>> bradley: so he's not putting on... >> that's the hard part. you have to sort of... [laughter] ♪ ♪ >> anderson cooper: for a jazz musician, there's no bigger stage than the newport jazz festival. most artists work a lifetime to get here, if they ever make it at all. it's joey alexander's first time playing newport, the youngest person ever invited to perform on this stage. he may only be 12 years old, but his sound and his soul seem a lot older than that. ♪ ♪ ( cheers and applause ) >> i'm steve kroft. >> i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm anderson cooper. >> i'm bill whitaker. >> i'm scott pelley. those stories tonight on "60 minutes." i use what's already inside me to reach my goals. so i liked when my doctor told me that i may reach my blood sugar and a1c goals by activating what's within me with once-weekly trulicity. trulicity is not insulin. it helps activate my body to do what it's supposed to do release its own insulin. trulicity responds when my blood sugar rises. i take it once a week, and it works 24/7. it comes in an easy-to-use pen and i may even lose a little weight. trulicity is a once-weekly injectable prescription medicine to improve blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes. it should be used along with diet and exercise. trulicity is not recommended as the first medicine to treat diabetes and should not be used by people with severe stomh or intestinal problems or people with type i diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. trulicity is not insulin and has not been studied with long-acting insulin. do not take trulicity if you or anyone in your family has had medullary thyroid cancer or multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2 or if you are allergic to trulicity or its ingredients. stop using trulicity and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of an allergic reaction, such as itching, rash, or difficulty breathing; if you have signs of pancreatitis such as severe stomach pain that will not go away and may move to your back, with or without vomiting or if you have symptoms of thyroid cancer, which may include a lump or swelling in your neck, hoarseness, trouble swallowing, or shortness of breath. medicines like trulicity may cause stomach problems, which could be severe. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and any medicines you take. taking trulicity with a sulfonylurea or insulin may increase your risk for low blood sugar. common side effects include nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, decreased appetite, and indigestion. some side effects can lead to dehydration, which may cause kidney failure. with trulicity, i click to activate what's within me. if you want help improving your a1c and blood sugar numbers with a non-insulin option, click to activate your within. ask your doctor about once-weekly trulicity. [we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ i'vand i'm doing just fine. allergies. claritin provides 24-hour relief of symptoms that can be triggered by over 200 allergens. yeah, over 200 allergens! with claritin my allergies don't come between me and victory. live claritin clear. >> scott pelley: after 40 years and a trillion dollars, the nation has little to show for its war on drugs. prisons are beyond crowded and there's a new outbreak in the heroin epidemic. if it's time for a change, it would be hard to find a leader more different than the man we first met last year. michael botticelli is the president's director of national drug control policy. he isn't a cop. he's lucky he didn't go to jail himself. and we knew that things had changed the very first time we used the nickname that comes with his job, the "drug czar." >> michael botticelli: it's actually a title that i don't like. >> pelley: why? >> botticelli: because i think it connotes this old "war on drugs" focus to the work that we do. it portrays that we are clinging to kind of failed policies and failed practices in the past. >> pelley: are you sayth drugs for more than 40 years has been all wrong? >> botticelli: it has been all wrong. >> pelley: blunt force didn't knock out the drug epidemic. 