DeFrancesco missed two months out of his senior year of high school to do the tour. He also signed a contract with Columbia Records, which all seemed natural at the time, as McBride recalls.
“So by the time he was 17 and playing with Miles Davis, we were going, ‘Of course he would be on the road with Miles Davis!'” McBride says. “‘Of course he would have a major-label record contract. What took him so long?'”
“Do 10-year-olds even see midnight?” McBride says. “But that’s a pretty impressive sense of narrative, shall I say, to have when you’re 10 years old.”
It’s a bit of a different ask to be considered prodigal in the jazz world, McBride says. Expert technique aside, the jazz musician has to address the additional question: “What are you feeling at that moment?”
“That self-expression that is the basis of jazz? When you find someone very young — 16 and younger — who seems to have a good grasp on that? That’s extremely special.”
Article Appeared @http://www.npr.org/2015/07/31/428151118/what-does-it-mean-to-be-a-child-prodigy-in-jazz