'Bluejay' Spreads His Wings

How A Young Musical Genius Scored A Major Recording Deal

(CBS) 
By age 3, Jay was still drawing cellos, but he had turned them into notes on a scale. He was beginning to compose.

"He hears music in his head all the time. And he'll start composing and he doesn't even realize it probably, that he's doing it. But the teachers would get angry, and they would call us in for emergency meetings, you know, with seven people, sitting there trying to figure out how they're going accommodate our son," Robert explains.

"Or stop him," Orna adds. In second grade, she says her son was "very problematic."

Jay has been told his hearing is many times more sensitive than an average person's. The sound of the city has to be shut out manually, but Jay can't turn off the music in his head. In fact, he told Pelley he often hears more than one new composition at a time.

"Multiple channels is what it's been termed," Jay explains. "That my brain is able to control two or three different musics at the same time, along with the channel of every day life and everything else."

By the age of 10, Jay was going to Julliard, among the world’s top conservatories of music, on a full scholarship. At age 11 he was studying music theory with third-year college students. He may be the smallest guy in class, but when the music comes up in his head, Jay has a lot of confidence about what he puts down on paper.

"Do you ever go back and say, 'No, no, no. That’s not right. This should be this way instead of that way,'" Pelley asks.

"No, I don't really ever do that," Jay replies.

Asked if he goes back to edit and revise his compositions, Jay says he doesn't need to, "because it just usually comes — it comes right the first time."

Sam Adler teaches Jay at Julliard, and he agrees Jay can be great — but only if he constantly questions his gift.

"Let's take a great genius in the musical world, someone like Beethoven. When you look at a Beethoven score, it's horrendous. He didn't have an eraser. So he had to cross it out. And it looks as if, you know, he was never satisfied. And that is something that comes with maturity. And I think that's going to happen to Jay," Adler says.

Asked if it's fair to say that there is potential, Adler says, "Absolutely."

Jay's studies include piano lessons with Elizabeth Wolfe. But Jay told Pelley he doesn't need an instrument — only his mind — to write music.

Asked what happens when he first hears a tune rise in his head, Jay says, "Well, at first I just listen to it, and then I start humming it. And then while walking, and I like walking a lot when I am inspired. Because then I walk to the beat of the music … and I often start conducting as well.”

In 2004, Jay was not an average 12-year-old — and he knew it. Catching onto baseball isn't as natural as playing piano.

[passagesboy]

[regarding my previous post] Okay, I found some soundbytes on Amazon.com and already can hear one outstanding influence, Bartok. Or maybe just an outstanding coincidence, since Bartok really has influenced a great deal of modern orchestral and chamber music which is exposed to the mainstream through movie soundtracks etc.

[passagesboy]

One thing was not covered here which really surprised me, it's pretty elementary. What music does, or did, he like to listen to? Part of the whole picture of this story is definitely ehat he likes. For instance, is his music all tonal or mixed with atonality, etc? I was hoping to find an archive of the first piece 60 minutes did on him to possibly get the answer but can't locate it.

[patrickde2]

I was curious as to why in your report about the young composer, you failed to mention that Mozart had the same ability to compose in his head, write down the music, and never make any changes. I feel that you should have pointed this out to highlight this young man's talent. Thank you.

[hudson4me]

I too heard whole symphonies in my head when I was young. BlueJay's compositions sound hauntingly familiar. Each instruments' range is aurally displayed by listening to recorded music. When I announced my intention to write a symphony, I received no support from family and teachers. I was told that it was presumptuous to think that I could. All blessings on Jay! I joyfully await his take on Physics.

[hudson4me]

I too heard whole symphonies in my head when I was young. BlueJay's compositions sound hauntingly familiar. Each instruments' range is aurally displayed by listening to recorded music. When I announced my intention to write a symphony, I received no support from family and teachers. I was told that it was presumptuous to think that I could. All blessings on Jay! I joyfully await his take on Physics.

[derelictable]

I found it obnoxious that, according to this story, musical genius of this sort is only of the classical kind. Somebody, for the love of God, introduce this kid to Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis and Kurt Cobain... please! I'm seriously tired of 60 minutes, which of I've been watching since I was a kid, doing segments on this "wunderkids" that play classical music. Ever heard of an electric guitar?

p.s. Get rid of Andy Rooney, he's an embarrasment to your show.

[jazzguy4]

What a pleasure this story was. Blue Jay reminds me of the character Matt Damen played in the movie "Good Will Hunting" where "Will" was the janitor but was so naturally gifted in math that he could solve problems that neither the students or professors could solve. Sam Alder reminds me of the math professor in the movie who had great stature in academia but lacked the natural gift that "Will" had. In the movie, the professor was so jealous of "Will's" talent that he tried to hold him back to the same limitations the professor was born with. Sam Alder should not deal his own lack of genius by trying to place restraints on Blue Jay who is a true timeless musical genius.