21 million americans are addicted to drugs or alcohol, and half of all federal inmates are in for drug crimes. >> botticelli: we can't arrest and incarcerate addiction out of people. not only do i think it's really inhumane, but it's ineffective and it costs us billions upon billions of dollars to keep doing this. >> pelley: so what have we learned? >> botticelli: we've learned addiction is a brain disease. this is not a moral failing. this is not about bad people who are choosing to continue to use drugs because they lack willpower. you know, we don't expect people with cancer just to stop having cancer. >> pelley: aren't they doing it to themselves? isn't a heroin addict making that choice? >> botticelli: of course not. you know, the hallmark of addiction is that it changes your brain chemistry. it actually affects that part of your brain that's responsible for judgment. >> pelley: that is the essence approach-- addicts should be patients, not prisoners. he did it in massachusetts as director of substance abuse services. there, his initiatives included a high school for teens in recovery, and expanding drug courts, like this one in washington, d.c., where offenders can choose treatment over jail, and the charges can be dropped. ( applause ) you know that there are people watching this interview and they're saying to themselves, "oh, great. he wants to open the jails and let the drug addicts out." >> botticelli: i think we have to base our policy on scientific understanding, you know, and we've had really great models and evaluated models to show that we can simultaneously divert people away from our criminal justice system without an increase in crime. and it actually reduces crime. >> pelley: botticelli pursues reform with the passion of the converted because he, himself, is recovering from addiction. back in 1988, he was a university administrator whose car slammed into a truck. botticelli was drunk. in truth, he'd been drunk for years. did you love drinking? >> botticelli: i would say that i probably had an unhealthy love affair with drinking. you know, i grew up as this kind of insecure kid, you know, kind of making my way. and, you know, drinking took all of that away, you know? people drink and do drugs for a reason, because it makes them feel good, you know, until it doesn't anymore. >> pelley: is it true that, after the accident, you woke up handcuffed to a gurney? >> botticelli: i did. i did. and, you know, you think to yourself, "how did i get to this point, you know, in my life?" >> pelley: that point included imminent eviction from his apartment because the booze had washed away all the money. >> botticelli: a very wise judge said to me, "michael, you have two options: you can either get care for your drinking problem, or we can continue with criminal proceedings." >> pelley: it was at that point and went to the 12-step meeting down in the basement? >> botticelli: yeah, i did. >> pelley: what was that first meeting like? >> botticelli: it's hard for me to talk about this, and not from a sense of sadness. from a sense of tremendous gratitude. this was the first time that i raised my hand and said that i was an alcoholic and that i had a problem. and what the miraculous thing about that movement is that people rally around you in ways... you know, addiction is such an isolating incident in your life. you feel alone. and, you know, when you admit... when you come into a fellowship like this and people just surround you and say, "we will help you, that you're not alone, that we've been through it before, and you will get through it," just gives you such great hope. >> pelley: he's been alcohol- free for 27 years. budget across 16 government agencies. just over half of the money goes to drug enforcement. what do you say to those who argue, and there are many, that if you lock down the southern border, you solve the drug problem? >> botticelli: i think it's overly simplistic to say that any one single strategy is going to really change the focus and change the trajectory of drug use. >> pelley: for example, he says the heroin crisis was created here at home. >> botticelli: we know one of the drivers of heroin has been the misuse of pain medication. if we're going to deal with heroin and heroin use in the united states, we really have to focus on reducing the magnitude of the prescription drug use issue. >> pelley: many pain drugs are opioids, like heroin. and the number of opioid prescriptions has risen from 76 million in 1991 to 207 million today. >> botticelli: we have a medical community that gets little training on pain, gets le training on addiction, and quite honestly has been promoting and continues to promote the over-prescribing of these pain medications. >> pelley: some are born addicted. we met botticelli at massachusetts general, where dr. leslie kerzner weans infants off of opioids. >> leslie kerzner: i'm just going to give him this little bit of morphine right in his cheek. >> pelley: in the last decade, the number of expectant mothers on opioids has increased five- fold. >> kerzner: if they don't get the treatment, they could have a seizure, and that's what we really worry about. >> pelley: but how does a person who is addicted to prescription pain medication find themselves on heroin? >> botticelli: prescription drugs and heroin act in very similar ways on the brain. and, you know, unfortunately, heroin, because of its widespread availability, is a lot cheaper on the streets of boston and many places around this country. >> pelley: heroin is cheaper than prescription painkillers? >> botticelli: