10/7/2023 0 Comments 10 year old piano prodigyRecorded and produced remotely from Schultz’s home studio in Durham, it features collaborations with veteran keyboardist Bob James and the Philadelphia-based jazz-fusion group Pieces of a Dream. Gruv Kid includes a cover of Wonder’s “Do I Do,” and the musician’s influence is palpable across the album’s 11 tracks, with easygoing arrangements that foreground Schultz’s jazz piano. “The fact that he was doing that back in the ’70s and the ’80s-he was so far ahead, in terms of musicality,” Schultz says of Wonder. Stevie Wonder popularized it during a television appearance in 1972, and it’s no coincidence that Schultz has taken to the talk box in many of his videos, including an appearance on America’s Most Musical Family with his father Julius, a guitarist, and his 17-year-old sister Jamie-Leigh, a drummer. A sort of proto-vocoder, a talk box takes the sound from an instrument and filters it through the musician’s mouth, producing a robotic “vocalizing” effect. “And trumpet.”)īut the piece of gear most representative of Schultz’s young career might be the talk box. In the future, Schultz says, he’d like to learn saxophone and harmonica. These days, if you check his Instagram page-where he has amassed a following of over 300,000-he’s often jamming on the harpejji, an unusual stringed instrument that splits the difference between a piano and a guitar. At five years old, he had already mastered the piano. And while Schultz mainly handles keyboard duties on his debut album Gruv Kid, which is out on November 13, he’s hardly stopped there. On his classic albums, Wonder was known for playing nearly every instrument in the studio. That's what I think is going to set him apart.The best of INDY Week’s fiercely independent journalism about the Triangle delivered straight to your inbox. 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.
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