Blind and leading the band: Jose plays hot jazz piano at nine years old

Reuters in La Paz
theguardian.com, Sunday 7 September 2014 07.31 BST
With 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.
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