it is. cheap as $5, $10. >> pelley: more than 120 americans die of drug overdoses each day. that is more than car wrecks or gun violence. to save lives, botticelli started an experiment in 2010 with the quincy, massachusetts, police. lieutenant patrick glynn is head of narcotics. >> patrick glynn: when someone dies of an overdose, the community becomes very, very small. everyone knows each other, even in a large city as ours. just recently, in the past four to six months, some of our officers have lost children. >> pelley: in a city of about 100,000 people, did i just understand you to say that some of your officers have lost children to drug overdoses? >> glynn: yes. >> pelley: how many? >> glynn: two did. two... they... two of them lost sons. >> pelley: in what period of time? >> glynn: within the last six months. >> pelley: botticelli helped arm every quincy officer with naloxone, a nasal spray antidote for overdose. lieutenant glynn saw it work on an unconscious addict. >> glynn: within about 45 started to move around, their eyes fluttered, and they began to sit up and speak. >> pelley: must have looked like a miracle? >> glynn: it's surreal. >> pelley: and they got to the victim in time due to a controversial innovation called the good samaritan law. one of the changes that came under botticelli's administration was that someone involved in drugs, if there was an overdose, they could call 9-1-1, and they would not be arrested for having drugs on the premises. >> glynn: correct. >> pelley: what difference did that make? >> glynn: that opened the floodgates of people calling 9-1-1. >> pelley: today, 32 states have a similar 9-1-1 law, and naloxone is carried by more than 800 police departments. in massachusetts, botticelli helped make treating addiction routine healthcare, so patients can get their opioid treatments now in a doctor's office. >> things have been going really well for you we'll figure out the path you can walk down to stay in recovery. >> pelley: and today, the affordable care act requires most insurance companies to cover addiction treatment. >> botticelli: i often say that substance use is one of the last diseases where we'd let people reach their most acute phase of this disorder before we offer them intervention. you've heard the phrase "hitting bottom." well, we don't say that with any other disorder. so the medical community has a key role to play in terms of doing a better job of identifying people in the early stages of their disease, in doing a better job at treating people who have this disorder. >> pelley: notice that word-- "disorder." botticelli prefers it to "addiction." he wants to lift the stigma by changing the language, as he did this past october in a rally on the national mall. >> botticelli: we must choose to come out in the light and be treated with dignity and respect. so let's stop whispering about this disease. >> pelley: botticelli sees a model for the change in attitude in the gay rights movement, which he has also lived. he's been with his husband, david wells, more than 20 years. at what point were you comfortable talking about being a gay man? >> botticelli: before i was comfortable talking about being an alcoholic. >> pelley: the alcoholism was harder? >> botticelli: you know, even kind of feeling that moment of hesitation about saying that i'm in recovery and not about being a gay man shows to me that we still have more work to do to really de-stigmatize addiction. >> pelley: but it's addiction to legal drugs-- alcohol and tobacco-- that kill the most americans, over half a million a year. botticelli does not believe in adding another drug to that cocktail with the legalization of marijuana. you're not a fan? >> botticelli: i'm not a fan. what we've seen, quite honestly, is a dramatic decrease in the perception of risk among youth around occasional marijuana use. and they are getting the message that, because it's legal, that it is... there's no harm associated with it. so, we know that about one in nine people who use marijuana become addicted to marijuana. it's been associated with poor academic performance, in exacerbating mental health conditions, linked to lower iq. >> pelley: botticelli worries the marijuana industry isg toba" playbook. in the 1990s, tobacco companies appealed to kids with flavored cigarettes and "joe camel." today, the nearly $3 billion marijuana industry promotes sweetened edibles and "buddie," a mascot for legalization. you are never going to be able to talk all the states out of the tax revenue that will come from a burgeoning marijuana industry. it will just be too seductive. >> botticelli: you know, that's, quite honestly, my fear is that states are going to become >> pelley: it becomes a codependency. >> botticelli: it becomes an addiction to, unfortunately, a tax revenue that's often basedi. >> pelley: as for his own recovery, botticelli