feature photo: Stevie Chris
The jazz piano kid wonder Joey Alexander has created big time buzz and made a lot of fans since his first album My Favorite Things (2015) came out when he was just 11 years old. The boy from Indonesia probably could have continued for the next 60-odd years with a reasonably successful career staying the course of heady interpretations of standards. But now approaching his nineteenth birthday, he surely understood that the “prodigy” label would soon turn into former prodigy if he rested on his laurels.
With his new, sixth album Origin, Joey Alexander is making the key decision to go farther. Though he’s regularly tossed in a few originals to a mostly standard fare since his debut, this album marks a turning point in that every tune is written and arranged by him. We are getting “Joey Alexander: composer” showcased. Of course, “Joey Alexander: musician” is still at the front and center as well, but his interpretive skills are replaced by his ability to take something he created and present it in the best light possible (as he also arranged all these tracks, too). It certainly does hurt that he’s enlisted a very capable rhythm section in Larry Grenadier (bass) and Kendrick Scott (drums).
The discreet touch on piano displayed on “Promise of Spring” (video above) is something that can’t possibly be taught, it’s a facet of Alexander that proves he’s a natural. His grasp of complex harmonic concepts and how to craft them into very embraceable songs is on full display on compositions like “Dear Autumn,” where the bass and drums are also heavily involved in brining Alexander’s concepts to life.
On “Remembering,” Alexander glides frictionless from head to solo and then drops little rhythmic quips that Scott quickly picks up, forming the basis for a building and cathartic sojourn by the two as Grenadier keeps hold of the melody. The ending segment doesn’t even recognize the difference between comping and soloing, the three trust each other enough to go for it knowing the other two will stay together with him.
Although the primary format is the venerable piano trio, the program is broken up a bit with some strategic guest additions. The trio grows to a full quintet for “Winter Blues,” where Gilad Hekselman and Chris Potter add more sonic heft; here, the floor is largely ceded to Hekselman’s guitar sounding a lot like Kurt Rosenwinkel. Potter gets in a few nice licks on tenor sax and the leader follows not on acoustic but on electric piano, where his delicate touch serves the music well. “Rise Up” also features the full five, which unfurls gradually. As Hekselman and Potter trade licks, I can’t help but to look over their shoulder to hear some very thoughtful comping by Alexander, who has his finger precisely on the changing flow of the song.
“On The Horizon” adds only Potter — this time on soprano sax — who slithers cleanly through Alexander’s urbane chord changes in a very natural way. Hekselman replaces Potter for 5/8-timed “Summer Rising” and it’s again a gauntlet of tricky chord progressions over that tricky rhythm that the guitarist makes look easy, even rather melodic.
The album closes with the tender ballad “Hesitation,” but while there’s melancholy in it, Alexander is able to project complex emotions.
All that hype surrounding a child who plays a sophisticated music form like an old veteran is real, but now that Joey Alexander is no longer a child and in finding his own identity, the hype feels even more real than before. With the recent death of Chick Corea in mind, Origin suggests that Corea’s flame hadn’t been extinguished but rather, his lit torch was passed.
Origin is out May 20, 2022 from Mack Avenue Records.
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