[harmaton]

As much of a smart person he is... give him time. Mozart wasn't claimed to be a genius until way after he died. I have a really hard time believing him in his interview. He may be a musical genius but he has a TON of growing up to do.

see you in ten years... and I bet he isn't doing music.

[buzzfrum]

Jay's only CD was released this August by Sony Music #81804. It features his Symphony #5 and his Quintet for Strings played by the Julliard String Quartet. I found it available at Arkivmusic.com Search his name under Composers.

[aralion]

Thank God the meds we have today were not available during Mozart's time or we might never have heard the beautiful music which he created. To try to stifle the genuis of someone like Blue Jay is a misguided attempt by some "knowlegeable" people to control that which they don't understand. How many other "geniuses" do we have in our world right now who are in a drug induced haze because they are misunderstood. We will probably never know.

I, too, would like to know where I can purchase Blue Jay's compositions. The small sample I heard on television last night brought tears to my eyes. It was simply beautiful. I imagine that is the type of music that is played in Heaven.

[namedujour]

Actually, in rereading my earlier posting, it came off as disrespectful of Jay, or seemed to trivialize his talent. It isn't at all. It's more of a thoughtful analysis of what he does, and a theory about what is happening to him during the creative process. It's merely pointing out what he said himself, that he does not consciously select the notes he writes: He HEARS them and relays them to us. He changes nothing. He simply gives us what he receives, and can write entire symphonies in 25 minutes because his mind is on broadband.

He's a really extreme case of superior "mental stream," which I experience myself to a comparatively inferior degree. Do we define this mental stream as creativity? Or do we create a new category for people who are singularly talented at tapping into the Source?

My personal feeling is that we recognize this as an actual event that is separate from creativity, just as the musician is separate from the composer of the music. The talent is equal but different.

[gailmatt]

How can I get a recording of Jay Greenburg's sympphony, The Storm. How exciting to have a musical prodigy of this stature in our own time.

I would like to follow his career and hear more of his music.

[namedujour]

Anyone who is creative will tell you that you often get inspiration in a kind of mental stream. I'm a writer, and with my first novel I "received" entire pre-written passages I only had to type. I named my muse Harriet, and often said, "Thank you, Harriet" out loud as I furiously typed pre-written pages of prose.

The book won an award, which I accepted, knowing it wasn't all me.

With my second novel, Harriet took more of a back seat, presumably because I could now write on my own.

Muses are real, and creative people tap into something outside of themselves. If you don't believe this, it's because you aren't a creative individual, NOT because it doesn't happen. (It just doesn't happen TO YOU.) Creative types don't even blink. They all go, "Yeah. I know what you mean." And writers mention this all the time.

So this kid is a marvelous conduit. He isn't creative in his own right - he's a radio transmitting a signal. He doesn't even participate in the process by correcting or changing anything. This alone should tip off scientists that creative people are worth examining to find out how we tick, and how we all describe that stream of prose, or music, or visual images we offer up in our creations. It would be interesting to find out how much of it we all admit is not coming from us.

[moshe10_613]

Shalom to Blue jay,
i might call it Gregori's music...before, there were angels who guards human beings, each had specific talents and specialization...but failed to follow instruction from G-d by making human women their wives, their children became Nephilims and were cast out but some survive and later became the Canaanites...the genetic transfer from them to jay is possible by this time it is the Angel of Music's genes he inherited...Blue Jay is the son of the Angel of Music.
Just me and my mind...shalom aleichem !!!

[celticqwn]

Just like Mozart, he hears beyond the simple physical scale of the mind. He is hearing on a higher plane.

I can't believe he has a teacher that wants to teach him to doubt and question that gift. Bluejay needs a teacher that can help him work this ability, not limit it. He doesn't need a Antonio Salieri.

Bluejay hears beyond the ears, and beyond the mind. He sees and hears music to perfection. If he were writing scientific notation, he would be a genius, but since it is music, he is called abnormal. So, they give him drugs, and limit his ability.

I hope he tells those teachers who fear his ablity to get lost and start to work with those who encourage and assist him.

How many other children have been lost because of a teacher who just couldn't understand what ability that child had and called it "abnormal" - that would make an interesting report.

[desertrat200]

FINALLY!!
Rappers be damned!
REAL talent has arrived.

[desertrat200]

FINALLY!!
Rappers be damned!

[desertrat200]

FINALLY!
Rappers be damned.
Real talent has arrived!

[lilamath]

I loved the piece about Blue Jay. I'd like to know where I could find any CD recordings of his symphonies that I can purchase. He's truly amazing. He can count me in a a midwest fan.

[random_radar]

ecuadoriana,

Amen!

Drugging children into submission is a tragedy.