says it gets easier, though he still attends those 12-step meetings that he called "miraculous." there are people watching this interview right now who are addicted to drugs, are alcoholics. and they cannot stop. and to them, you say what? >> botticelli: that there's help. that there's hope. that there is treatment available. if i, in some small way, can help people to see that there is this huge, incredible life on the other side of addiction, you know, i will feel accomplished in my job. >> cbs money watch update sponsored by lincoln financial, you're in charge. >> reporter: good evening. secretary of state john kerry and treasury secretary jacob lew are in beijing tonight for economic talks. insurers estimate at least $680 million in damage from the paris floods. and voters in switzerland rejected a plan that would have guaranteed everybody an unconditional basic income. i'm elaine quijano, cbs news. oh hank, you look red. are you sunburned?no, dory. well, you do look red. i'm supposed to be red. and fish don't get sunburned. what! you're a fish? uhhhh. keep your little ones protected with coppertone kids. see disney pixar's finding dory june 17th. >> stahl: when muhammad ali died friday night, we lost a transcendent figure. in his 74 years, the three-time heavyweight champion transcended boxing, transcended sports. muhammad ali transcended the divisions of politics, race and religion to become, for a time, the most recognizable person in the world. he finally transcended the ravages of the parkinson's syndrome that robbed him of control over his once quick and supple body. and he did it all with a grace, humor and wit that ensured he would forever retain his own title of "the greatest." when our late colleague ed bradley joined him 20 years ago, muhammad ali could no longer, as he used to say, "float like a butterfly and sting like a bee." instead, what ed found, was a man who had come to terms with parkinson's, the disease his doctors told him came from his years in the ring but still hadn't put him on the canvas. we decided to broadcast that story tonight as a tribute to muhammed ali. here's how ed told it back then. >> ed bradley: he called himself >> today it is difficult for him to talk. there is a constant shaking of his hand, a rigid walk, sometimes a vacant stare. still, people tend to dismiss his physical limitations and are respectful of the sometimes awkward silence that questions receive. >> ali, you still the prettiest? >> fan: ali, you are still the prettiest. how are you doing? >> bradley: many are people deeply touched by his presence. >> fan: we met you in atlantic city and you were wonderful to me and my husband. thank you. you are the cham both their adulation and their concern for him, often breaking the ice by reaching back to the familiar. >> lonnie ali: when people perceive muhammad, they want to see that fire. they want to see what they saw 20 years ago. >> bradley: lonnie ali is muhammad ali's fourth wife. they've been married for eight years. >> lonnie ali: muhammad has a way of communicating with people. and i think he knows this. and that's one of the reasons why he really doesn't bother with the speech as much. he can communicate with the heart and with his face, and he knows that. >> fan: champ, i just wanted to meet you and wish you the best. we love you. >> bradley: yet it's hard not to see the muhammad ali of today without remembering the ali of yesterday. >> muhammad ali: i am the king of the world! >> reporter: hold it. hold it. hold it. >> muhammad ali: i'm pretty! >> reporter: hold it. you are not that pretty. >> muhammad ali: i'm a man's man. >> reporter: wait, wait. >> bradley: ali was a magnificent fighter. he had the speed of a lightweight in the body of a heavyweight; he fought as no one had before him. fearless in the ring, time and time again, he seemed unwilling to accept defeat. three times over his 21-year career, he was heavyweight champion. >> reporter: a ripping right at the end of the round sends foreman tumbling like a tree struck by lightning. >> bradley: during his time, ali was a boxer without parallel. he also was a talker without parallel. >> muhammad ali: i'm the fastest thing on two feet, man. i don't care how small the ring is. i'll fight that chump in a telephone booth. >> bradley: he was known as the louisville lip. >> reporter: let me see you close your mouth and just keep it closed. >> muhammad ali: well, you know, that's impossible. >> man: no, no, now keep it closed. >> muhammad ali: you know, that's impossible. i'm the greatest! >> bradley: but today, if the louisville lip is not forgotten, it is gone forever. >> i don't box, i don't box. >> dr. ferdie pacheco: just look in his eyes. his eyes will tell you what he's thinking. you can see a twinkle in the eye all the time. he's mischievous. he's like a little kid. he's still laughing. he's