Joey Alexander has the world at his fingers

/ January 8, 2016

Joey Alexander is great, period, the music critic from New York City told the 60 Minutes reporter
Anderson Cooper. Not just for a 12-year-old.

Indeed, I thought, as my dear wife Karen and I watched this stunning piece Sunday night on CBS, this is a jazz artist that can flat-out play. Cooper did a nice job letting the story tell itself, a tale of a young lad from Bali who grew up listening to his father’s jazz albums, first played the drums, started piano lessons with a classical music teacher, and then stopped when that educator could not let the home-schooled kid improvise on Chopin and the like.

Joey Alexander, taken from my wide-screen.

Joey Alexander, taken from my wide-screen.

Joey’s parents knew what they heard and saw. They allowed his natural talents to flourish, moved to New York City, nurtured his connections to American legend Wynton Marsalis.

To watch the reaction when Alexander played with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, a big band directed by the man who comes from a first family of New Orleans music and filled with top musicians, all of them rapt in attention and then standing to applaud kid genius Alexander’s piano work …

It’s amazing how far and fast the world moves these days, I thought as I watched and listened to Alexander play, and talk about his life.

Talented jazz child. (From my wide-screen)

Talented jazz child. (From my wide-screen)

I hope he doesn’t burn out, from both too much desire and achievement, too fast.

Here’s a YouTube clip of Joey Alexander performing My Favorite Things.

Here’s the link to the 60 Minutes online story.

What have you seen young people achieve that’s made you open your eyes in amazement? Do you think it’s possible to get too far, too fast? What were you doing at age 12?

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24 thoughts on “Joey Alexander has the world at his fingers”

  3. My daughter had a gift early , but she resisted any efforts to push her faster so I didn’t. I struggled with it. Now I think she thinks even that was too much but hey you have to make those decisions and roll with it. If we didn’t try that would have been bad as well.

    At 12 I was reading books, riding my bike, and babysitting. I loved Donny Osmond and Elvis Presley

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  4. He is truly amazing. We watched that piece on 60 Minutes as well. I sat there thinking, “What gene is it that makes these kids become prodigies, or know with such firm belief what they want to be when they’re that young, and why didn’t my kids get it?” Hah! Praying he doesn’t burn out, and that he continues to see the joy in playing always.

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  7. With these rock schools getting more and more popular, it’s not uncommon to see kids so young who are amazing musicians, although it’s not often I see classically trained ones. That’s not to say this isn’t impressive. In fact it’s quite impressive! What a fairy tale story! After seeing all these young talented kids, I wish I had started playing seriously when I was younger.

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  10. Switching between four languages more or less mid-sentence (fluently!) – something I wanted to achieve as well. The girl in question was seven; I was twelve and my decision was made: I wanted to become a translator. 😀
    When I was twelve, I could fluently switch between English and German, still quite a long way to reach fluency in French, though…
    Getting too far, too fast – especially if parents are involved – seems to be quite common. It is too easy to lose oneself. Therefore (quoting a Chinese saying): Stay cool, calm and collected – and everything will fall into place.

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