I posted on the film board, but I'll post further thoughts here.

Altman I think should be admired for his extraordinary use of sound primarily; nobody created such rich audio textures as he did. And his camerawork, a casual, free-roaming camera, helped accentuate that. I'd call him a master of what I call aesthetic texture; the narrative in his films comes and goes, but you never get a sense of fabrication. They never really begin, never really end; they're just in constant states of exposition. Worlds entirely involved with themselves.

RIP.