Matt graduated top of his class from the Elder Conservatorium in Adelaide, SA. He won just about every award and scholarship the state had to offer.

Watch him play some latin jazz on the Musical Moments series.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl_Dgs2YWvA

Feel free to comment, preferably on YouTube!

Very nice player. Phenom? Hardly. To call someone a phenomenon implies that they possess a very rare skill. I've got several students his age that play that well or better here in Toronto. This is not to take away from the fact that he is obviously a very talented young player (an also seems very good natured which is refreshing) but in the big picture there are many young pianists coming out of school playing that well.

Here is another jazz phenomenon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HcKrd3K8_A

Toni Tixier

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0OdpeDvs7g

Taylor Eigsti

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmIEKcvsoHc

Eldar Djangirov
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBhrP-fkYL8

Gearld Clayton
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xj34JVjir9Y

Tigran Hamasyan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=em6tmmu-acU

Aaron Parks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVRFtu2FrRE

I think all these guys are 25yrs old or younger

and Chase Baird.. he is not a piano player but he is one of my favorite up and coming player right now. Absolutely incredible for a 22 yr old.

http://www.chasebaird.com/fr_home.cfm

There are a lot of very talented players out there... if you go to big cities there are so many good musicians, but only a handful is there at the forefront. It's scary just how much rhythmic stuff people like Tigran Hamasyan or Aaron Parks has at their age..and Gearld Clayton can play just like Oscar Peterson even though he doesn't really play like that in his trio.

I guess that's what makes these guys stand out above others. There is a big difference between being a good player and those special few.

+1 on all those guys.

Check out Gadi Lehavi on YouTube. There's a video of him playing Spain by Chick Corea at 8years old that's frighteningly good.

Tigran was the only pianist that made me go WOW! out of all of those. Technically, they are all very good, but I find their music fairly forgettable. Not sure how many people would be inspired to play that music if it was written. Maybe not even the pianist himself!
With Matthew Sheens, I find his improvisations sound a lot more musical, eventhough his technique may not be as extraordinary as Tigran or some of the others.

Maybe you need to listen to this guy a few times:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxB-LbcZITU&feature=related

Or a couple guys trying out "Spain:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OBa0RQtAcI

I think Gadi was 13, not 8. I've seen 3 versions of his Spain, all incredible! How'd he learn jazz so young?
This one's my fav for him:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9BXa22qWTc&playnext_from=TL&videos=MQO8gVce3Fs

EDV.

While I am not a big fan of Eldar or Taylor Eigsti, I would suggest paying more attention to Aaron Parks and Gearld Clayton more.. they are the best young pianists out there right now and IMHO, are in completely different league than Matthew Sheens. I don't know how you are judging 'musicality" but I can tell you that what they are doing is more cutting edge.. rhythmically it's way more complex, and they are not playing standard jazz chord tunes/progression, so the material they are playing is much harder in that respect.

And what blows me away about tony tixier video is that he is doing a completely free imrpov, he made that whole thing up completely from scratch, with no pre-arranging beforehand.

All I can say is that people like Joshua Redman, Roy Hargrove, Ari Hoenig, Eric Harland use them on their gigs regularly, and not just as special guest for a reason.

Don't get me wrong, he plays very well, but like AJF said, I've heard so many great piano players out there..I've met many great jazz pianists in school, and IMHO his playing doesn't stand out as being 'exceptional'. But I do think he can be a great player if he keeps on playing.

I also think it's one thing to play good, but it's something else to be unique and stand out musically and creatively.. for example

Bye Bye Blackbird/Blackbird
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtLDz4Sa65I

I'm old fashioned
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XV1JDIFLitk

I am sure they are a lot of people who can sing just as well as sara gazarek does, but her interpretation stand out thanks to the piano player's arranegment of these tunes. You know it's her group even though so many people have sang these tunes before.

In my opinion that's what separates good players from great ones, the personality they put in their music... and very few people have it.

Funny you should say that. Out of all of those "phenomenons" Tony tixier was probably the least impressive to me. Technically I felt it was limited, very well played of course, but he didn't use the whole range of the piano (he stays within 3 octaves the whole time). All Jazz is improvised isn't it? Matthew also improvised on the spot, I know because I was there filming it! Not sure whether the tune he picked was original though (if it is... WOW!) And how do you know Tixier made it up from scratch? He's got the sheet music in front of him from what I can see!

You are right in that those other players are doing things which are technically and rythmically more complex (more "cutting edge" perhaps), but I don't think that makes it necessarily "better" music. Music ultimately should engage a listener's emotions and imagination, regardless of complexity.

EDV,

There is a difference between playing over standard chord changes, vs doing completely free improv. The best example I can give you is what Keith Jarrett does on Kohln Concert... he plays an entire set of music completely unprepared meaning that he has no idea what he is playing until the moment he plays it. Toni Tixier's solo is improvised with that kind of spirit. Matthew Sheen on the video sound like he is playing over a pre-determined chord changes(probably his own tune), which is what most people do.

