Joey Alexander Trio at Healdsburg Jazz Festival at Jackson Theater

A good jazz musician might be ready to perform professionally by age 20 or so; younger than that is rare. To be able to play jazz before the teen years is practically unheard of much rarer than in classical music. Healdsburg's got one this year; he is a 12-year-old Indonesian pianist named Joey Alexander, and he's leading a trio at the Jackson Theater. Right about now you should listen to his hard-swinging album, "My Favorite Things." When you see and hear a little kid play jazz like he does, you really have to open yourself to the possibility that miracles exist. This child truly plays piano at the level of masters like Bill Evans and McCoy Tyner...

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A good jazz musician might be ready to perform professionally by age 20 or so; younger than that is rare. To be able to play jazz before the teen years is practically unheard of much rarer than in classical music. Healdsburg's got one this year; he is a 12-year-old Indonesian pianist named Joey Alexander, and he's leading a trio at the Jackson Theater. Right about now you should listen to his hard-swinging album, "My Favorite Things." When you see and hear a little kid play jazz like he does, you really have to open yourself to the possibility that miracles exist. This child truly plays piano at the level of masters like Bill Evans and McCoy Tyner. He's got two extremely experienced sidemen in his band bassist Dan Chmielinski and drummer Ulysses Owens Jr.

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