That's what I think is going to set him apart.This week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Alma Deutscher. But I think Joey has a core inside of him, a spiritual core that is transcending through his music. "Because for a child this age, getting the kind of coverage and exposure he's getting, they easily lose it. "I actually think that's what's going to separate Joey, is really his humanity," Owens says. Even with over 8 million views on one of his YouTube videos, Owens says, the young artist remains humble. Owens says it's not just Alexander's musicality that sets him apart, it's his spirit. This kid is literally from another planet." He's just gone, he's just completely in this next stratosphere. "Watching this little kid, he's going on all these harmonic adventures and melodic adventures, and doing some really hip stuff. He has this thing that he does when he's really going somewhere, and I was like, this is freakin' amazing," Owens says, laughing. "I watched him close his eyes, and I watched his head kind of just bobbing to the side. When they rehearsed and recorded "Giant Steps," Owens says, Alexander would play himself into a trance during the intros. He's 32, and says that when he closed his eyes in the studio, he didn't hear a kid on the other side of the headphones. One of the musicians who plays on My Favorite Things is drummer Ulysses Owens, Jr. You kind of shrug your shoulders, look at each other, scratch your head and just go okay, alright - I've never seen this before." He took another take afterwards, it was a completely different arrangement. "And they're laughing, like this can't possibly be what we're hearing.
"Joey plays a version of 'Round Midnight,' and everybody's jaws dropped - like, looking at Joey and looking at each other," Olaine remembers. Alexander was 10 at the time, and Olaine says a Monk tune he played on that visit impressed the musicians gathered for a rehearsal. Word started getting around, and soon he was invited to play at Jazz at Lincoln Center.
That's where fellow pianist Herbie Hancock first heard him. Jazz Herbie Hancock: 'On A Path To Find My Own Answer'Īlexander's family moved from Bali, where was born, to Jakarta so he could play with some of Indonesia's best jazz musicians. He's such fun, so much joy - and also very deep when you listen to him," he says.
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He was especially captivated by one of Thelonious Monk's recordings, "Well You Needn't." Alexander figured out how to play it, by ear, when he was 6. He also fell in love with his Dad's record collection, which included Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Bill Evans. "I saw him play and like, 'I want to play. "Well, my dad played a little bit of piano and guitar, but not that professionally," Alexander says. Josiah Alexander Sila grew up in Indonesia, where his parents ran a travel business. "Just close your eyes, and listen to Joey," Olaine says. Olaine is director of programming for Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York, and he produced Alexander's debut album, My Favorite Things. He is 12 years old, completely self-taught and one of the youngest musicians ever to play the storied festival.Īlexander has been wowing critics, fellow musicians and just about everyone who's heard him - but Jason Olaine, who has heard a few musicians in his time, thinks people should forget about the pianist's age. Among the featured performers is a young pianist - a very young pianist - named Joey Alexander. The Newport Jazz Festival is under way this weekend in Newport, Rhode Island. His debut album, My Favorite Things, was released in May. At age 12, pianist Joey Alexander has made fans out of some very accomplished fellow jazz musicians.
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