Joey Alexander

Josiah Alexander Sila (born 25 June 2003), known professionally as Joey Alexander, is an Indonesian jazz pianist.

He became the first Indonesian musician to chart on Billboard 200 when his album My Favorite Things debuted at number 174 and then peaked at 59.

Widely regarded as a wunderkind, Alexander was mentored in jazz piano by his father.

He won the Grand Prix at the 2013 Master-Jam Fest when he was nine.

At the age of nine, he won the Grand Prix at the 2013 Master-Jam Fest, an all-ages jazz competition in Odesa, Ukraine, which included 43 musicians from 17 nations.

In 2014, Wynton Marsalis invited him to play at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

In 2014, he and his family moved to New York City to pursue a career in music.

Jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, learned about Alexander after a friend suggested he watch a YouTube video clip of him playing compositions by Coltrane, Monk and Chick Corea.

Marsalis praised Alexander as "my hero" on his Facebook page, and invited him to appear at his organization's gala in May 2014, when he was 10.

It marked Alexander's United States debut.

He received positive reviews for his performance, particularly for his solo version of the Monk song "'Round Midnight".

The New York Times said he became an "overnight sensation" after the performance.

Allen Morrison of DownBeat magazine said of the performance: "If the word 'genius' still means anything, it applies to this prodigy. He played his own solo variations on 'Round Midnight' with a breathtaking precocity and mastery of several decades of piano style."

Marsalis said of him: "There has never been anyone that you can think of who could play like that at his age. I loved everything about his playing—his rhythm, his confidence, his understanding of the music."

Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe, widow of tennis player Arthur Ashe, invited Alexander to perform at the Arthur Ashe Learning Center gala, where he played for a crowd that included former U.S. President Bill Clinton.

Moutoussamy-Ashe introduced him to Gordon Uehling III, founder of the CourtSense Tennis Training Center, who allowed Alexander and his family to stay at his estate in Alpine, New Jersey.

Alexander played at A Great Night in Harlem at the Apollo Theater, a performance honoring Herbie Hancock.

His performance at the University of the District of Columbia garnered viral attention on the internet, drawing more than 500,000 views on Facebook.

He also played in a concert with students of the Juilliard School, the proceeds of which funded his continuing stay in New York City.

The concert, which received national media attention on NBC News, was successful enough for him to obtain an O-1B visa, which is granted to "individuals with extraordinary ability".

He also gave concert performances in 2014 at the Copenhagen Jazz Festival and the International Java Jazz Festival in Jakarta.

He began recording the album in October 2014.

He arranged all of its songs, which includes renditions of "'Round Midnight", Coltrane's "Giant Steps" and Billy Strayhorn's "Lush Life".

It also includes an original composition, "Ma Blues", which was inspired by Bobby Timmons's "Moanin'".

My Favorite Things featured Alexander alongside Russell Hall, Alphonso Horne and Sammy Miller, as well as guest performers Larry Grenadier and Ulysses Owens.

His first album, My Favorite Things, was released in 2015 when he was 11 years old.

Alexander played at the Montreal and Newport Jazz Festivals in 2015 and has performed for Herbie Hancock, Bill Clinton, Wendy Kiess, and Barack Obama.

Alexander was born in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia, to parents Denny Sila and Farah Leonora Urbach, who ran an adventure tourism business.

His father was an amateur musician, and both parents were fans of jazz, particularly Louis Armstrong.

He is the nephew of rock singer Nafa Urbach and Indonesian musician and songwriter Alam Urbach.

He learned about jazz by listening to classic albums his father gave him.

By age six, he had taught himself to play piano using a miniature electric keyboard his father brought home for him, learning by ear compositions such as Thelonious Monk's "Well, You Needn't" and other songs from his father's collection.

He later said learning the instrument came naturally to him, and considers his ability "a gift from God".

He cites as influences John Coltrane, Harry Connick Jr., Bill Evans, and Herbie Hancock, and he particularly admires Clifford Brown, Miles Davis, Wynton Marsalis, Brad Mehldau, Lee Morgan, Horace Silver and McCoy Tyner.

Due to the unavailability of jazz education in his hometown, Alexander participated in jam sessions in Bali and Jakarta, where his family moved after disbanding their tourism business so he could live near Indonesia's top jazz musicians.

When he was eight, he played for Herbie Hancock when Hancock was visiting Jakarta as a UNESCO goodwill ambassador.

Hancock told Alexander that he believed in him, and Alexander later called that time "the day I decided to dedicate my childhood to jazz".

Alexander's debut album, My Favorite Things, was released on 12 May 2015, on the Harlem-based label Motéma Music and produced by Jason Olaine.

He was 11 at the time of its release.

He had several performances in 2015, including one at the Montreal International Jazz Festival, and another at the Newport Jazz Festival in August.