9/12/2023 0 Comments Alexander piano prodigy“I don’t practice all the time!” he stressed. Increasingly, he also composes his own music. When not on tour, the home-schooled Alexander practices two to three hours a day. ![]() His knowledge of jazz, while still growing, is formidable. It’s not easy to play, but it’s fun.” Still a kid at heartĪpart from some sentences periodically punctuated with the word “man” - in the jazz vernacular sense of the word - there is little in Alexander’s speech or persona that differentiates him from other 14-year-olds.īut when he sits down at the piano, all that changes. When you listen to Monk, you can feel that sense of joy and rhythm. “People, when they listen to jazz, often say that it’s so hard to understand. I love to improvise, and jazz is all about improvisation,” Alexander replied. “Well, to me, jazz is all about freedom, the freedom to express myself. I also listened to opera, classical music, some pop music, all kinds of music.” “After Armstrong, I listened to Duke (Ellington), Monk, Miles Davis, John Coltrane. “Some of the first artists I heard were people like Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday,” Alexander recalled. Jazz videos on YouTube provided further guidance. His father then showed him a few keyboard basics. His mother’s side of the family is also musical - her sister is the Indonesian pop singer Nafa Urbach.Īt 6, Alexander began playing a Thelonious Monk song by ear. His introduction to jazz came in his native Bali when his father, an amateur pianist, brought jazz CDs home after a visit to the United States. With more time to evolve and absorb his influences, his potential seems almost limitless.Īlexander was born Josiah Alexander Sila. In contrast with most other young jazz phenoms, Alexander refrains from showing off every time he solos, preferring to dig deeper into the music. What Alexander does is more than simply play the piano with the assured skill and authority of a musician years his senior.īeyond his dazzling virtuosity, he demonstrates a command of harmony, rhythm and improvisation that exceeds his age by several decades. Joey is a beast! He’s a great player and a really nice kid. “Then I saw him perform at the Java Jazz Festival. Joey opened for us, solo,” Charles recalled. “I was playing with (pianist) Marcus Roberts at JALC in 2015. ![]() The piano prodigy made an immediate impression on Charles, who is an assistant professor of jazz studies at Michigan State University. “It’s such a true honor for me.”Īlexander was 11 when Trinidadian trumpeter Etienne Charles first heard him perform at JALC. “Oh, I’m so honored to hear that, coming from Wynton Marsalis,” he said. In a recent phone interview from New York, Alexander sounded both flattered and a bit embarrassed when Marsalis’ glowing praise was repeated for him. On October 27, Alexander will perform at the 2016 Asia Society Asia Game Changers ceremony at the United Nations.(Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for Jazz At Lincoln Center ) “I didn’t ever think of myself, at all, being on his level.” “I wasn’t anywhere near Joey’s sophistication at his age, nor has anyone I know ever been,” Marsalis stressed. It was the start of a career that saw him become one of the most accomplished, prolific and prominent jazz champions the music has ever known. ![]() Marsalis was just 18 when he began touring the world in 1980 as the youngest member in drum great Art Blakey’s storied Jazz Messengers. immediately dismissed any comparison between himself as a teen-aged trumpet prodigy and Alexander, whose audacious second album, “Countdown,” has just been released. In a profile published Monday morning in the San Diego Union-Tribune, Marsalis praised Alexander at length: On October 27, Asia Society will honor eight extraordinary individuals at the 2016 Asia Game Changers Awards at the United Nations.
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