Bluejay: Getting to Know the Mind of a Child Prodigy

By: Overtime Staff
Topics: 60 Rewind

A special post from Bill Owens:

Child prodigies have always been a favorite story target for "60 Minutes" but as a producer who covered "harder" stories, I wasn't looking for one. In fact, I had just about wrapped up my first "soft" story, a profile of opera star Placido Domingo, when I found out about a little twelve year old boy who was making a big splash up the street from our offices at The Julliard School, a world famous music conservancy in Manhattan.

Jay Greenberg signed his compositions "Bluejay" because that particular bird was small and made a lot of noise -- just like him. Jay told me that music came to him, fully composed all the time. He couldn't turn it off. His professors told me they had never seen anything like it before, and in terms of historical context, nothing like his talent had been seen or heard since the likes of Mozart, Mendelssohn or Saint-Saens.

As talented as Jay was, the story of how his family discovered his gifts and how they tried to manage them made for a classic "60 Minutes" story (if I don't say so). I couldn't have pulled it off without my excellent associate producer Catherine Herrick and terrific editor Elizabeth Sweetnam. So without further ado, turn up the volume and listen to the most sophisticated notes you'll ever hear a Bluejay produce.

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by mnbrant January 10, 2011 1:36 PM EST: I just wiki'd him. I think he's about 20 now. He is a major composer and has some CD's out. It was a fun piece but I don't know if he can be compared to the great composers first of all because from the movies I have seen about the subject, they didn't the instruction this kid has had, or the competition either. I almost wonder if the instruction the kid had hurt him almost as much at it helped. It certainly got him the attention which is 80% of the struggle.; Reply to this comment


by Wh0 December 31, 2010 11:19 PM EST: whoever can compare this boy's talent to Prince or Taylor Swift has no idea about music. This boy is a true genius and you obviously are so inadequate musically that it is BEYOND your comprehension. Thinking "mathematically" cannot explain musical texture, instrumentalization, or dramatic structure in composition. Jealousy is an ugly green monster. AND he is only a kid and doesn't need your unfounded public ridicule.; Reply to this comment

by queensad December 29, 2010 2:28 AM EST

This is really a useless story. People may be enamored at high functioning talent at a young age but riddle me this. Other than the piano, where are the "savant" harp, guitar, banjo. violin players? Piano is a mathematical layout in the physical world any idiot could figure out. Stringed instruments? Not so much. Also...reading music upside is the most basic trick of poor music students who lack the funds to buy a lot of practice material. I teach guitar and there isn't a student of mine who can't do this. It's not so amazing. Being prolific is one thing. Success is another. Until this child can equal the success of, say, Prince or Taylor Swift his gift is worthless. I think it is more that classsical music needs it's "******" to compensate for the fact that rehearsal and use of a classsical ensemble/orchestra is prohibitivly expensive and, thus, needing attention to keep players employed. This child is just the lasest "*****" an industry is pushing to concerate it's worth. This kid will be nowhere in 20 yrs. besides a teaching position at some obscure college in the middle of nowhere and no one will give a damn.

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by integrity100 December 29, 2010 9:15 PM EST: How rude.


by queensad December 31, 2010 10:57 AM EST: Yes integrity100, every musical genre needs it's dog and pony show. The kid is good at math as filtered through the logical structure of the piano. So what? Schizophrenics "hear" things in their heads all the time as well. Does that make them great writers, poets or orators? People become hypnotized to the point of delirium when it comes to musical prowess at such a young age. Professionals sit in awe ("It took me AGES to do that") and listeners figure it must be great because "Wow! The kid's only (fill in any age under 12)". Just because he's a smart kid doesn't make him Mozart or Lady Gaga for that matter. Great music is a labor of love, not an accident of prepubescent intelligence.


by revndoc December 27, 2010 6:30 PM EST: Message to Scott Pelley and to Lesley Stahl, I know how they do it; I know how it is done! Lesley I thought you might have "seen" the pattern by now, since you interviewed both your friend Ms Henner and the savant pianist who happened not to be able to tie his shoes. He, Ms Henner, and Bluejay all have very important "mind" skills in common. I've studied the phenomenon for half a century now, every since I became aware of my own uniqueness at age 10. I just two days ago shot a video of my 9yr old grandaughter working a 63piece pattern puzzle while simultaneously reciting alternately the 7's multiplication tables and the 12's division tables. Her 7yr old brother can do the same with the 9's and 11's while working his puzzle on the back where there is no picture to follow. To understand how the brain does it, one must completely rethink what it means to "learn" a skill, the unusual mental gymnastics involved, and the special intellectual exercises that can prepare the atuned brain to generate such prodigical feats. Incidentally, this same common denominator accounts for, in the golf world, T. Woods' loss of previous high skill level following traumatic events, and for M. Wie's struggles since her spectacular skill displays at age 14. I have recently completed a position paper that illuminates in detail the actual location, in space, where I have come to believe the human mind actually exists. After a half century of observation, examination, and consultation, as a classroom teacher, university lecturer, academic advisor, pastoral counselor, and ER crisis counselor, I have concluded that our image filled minds are generated as complex mental holograms by our equally complex functioning brains. My sense is that the human mind is not to be found in the structure of the brain, but rather in its function. I suggest that the working brain is generating an energy stream which is projecting sensory images into a mental imaging chamber comprised of the structural energy of the magnetic field that surrounds each of our physical bodies. Prodigies, high-functioning autistics, and savants can "see" the brain generated energy stream as picture images, which are then decoded and redirected through the motor cortex to be enjoyed by the rest of us as command performances. Though we may view such feats as unusual, it is more likely that each of us has an extrememly high level ability in some particular area. If we can just figure out which...or where...or how...; Reply to this comment


by aseely December 26, 2010 4:42 PM EST: Excellent story. Sometimes there is a song in my head like "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." :) I can't imagine hearing all of the instruments and needing to write it down - which I couldn't do, anyway.

I wish Jay the best of luck.; Reply to this comment

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