Perusing the fresh produce and fresher Mennonites at Reading Terminal Market on a Saturday afternoon, one cannot help but be enchanted by the sweet sounds of a jazz pianist tickling the ivories. An urban legend of sorts, the musician is 12-year-old prodigy Mateo Jimenez. A student in the Girard Academic Music Program, Mateo is well on his way to becoming one of the next generation's premier jazz artists. We couldn't help but want to get to know him.
ANTHONY: Where else do you play besides Reading Terminal Market?
MATEO: I don't have a normal job elsewhere.
SCOTT: You're 12 years old and you don't have a normal job yet?
MATEO: I mean, I get gigs.
YOLANDA: Last year he played with Quincy Jones. He's been on WRTI Jazz 90.1 and he'll be in a jazz festival in November. He gets a lot of gigs just from being here. A lot of people come through and want to book him. Some people from MTV and Nickelodeon just came through.
ANTHONY: You don't seem phased by that.
YOLANDA: Well, he gets a lot of interesting offers. At first I was like, "Wow!" Now I'm like, "Don't call me, I'll call you."
LEE: So, Mateo, how many piano songs you can play by memory?
MATEO: About 500 or more.
SCOTT: Do you enjoy writing music also?
MATEO: Yes. I wrote 13 songs.
ANTHONY: Do you actually write them out or do you compose by ear?
MATEO: By ear. I wrote out four of my songs, but when I played them they didn't sound the same as in my head because I add different types of syncopation. Sometimes it's hard to write it down because you have to think about how many beats are in a measure, and then if you screw up you have to erase all you've done... It gets to be a headache.
LEE: Are you in any music groups?
MATEO: Yeah, there are different sorts of groups at school you can join.
YOLANDA: He's in all sorts of groups in Philadelphia that he either plays in or conducts.
SCOTT: Is it a band of adults and him?
YOLANDA: [There are] adults, but... a few students, too. He's probably the youngest, but he's conducting.
ANTHONY: We saw you playing the piano with your elbow. How did that start?
MATEO: Well there's this guy and he's my friend. He's an adult and he's old.
ANTHONY: How old is he?
MATEO: 61.
ANTHONY: That's old.
MATEO: I know.
LEE: I thought you were going to say 20.
MATEO: His name is Alfie Pollit. I went to go see him and he was playing [the piano] with his elbows.
ANTHONY: I understand that your brother sings.
YOLANDA: Yeah, he does. And Mateo sings, too.
MATEO: No I don't.
YOLANDA: You sing the Earth, Wind and Fire songs.
MATEO: Nuh-uh. I don't sing.
YOLANDA: You don't sing, "I Write a Song for You?"
MATEO: No, ma'am. That's my little brother.
SCOTT: What do you want to be when you grow up?
MATEO: A musician.
LEE: But you already are a musician.
MATEO: A better musician.
SCOTT: Good answer.
ANTHONY: Do you have any other life goals?
MATEO: Learn as much math as I can.
LEE: Are you good at math?
MATEO: Everything but the graphs. I love arithmetic, geometry and subtraction.
LEE: They say there's a correlation between being good at math and being a good musician. Do you think that's true?
MATEO: Definitely. Music has a lot to do with math. Think about what I said about the songs I was writing and syncopation. Syncopation has to deal a lot with math and timing so you have to... Well, it's sort of hard to explain. It'd be better if it was on paper and somebody else could explain it, because they could word it differently...
SCOTT: It doesn't help that we're idiots. Anyone could explain it to us and we'd have no idea.
ANTHONY: What do you do after you finish up here tonight?
MATEO: After this we check out if I have any homework left. Cause you know how those teachers are.
SCOTT: Oh yeah. Trust us, we know.
MATEO: They always want us to give them a lot of details. It's so frustrating. After that, me and my brother play games. My favorite games are UNO and Checkers, but now we play Battleship more than Checkers. We used to play Checkers a lot, but my little brother kept (whispering and making finger-quotes) losing. So now we play UNO and Battleship.
ANTHONY: So what are your Sundays like?
MATEO: A day of rest... Are you guys detectives or something?
SCOTT: I wish. We're just college students.
ANTHONY: Is there something you're not telling us?
