Preview: Little Jazz Man
Joey Alexander is wowing audiences and drawing standing ovations in New York City and venues like the venerable Newport Jazz Festival. That's hard for any musician, but at only 12 years old, he makes it look easy, while jazz fans and fellow musicians look on in astonishment. Anderson Cooper profiles the jazz prodigy from Bali on the next edition of 60 Minutes, Sunday, Jan. 3 at 7:30 p.m. ET and 7 p.m. PT.
Alexander practices a lot, to be sure. But he is also naturally gifted at improvisation -- the essence of jazz -- bringing his own musical ideas to very difficult music. It is thought that such a skill increases -- peaks even -- with age and experience. But at 12 years old, Alexander defies the stereotype. Asked by Cooper if he has an idea of how he will improvise before he starts playing, Alexander says, "When I'm on stage I never plan, you know, 'I'm gonna do this.' But of course, you have a concept of what you're gonna do. But you don't really plan it."
"It sounds really hard?" wonders Cooper. "It is kind of hard," replies the young star.
Even harder is catching the attention of Wynton Marsalis, Managing and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York. No one plays like Alexander, says Marsalis, who has seen and nurtured young jazz talent for decades and who first brought Alexander to the U.S.. "I've never heard anyone who can play like him... And no one has heard a person who could play like him....There's no question about [his genius] to any of us," says Marsalis.
Alexander has cut his first album, "My Favorite Things," which includes one of his own compositions as well as his take on classics by jazz icons like Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane. It's almost unprecedented to hear a 12-year-old on one of the world's premiere jazz radio stations, but Alexander is the real deal says Gary Walker, music director at WBGO FM in Newark, NJ.
"At any age, his language is pretty special. But at the age of 12, you almost think, 'you know, I might even believe in reincarnation perhaps,'" says Walker, suggesting Alexander could become one of the greats.