Altman is a highly accomplished jazz musician, lauded by respected critic Don Heckman in the Los Angeles Times as "one of the few film composers with authentic jazz skills." In the jazz world he has performed with Chet Baker, Plas Johnson, Ernie Watts, Red Holloway, Conte Candoli, Slim Gaillard, Barbara Morrison, Herb Geller, Wild Bill Davison, Bud Freeman, Les McCann, Percy Heath and many others. He conducted the Stan Tracey Big Band and the Durham Cathedral Choir for an album of Duke Ellington's Sacred Music. His jazz quartet CD You Started Something was released in January 2006 on the Bronze Jazz label, of which he was A&R Director, and was named 'Jazz CD of the Month' in The Observer. His previous CD (featuring his orchestra with jazz singer Joan Viskant) also received this accolade. The John Altman Big Band frequently performs in the US and UK. Personnel includes Wayne Bergeron, Andy Martin, Pete Christlieb, Grant Geissman, Gary Foster, Warren Luening, Peter Erskine, Alex Acuna, and Tom Ranier. Altman performed at the Vladivostok Summer Festival, the San Jose winter jazz series, the LA Jazz Festival, the Hollywood and Highland Summer Jazz Series in Los Angeles and the London Jazz Festival both with the big band, which garnered a standing ovation and rave reviews, and the Caribbean Jazz Cruise. He is also a Patron of the National Jazz Archive and was honoured by the Archive in July 2010. He recently recorded the big band for an album to be released in the New Year of 2022. Altman also undertook a well received big band tour of Australia, and a quintet tour of California. His latest jazz project is a quartet, Pearls of Wisdom, with Police guitarist Andy Summers which debuted in 2014.
He has had a parallel successful career as a composer/arranger/producer for films and television, winning most of the prestigious film composer awards -an EMMY and an ASCAP Film Award for RKO 281 – The Making of Citizen Kane, the Anthony Asquith Award (BAFTA) for Hear My Song, a TRIC Award for Peak Practice, a Golden Reel nomination for Little Voice, a BAFTA nomination for The Old Devils, an Oscar mention for the period music for James Cameron's Titanic, which he also produced, and a second Emmy nomination in 2003 for his score for The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone starring Helen Mirren and Anne Bancroft. His contribution to British and international film music has been recognized in October 2006 by the award of the prestigious Gold Badge of Excellence, the lifetime achievement award of the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters, in 2011 with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Monaco Film Festival, and in 2012 with an honorary doctorate of music from the University of Sussex where he was the first ever Creative Arts Fellow in the Department of Humanities, a position he held through 2010. In 2018 he was awarded a star on the Palace Pier in the Brighton Music Walk of Fame. His autobiography Hidden Man - My Many Musical Lives was published in February 2022 by Equinox Books
He has also become a guest presenter on the BBC Television Culture Show and Channel 4's The Music of James Bond, and was seen extensively in the BBC4 documentary How Pop Songs Work, as well as frequent radio appearances as guest presenter of various jazz shows. A recent TV project was as musical director for the BBC TV 'celebration' of the centenary of Titanic. He has also written the sleeve notes for the album he produced of unreleased material for a double and quadruple CD special edition box set of music from the James Cameron movie Titanic, issued at the time of the release of Titanic 3D, in April 2012. In July 2015 he was commissioned to compose a new score for the Gala screening of the restored silent classic Shooting Stars which premiered in the 2015 London Film Festival. In 2018 he re-arranged Quincy Jones iconic score for the 1969 movie The Italian Job for live projection with orchestra. He has recently begun hosting a series of live conversations in London with friends and colleagues. Thus far his guests have included Sanjeev Bhaskar, Michael Palin, and Goldie with Rob Brydon, Jim Carter, Imelda Staunton, Lenny Henry, Adrian Dunbar, and Bradley Walsh kicking off 2019's guest list.In 2023 he arranged all (and composed some of)the period music for the movie Shoshana directed by Michael Winterbottom
Commercial music composing
Altman is the most prolific writer of music for commercials, having scored more than 4,000 TV advertisements. He won every major creative award, including the inaugural MPA Music in Advertising Award, and being named by Campaign magazine in 2002 as one of the 100 most influential figures in contemporary British advertising, and in 2005 as one of the 5 top composers. The track he wrote for the hardware chain B & Q ran for many years while his music for Levi's and Renault won the Campaign Award for Best Soundtracks in 2003 and 2004. He scored Ridley Scott's promotional film for Prada. His composition for the advertising campaign for Sheila's Wheels car insurance swept the country, and the Sheila's Wheels theme was the most downloaded ringtone in the UK. Among his collaborators in advertising have been such giants as David Bailey, Terence Donovan, John Frankenheimer, Tony Scott, and Sir Salman Rushdie. He is also a prolific composer of library music, with his work being featured worldwide in movies and on television, in productions such as Peaky Blinders,America in Colour and Dancing With The Stars.
Personal life
John is a father and lives with wife on the Essex fringe of London.[5]