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. 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. Allen Morrison of Down Beat magazine said of the performance: "If the word 'genius' still means anything, it applies to this prodigy. The New York Times said he became an "overnight sensation" after the performance.
He received positive reviews for his performance, particularly for his solo version of the Monk song " 'Round Midnight". It marked Joey Alexander's United States debut. Marsalis praised Joey 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. Jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, learned about Joey Alexander after a friend suggested he watch a YouTube video clip of him playing compositions by Coltrane, Monk and Chick Corea. In 2014, he and his family moved to New York City to pursue a career in music. At the age of nine, he won the Grand Prix at the 2013 Master-Jam Fest, an all-ages jazz competition in Odessa, Ukraine, which included 43 musicians from 17 nations. Hancock told Joey Alexander that he believed in him, and Alexander later called that time "the day I decided to dedicate my childhood to jazz". When he was eight, he played for Herbie Hancock when Hancock was visiting Jakarta as a UNESCO goodwill ambassador. ĭue 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. 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. He later said learning the instrument came naturally to him, and considers his ability "a gift from God".
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 jazz collection. He learned about jazz by listening to classic albums his father gave him. He is the nephew of the rock singer Nafa Urbach, and the Indonesian musician and songwriter Alam Urbach.
His father was an amateur musician, and both parents were fans of jazz, particularly Louis Armstrong. Josiah Alexander Sila was born in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia, to parents Denny Sila and Farah Leonora Urbach, who ran an adventure tourism business.
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