still thinking. he's a wonderful person. >> bradley: dr. ferdie pacheco and trainer angelo dundee worked with ali d >> angelo dundee: he's going to do some-- a magic trick for you. >> bradley: ali was always a trickster, partial to elementary magic tricks and practical jokes. he hasn't changed. >> cope: just as he was a champion in the ring, so has he brought this quality of indomitable spirit to his sickness. he acts like he doesn't have anything, and that's the way to do it. that's the way to do it, no matter what kind of disease you've got. act like you haven't got it. keep on going. >> bradley: he keeps on going, on the road more often than not, and mostly for charity, but also for business commitments that generate close to $1 million a year. his schedule only allowed him 90 free days last year to spend at his farm in southwestern michigan, where he and lonnie raise their five-year-old son asaad, ali's ninth child. here, his day begins before dawn p prayers during the day, which is part of the normal day for all muslims. today, ali is a follower of conventional islam. for a time, he was a member of the separatist nation of islam. following those beliefs, he changed his name from cassius clay and refused to be drafted into the army during the vietnam war. for that, he risked a jail sentence and was forced out of the ring at the peak of his career, denied a license, unable to fight for three years. >> muhammad ali: now draft is another thing that's against my religious beliefs. >> bradley: he is just as serious about his religion now. he spends hours each day autographing islamic literature to pass out on the road to explain his beliefs. and the rest of his day? well, if he's home, there is the seemingly endless stream of mail. how many letters do you get a week? >> lonnie ali: i don't know. about 200 to 300 pieces. >> bradley: wow, even after all these years? >> lonnie ali: after all of these years. is spent signing his name. the fan mail and religious literature are only part of it. he does do some autograph shows where he is paid a minimum of $100 for each signature. but for the most part he signs for free, responding to the endless requests from people he sees in his travels. >> muhammad. all right. >> bradley: we watched him at one event signing-- it must have been a couple of hundred autographs. not at a card show, where he was being paid, but for free. >> lonnie ali: yes. >> bradley: and he, when asked about it afterwards, he said, "i'm just..." he whispered, "i'm just trying to get to heaven." >> lonnie ali: that's right. every deed he performs... he believes every signature he signs is a good deed and will be counted. and it's very difficult sometimes to get muhammad away from his fans, because he usually never says "no" to anybody unless he's just extremely tired. >> bradley: even when he is tired, he often says yes to another trip for charity. we went with him on this one, a five-day humanitarian mission to accompany a relief group delivering medical supplies to cuba. they were seeking publicity for the trip and paid his expenses. >> muhammad ali! >> bradley: ali's host for the trip was cuba's own boxing hero, three-time olympic gold medallist teofilo stevenson. but ali's fame even eclipses the native son, proof that his legend-- that he is recognized in every corner of the world-- still holds 15 years after his last fight, that he still knows how to captivate a crowd helps. >> knock him down! >> bradley: the job of shepherding ali through the lonnie, and ali's best friend of 35 years, photographer howard bingham. >> howard bingham: all right. >> bradley: bingham is also ali's ed mcmahon, his sidekick and straight man. >> bingham: hit him here where it hurts. hit him right-- >> bradley: their responsibility for ali is a labor of love for both bingham and lonnie. they play their roles well. they've rehearsed their parts in ali's routines. >> bingham: that's right. >> bradley: i have heard you do this clucking sound. >> bingham ( clucking ): yeah. that is... okay, say, like, if i'm over here and ali's over there, and it is easier to say ( clucks ). and then he looks at me and then i say, "oh, yeah, all right, come this way." hey, ali. ali, ali. touch him. touch him. >> lonnie ali: sometimes he does that. >> bradley: yeah? >> lonnie ali: it happened after the frazier fight in manila. >> bradley: what happened? >> lonnie ali: i don't know. i wasn't there. in manila, muhammad will... it's sort of like narcolepsy. he'll just start sleeping, but he'll have these flashbacks. and he'll have... it's like nightmares. his face will twist up, like he's boxing, and he'll throw punches at people. and he does it at night sometimes. sometimes... i figured out the thing. whenever he starts snoring up heavily, i have to get out of the bed because i know it's going to start. >> bradley: is that right? so, when he