BTW the musical score you see on the video are classical pieces, and has nothing to do with what tony tixier was doing

Btw I didn't really feel like Tony tixier was 'technically' limited. He does have pretty "phenomenal" chops. Here's him doing an improvisation based on a classical piece...He may be reading some of the music, as he refers to the original composition early on, but he is improvising the other things. IMO this is much much harder than playing over chord changes. Playing Ravel's pieces is hard enough, I don't know how people can improvise over it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW16NnOK4UI

I've always enjoyed watching young "phenoms", but the only problem is that after a few years, it doesn't make much of a difference. Some disappear, some go on to have very respectable careers (for example, I remember when Wynton and Branford Marsalis hit the big time about 30 years ago). But the fact that they were young phenoms at one point makes no difference at all.

Yes, I've seen Keith Jarrett throw one of those "wild fits" on the piano....it kinda scares me. I think Miles Davis asked him once how he did that kind of improvisation... to which Keith replied "I don't know, I just do it." Some of Keith's more "conventional" recordings are real gems though.
I liked that second video of Tixier by the way, phenomenal!

Guy,

I know Brandford still playsgreat.. Wynton, well that's another discussion in itself. I am sure he still plays great, but decided to go on a direction that feels backwards.. at least for me it is.

EDV,

Don't get me wrong I do like what your friend is doing, and I am very interested in how he develops... he reminds me of Benny Green in some ways, very traditional. Like Guys said, some of the young prodigies don't go anywhere in their career.. and while people like Bill Evans and John Coltrane are late bloomers(their career didn't take off until they were in their 30s).

Sorry -- for the sake of brevity, I didn't say much about the Marsalis brothers. They are classic examples of young lions that have gone on to have long and solid careers (despite what critics and fans might think, they both have had what I would call "deliberate" careers, choosing the direction that is right for them, and they've been very successful in those circles).

About Wynton in particular, I can't say much. I've seen him (and Branford) a number of times, and I've always enjoyed him, and have enjoyed the young lions that he has brought along in his bands, for example, Wycliffe Gordon. I've also really enjoyed listening to, on occasion, a Sirius (satellite radio) show that Wynton does, where he talks about various historical aspects of jazz. He's also been "polarizing" for lack of a better word, and that started early. He had a notorious feud with Miles, for example.

One of the most marked example stories I remember comes from a friend that has been on the faculty of the Aebersold summer jazz workshops for many years. Many years ago, my friend said that the faculty was wowed by a young saxophonist named Christopher Hollyday. My friend had also just seen another young player named Chris Potter at an IAJE convention, and had mentioned him to some of the other faculty. They hadn't heard of him.

Christopher Hollyday had a very sudden rise, and made big headlines. But he also "disappeared" as quickly as he rose. He chose (I think) to go to school and become a music teacher. Chris Potter chose the different route, and has had a sort of "long deliberate career" like I mentioned above. Not that either one is positive or negative, it's just that the concept of young phenom or lion disappears as a label after a few years.

Then again, in rare circumstances the concept sort of sticks. Tony Williams is remembered as a great drummer, who played with Miles, but he's also remembered as the great drummer that started with Miles when he was only 16.

Guy,

I agree that early success doesn't always translate into success later on. My teacher was the exact opposite. According to her teachers, she didn't play well at all when she started college, and nobody thought she would go far with music. In fact none of the teachers could believe it when they found out that she was doing really well for herself years later. From what I know there are a lot of people like that.

That's a myth that Jarrett made up the whole concert on the spot, he actually had traveresd many of those sketches before.

I didn't hear anything in there that suggested "Latin" jazz. There is actually a rich musical tradition that is loosely called "Latin jazz", and that ain't it.

wavelength,

What I heard on that video was a jazzer doing latin music, but I agree, it's definitely not Latin Jazz, as in Chucho Valdés, Gonzalo Reubacaba or Michel Camilo. To me he sounds like a very traditional bebop guy, and reminded me of Benny Green.. not so much stylistically but the fact that he chose to play in that "traditional" way as a contemporary player.

So what makes it latin music, then? Simply the straight 8th notes?

There isn't a single element in there that says "latin". No latin rhythms, no latin melodic vocabulary, no latin pianistic tricks.

I think there was a time before I was born when jazz guys called anything with straight 8ths "latin", but damn it's the 21st century now and there's no excuse for that kind of thing.

Well I am latin, and I can tell you, that tune the improvisation was based on sounded very latin to me... so much so I was tempted to name it "cubanera". I have also heard Matthew play Latin Jazz with an ensemble, and believe me, people were practically dancing by the end of it, even though it was a very formal awards event.

He is playing 'I should care' at the beginning and then 'Close your eyes' in the 2nd bit. They are jazz standards, but of course you can play any standards in a 'latin' style.

He does break into a montuno style for a few bars which is what makes it sound a bit latin, but apart from that it is pretty straight ahead jazz. He has a good feel though.

And how would you presume to know that?

From what I've read Keith Jarrett prepares the solo concerts by actually not practicing for weeks, so that whatever he plays would be new and fresh to him... I wish I could do the same

Music is almost like sex for some people...

just a little less messy

Interesting. I'm Euro-American, and it sounds very Euro-American to me.

Many people who worked at the solo venues back in the day heard Jarrett playing many of the same themes during his preconcert warm ups that magically appeared that night. Not that it matters... because it has nothing to do with your music or mine.