By Craig Horleman

DOVER — Sgt. Maj. John Altman is experiencing a lifelong dream.

As a trumpet player and road manager for the Jazz Ambassadors of the U.S. Army Field Band, he gets to follow in the footsteps of musicians before him and pursue his passion.

“I think what really drew me to it was family service. My dad was in the U.S. Army National Guard, and my grandfather was also a service member. So, I thought, ‘You know what? I think I’m going to check this out just for the family legacy side of things,’” said Sgt. Maj. Altman, who joined the field band in 1999, first with the concert band and then, in 2012, joining the Jazz Ambassadors.

He also picked up the trumpet at age 9 and never put it down.

“When I was like 11 years old, I went to a boat convention up in New York with my dad, and they had a caricature artist there. And I must have been wearing an Army ROTC hat or something like that because this caricature artist drew me playing the trumpet with an Army hat on. And I thought that was kind of interesting at 11 years old. It entered my mind, ‘Maybe I’ll play trumpet in a military band someday,’” he recalled.

Sgt. Maj. Altman and the rest of the Jazz Ambassadors will continue their long tradition of presenting free public performances at 7 p.m. April 2 at the Education and Humanities Theatre of Delaware State University.

The concert is presented by the school’s music program.

Formed in 1969, the 19-member ensemble has received acclaim at home and abroad, performing a truly American art form, jazz. They have appeared in all 50 states, Canada, Mexico, Japan, India and throughout Europe.

Performances include concerts at the Toronto Jazz Fest, the Richmond (Virginia) Jazz and Music Festival at Maymont, the Kennedy Center Honors, the Jazz Education Network Conference and on “The Colbert Report.”

The only state in which Sgt. Maj. Altman has not played with the Jazz Ambassadors is Hawaii.

“I keep asking every single time, “When are we going to Hawaii? They’re underserved.’ They always tell me, ‘They already have a band. Don’t worry about them,’” he joked.

He said his most memorable show took place in Alaska.

“We were actually in the little, tiny town of Barrow, Alaska (now known as Utqiagvik), which is literally north of the Arctic Circle. We flew in there on a C-130 and performed for that community, and they were the most appreciative and welcoming audience because they were like, ‘Wow, you guys came all the way up here for us,’” he said.

“And it just reminded me of how important what we do is to every single town around our United States. That, for me, was a really Hallmark moment of ‘Wow, what I do is important to somebody.’”

It’s being able to reach so many people in the United States and elsewhere that is a big piece of Sgt. Maj. Altman’s love of performing with the Jazz Ambassadors.

“We get a lot of veteran families that come out. We get some Gold Star mothers that occasionally come. Of course, that’s really touching for us, to be able to thank them for their family service,” he said.

“It’s really typically a moving experience in a positive way. We do definitely have some moments where we’ll get a veteran to visit with us after a concert, and they express how many memories were jogged, maybe in the loss of a member in their service, and we spend extra time with them, for sure.”

Sgt. Maj. Altman also hopes band members can be a source of inspiration.

“We’ll see a youngster come up and say, ‘Hey, that’s what I want to do. I want to go into the military. I didn’t know you could play trumpet in the military.’ Or they might not find that they want to be a musician. They might just say, ‘I want to be a soldier like you.’ That’s really an important part of what we do, is just to be really good representatives of the uniform when we go out to communities,” he said.

Each Jazz Ambassador is on active military duty.

“Everybody who comes through and enlists goes through basic training. They go through all the same rigors of physical training that any of our Army soldiers do. Then, they keep it up through the years, as well. It’s not just one and done. We are constantly staying up with the Army standards with physical training, as well as in appearance and all the (standard operating procedures) along with it,” Sgt. Maj. Altman said.

He estimates that the Jazz Ambassadors will be on stage 100 times this year. Next week's performance is the beginning of a 24-day tour around the country.

And, when the band is not performing, members are rehearsing and training at Fort Meade in Anne Arundel County, Maryland.

“We pretty much get together at least three times a week in rehearsal formation, just to run through everything. Right now, we’re working on basically six different concert programs that we’re rotating through on this four-week tour,” he said.

“So, it’s quite a bit of music that we get through on any rehearsal, and everybody’s getting together for additional sectionals, as well. So, like the trumpet section will get together and do a little extra work in between rehearsals. (Tuesday,) it was the full brass. So, it was trumpet and trombones getting together, working on some points that we need to just refine before full band rehearsal.”

The visit to Delaware State will include an educational workshop for students at 4:30 p.m., followed by the concert, which will also feature new vocalist Staff Sgt. Emily Perkins.

“That’s probably going to be one of our jazz shows, which is essentially jazz and some patriotic music. So, in the beginning, we’ll go through about 100 years of jazz history, everything from traditional jazz to Duke Ellington, and then some more modern and progressive arrangements, and then, we’ll finish off with some patriotic music. So, it will be a little bit of everything,” Sgt. Maj. Altman said.

Aside from the military angle of performing, he wishes people just enjoy the music.

“We hope the concertgoers that come out to our concerts are really energized by the messaging and by the performance of the individuals. Some of them never knew that they really enjoyed jazz music until they came to one of our performances,” he said.

“They’re like, ‘You know what? Seeing people create on the spot and seeing how much communication exists on the stage has really, really made me a lifelong fan of music now.’ And that’s really inspiring to hear.”

For information about and tickets to the April 2 performance, visit jazz-ambassadors-april-2.eventbrite.com.