starts... >> bingham: this is his next round. >> bradley: he's not putting on when he's doing this? >> lonnie ali: no, this actually happens. and the doctor told us not to really try to wake him if that does happen because he might end up with a heart attack, because it might frighten him. so i don't. i just get up and move. that's... that's the hard part. we have to sort of... (snoring) >> bradley: you got me. ali gets everybody with practical jokes or his magic tricks: the bellman at the hotel, a crowd on the street, even fidel castro. >> fidel castro ( translated ): where did you put it? >> bradley: that's a fake thumb he uses to hide the handkerchief. ali always shows people how he does his tricks. he believes it's against islam to deceive people. >> castro ( translated ): i will try. i will try. >> bradley: castro's reaction to ali is the same as most: respectful admiration undiminished by his illness. while we were in cuba, ali said he wanted to talk to us about his life now, and said he'd try to do it after he got back home to the farm. so maybe when we get up there, we can sit you down in a chair and you can talk. >> muhammad ali: probably. >> bradley: that be okay? >> muhammad ali: probably. >> bradley: probably? >> muhammad ali: according to how i feel. >> bradley: according to how you feel? >> muhammad ali: mm-hmm. >> bradley: some days better than others for talking? >> muhammad ali: yeah. >> lonnie ali: i think he is very aware of how he sounds. and coming from where muhammad came from-- the louisville lip-- and being as audible and as boastful as he used to be when he was boxing... i mean, he was always talking. and now to have a problem with his voice and speaking, i think it bothers him a great deal. >> bradley: is he embarrassed by it? >> lonnie ali: i would say yes, to some degree he is. >> bradley: and perhaps that's why when we sat down in michigan for an interview, he changed his mind about talking to us when the camera was rolling. i'm just going to show you a picture and you can react to it any way you want to. >> bradley: you can't talk? now, i know you can talk. you've talked to me, you talk to lonnie, you talk to howard. muhammad? but on this day he didn't want to talk. in his kitchen, away from the microphone, ali explained that he didn't want people to feel sorry for him, didn't want to be pitied, didn't want people to say, "poor ali, he fought too long." he still has no regrets about what boxing did to him because of what boxing has done for him. >> lonnie ali: muhammad feels that everything he did prior to now was to prepare him for where he is now in life. he is very much more a spiritual being. he is very aware of his time here on earth. and he has sort of planned the rest of his life to do things so that he is assured a place in heaven. >> bradley: people shouldn't feel sorry for him? >> lonnie ali: oh, absolutely not, absolutely not. muhammad is very well taken care of. he is a very independent individual, probably always will be to the day he dies. he makes his own decisions. he's not destitute. >> time! >> lonnie ali: there are people who are more deserving of the public's sympathy than muhammad. muhammad's a very happy man. and if you relate to him in that way, if you have a smile on your face, you'll see a smile on his face. >> this cbs sports update is brought to you by ford. at the memorial tournament presented by nationwide, william mcgurk won in playoff over john curran, his first career victory. novak djokovic took andy muryra and the men's final at the french open, completing his career grand slam. in baseball, toronto's mar the eighth. blue jays won that one. diamondbacks over the cubs. jim nantz reporting from ohio. ♪ ♪ ♪ the new ford escape. life is a sport. we are the utility. be unstoppable. if you have afib not caused by a heart valve problem, pradaxa helps stop blood cells from pooling in the heart... forming a clot... which can travel to the brain and cause a stroke. pradaxa was better than warfarin at reducing stroke risk in a study. in the rare event of an emergency, pradaxa has a specific reversal treatment to help you clot normally again. pradaxa is not for people who have had a heart valve replacement. don't stop taking pradaxa without talking to your doctor. stopping increases your risk of stroke or blood clots. ask your doctor if you need to stop pradaxa before any planned medical or dental procedure. pradaxa can cause serious, and sometimes, fatal bleeding. don't take pradaxa if you have abnormal bleeding. and seek immediate medical care for unexpected signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. pradaxa may increase your bleeding risk if you're 75 or older, have kidney problems, stomach ulcers, a bleeding condition, or take certain medicines. side effects with pradaxa can include indigestion, ask your doctor about pradaxa. and its specific