part One of a two-part interview. Part Two will air on 12/4.
JOHN ALTMAN is a BAFTA and Emmy Award-winning British composer, arranger, orchestrator, and conductor. Born in London, Altman was introduced to the music of the 1930s and 1940s at an early age by an uncle who arranged and composed music for big bands and conducted for Judy Garland, the Marx Brothers, and Laurel and Hardy, among others. His only formal musical training was piano lessons as a child, but he found he had inherited the “music gene” which allowed him to understand music and play multiple instruments easily. While enrolled at the University of Sussex he was involved in session work and gigs with Fleetwood Mac and Nico. He also played saxophone in rock bands and with blues and jazz groups with such artists as Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Little Richard, and Van Morrison.
In the mid-1970s, Altman began arranging and conducting, and worked with Rod Stewart, George Michael, Tina Turner, Diana Ross, Graham Parker, and Monty Python. For the latter, he arranged the music for their “Rutles” television special and later contributed to The Life of Brian, most notably as producer and arranger of the song, “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.” He also produced and conducted the period music for James Cameron’s Titanic.
Altman also frequently has been a guest conductor for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and is a prolific writer of music for commercials, having scored more than 4,000 international ads.
John Altman often performs in the US and UK with his big band and in jazz groups. Read more here.
EngAGE has partnered with several large Southern California food banks to have our trucks pick up our allocation of food. It’s then parceled into easy-to-carry packages and delivered to our communities where our low-income senior residents receive the healthy food they need to sustain them each month. This service eliminates the problems many of our seniors face when trying to access food banks: the packaging of food is too bulky and the pick-up locations are often unreachable.
In addition to providing access to food, we also provide free weekly onsite wellness classes, teaching low-income seniors how to prepare healthy meals, practice better nutrition behaviors (including financial planning for grocery shopping), and retain their health and independence. Residents particularly enjoy cooking together and sharing the tasty results.
We also offer classes in exercise, strength building, fall prevention, health education, medication management, and others that catalyze low-income seniors to take on healthy behaviors that keep them in independent affordable housing and out of higher levels of care. This saves society large amounts of dollars in public subsidies and creates substantial savings for families.
Through the years, EngAGE also has installed and supervised on-site vegetable gardens in 14 senior communities we serve. Residents choose whether to have separate plots, or to share the produce harvested throughout the community, so that all residents have access to fresh fruits and vegetables to supplement their diet. Residents often prepare meals together using produce from the community gardens, and our cooking/nutrition classes also enjoy the healthy garden ingredients.
