EmailWith his dancing fingers and slick rhythm Jose Andre Montanho has become a rising star in Latin America’s music scene – not least because he’s blind and just nine years old.
At the young age of four the Bolivian boy from the colonial city of Totora picked up the drums with astonishing proficiency and quickly moved on to the piano. By age five he had formed a jazz trio.
If his ample musical talent – unmatched by many skilled musicians two or three times his age – wasn’t already enough, the fact that Jose is blind adds to his strikingly impressive resume.
Now he regularly performs across Bolivia and further afield.
“I’ve already been to Brazil and to Lima. I’m also playing in other municipalities such as La Paz, Santa Cruz and Cochabamba. I’m already famous because I travel a lot,” he said.
On Friday night Jose wowed crowds at the La Paz’s annual jazz festival. “It’s really going to inspire me [playing the jazz festival]. I love jazz. I listen to it a lot and I love it,” he said a few hours before taking to the stage.
Apart from being able to play any jazz song in the book with alarming ease and style, the Bolivian child prodigy has well-rounded musical taste and isn’t limited to jazz.
Jazz singer Vero Perez spoke of his playing style.
“The most interesting thing about Jose Andre is that he plays in such a way that he shows other musicians how jazz music really is which is to be completely free, and improvise and to play with the musicians that you are with. You might be playing one note and then he will change it. You really have to be ready to play with him this serious game that is jazz,” she said.
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