reversal treatment. here's ho♪ it feels to have america's fastest lte network. here's how it feels to get fifty percent off most national carrier rates too. ♪ so, imagine how it feels to switch to sprint and buy an iphone 6s and get another one free when you add a second line. plus, try us out for 30 days. if you're not satisfied, we'll refund your money. >> cooper: we've never seen anyone like the young boy we're going to introduce you to tonight. his name is joey alexander. he's 12 years old and he's becoming a musical sensation. he's not a pop star or classical music prodigy; he's a jazz musician, a piano player. he has been nominated for two grammy awards this year. but as we reported in january, it's not just his young age that makes him remarkable; it's where he's from-- bali, a small indonesian island that's hardly famous for jazz. since he arrived in new york two years ago, joey has been captivating fans and fellow musicians alike. and after you meet him, we think ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ for a jazz musician, there's no bigger stage than the newport jazz festival. most artists work a lifetime to get here, if they ever make it at all. ♪ ♪ it's joey alexander's first time playing newport. he's the youngest person ever invited to perform on this stage. ♪ ♪ he may only be 12 years old, but his sound and his soul seem a lot older than that. ( cheers and applause ) newport audiences can be a tough >> history at newport once again... >> cooper: when we sat down with him later in new york, we were reminded he is just a kid who first touched a keyboard six years ago. what do you think it was about jazz? >> joey alexander: i think it... it has that special feeling that... which is the blues and swing feel. >> cooper: what do you mean by "swing"? >> alexander: like, swing is, like, the groove. it's like... >> cooper: i've never had a 12- year-old try to explain to me about groove. >> alexander: oh. ( laughs ) >> cooper: just listen to him groove on this song, "ma blues." ♪ ♪ he wrote it when he was ten. what's most remarkable is that joey is already a master of improvisation. most of what he plays, he makes up as he goes along. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ do you know how you're going to improvise something before you do it? i mean, have you planned it all out? >> alexander: when i'm in stage, i never plan, you know, "i'm going to do this." but of course, you have a concept what you're going to do, but you don't really plan it. >> cooper: so, every time, it might be different? >> alexander: yeah. >> cooper: it sounds really hard? >> alexander: ( laughs ) it is kind of hard. >> cooper: and yet, joey makes it look so easy. wynton marsalis, one of the biggest names in jazz and a contributor to "60 minutes," has seen a lot of young talent over the years. >> wynton marsalis: i've never heard anyone who could play like him. >> cooper: nobody. >> marsalis: and no one has heard a person who could play like him. >> cooper: he has genius. >> marsalis: there's no question about that. to... to any of us. >> cooper: genius? this is what he means. >> marsalis: let's take a traditional hymn like "just a closer walk with thee." so if you just play the... the melody, and with basic chord changes, this is with no improvisation. >> alexander: oh, the song, okay. how does it go? ( playing "just a closer walk with thee" ) >> marsalis: now he's going to improvise on it. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ( laughter ) >> cooper: that was cool. >> marsalis: oh, man, somebody 12 playing like that. >> cooper: joey's talent may be undeniable, but marsalis says no one can explain where it comes from. >> marsalis: "why?" we don't... we don't know why. i once asked miles davis about sound. "man, how you get the sound you get?" he said, "man, nobody know about sound. sound just is." and i think that about his... his abilities. they are. >> cooper: they just are. >> marsalis: they are. >> cooper: it's not just how he plays that sets him apart, it's where he's from-- bali, a tiny indonesian island better known for palm trees than piano players. day, when joey was six, his parents, denny and fara, brought home a keyboard, hoping to channel all that restless energy. you thought that maybe that would focus him. >> denny silas: yeah. yeah. at the same time, we wanted to find out whether he's musical or not, because we have a musical family. >> cooper: and that was the first time he started playing with the keyboard. >> denny silas: yeah. ♪ ♪ >> cooper: here he is one year later at age seven. remember, no one taught joey how to play like this. he just picked it up listening to his dad's albums of duke ellington, charlie parker, and thelonious monk. he was just listening to your records and playing along. >> denny silas: right. right. >> cooper: they did hire a piano instructor, but he tried to teach joey classical music, chopin and tchaikovsky. it didn't go well. why, because joey wanted to improvise? >> fara silas: yeah. >> denny silas: even just a little bit. >> coope >> denny silas: just embellish it. >> cooper: and there... the classical teacher didn't like tchaikovsky being embellished. >> denny silas: no, no. >> cooper: what did that tell you? >> denny silas: he wants to be free. >> cooper: and jazz allows that. jazz allows that freedom. >> denny silas: to express yourself. >> cooper: joey began expressing himself on stages across indonesia. videos of him playing went viral, and made it to wynton marsalis, who's managing and artistic director of jazz at lincoln center in new york. he was so impressed by what he heard, he invited joey to perform at their annual gala, their biggest event of the year. and even though it was his new york debut and his first time performing for such a crowd, joey decided to play one of the toughest songs in jazz, "'round midnight". ( playing "'round midnight" ) orchestra rose, the crowd rose, and joey, who was ten at the time... he didn't know what to do. >> billy crystal: don't go, joey. >> cooper: he tried to walk off the stage. >> crystal: don't go. >> cooper: the host that evening was billy crystal. >> crystal: take it in, man. take it in. come back out, come back out. >> cooper: joey had arrived. >> crystal: joey alexander! >> cooper: you got a standing ovation? >> alexander: well, thank god for that. ( laughter ) >> cooper: "thank god for that"? >> alexander: i mean, i didn't expect to have a standing ovation. >> cooper: that concert changed joey's life. his parents sold what they had in indonesia and moved the family to new york. he started playing gigs, touring the country, winning fans, and different world. so, how do you like new york? >> alexander: well, i... new york is great. i love it. >> cooper: yeah? >> alexander: especially, like, here, where we now. the people and, you know, it's so... so much, the energy. i mean, everybody wants to be here, even me. >> cooper: within months of arriving, he was in the studio recording his first album, "my favorite things". ( playing "my favorite things" ) gary walker is the music director at jazz radio station wbgo. he's been following joey's progress since he came to new york. >> gary walker: if you listen to the way joey alexander plays "my favorite things"... ♪ ♪ ...at one point in that piece of music, his sensibility through his left hand is almost like you're going to church. "brothers and sisters!" ( laughs ) but his right hand is... is playing at such a fleeting moment, there's a traffic ticket waiting for him when he's done. ( laughs ) >> cooper: is he good for a 12 year old, or is he just good? >> walker: he's just good. he's just good. at any age, his language is pretty special. but at the age of 12, you almost think, "you know, i might even believe in reincarnation, perhaps." >> cooper: joey will tell you he's just a young kid with a gift that comes from god. but he still has to work very hard. he practices two to three hours a day, then is home-schooled. he also has a tough tour schedule, and his late night gigs can keep him up until midnight. some people who are going to see this story and think, "this kid is being pushed by their >> marsalis: he's not. he's not being pushed by his parents. this kid philosophically is so strong. and his parents are not pushing him; he's pushing them. >> cooper: they're facilitating his gift? >> marsalis: they're facilitating him. >> cooper: facilitating joey is a full-time job. his parents were on hand as he was getting ready for a performance with the jazz at lincoln center orchestra in new york. it was the first time he'd play with an ensemble this size. the music is by thelonious monk, among the toughest tunes there are. before the concert, there were three days of intensive rehearsals. joey didn't get it right away. >> marsalis: if you could remember the way you played in the middle, when you start off, try to play with that same feeling. >> cooper: a prodigy still needs plenty of practice. >> marsalis: joey. >> alexander: yeah? >> marsalis: concentrate on the melody, right? >> cooper: but it didn't take joey long to finally find his groove. and then the big night, a sold- out show at new york's town hall. joey was as ready as he could be. everything was in place... ( laughter ) almost. ( applause ) ♪ ♪ once the seat was adjusted... ♪ ♪ ...his hands took off. jazz is always conversation, but joey doesn't just want to hold his own. on this night, he stood and took the lead. and just look at the faces of ot the audience was rapt. his father beamed. ♪ ♪ ( cheers and applause ) this time, the little boy from bali stayed on the stage and took it all in. >> marsalis: our young genius, joey alexander on the piano. 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