Once again, Chennai has been put on the global map as house to extraordinary talents. This time, it was 12-year-old Jacob and 9-year-old Jonathan, who represented the country in the USA at Little Big Shots, an American talent show hosted by Steve Harvey. Even AR Rahman posted their video on his social media pages and extended his wishes to Jacob and Jonathan!
Jacob, a pianist and Jonathan, a drummer played a medley for two minutes on the show, leaving Steve and the rest of the studio audience dumfounded. Needless to say, their video went viral, and won millions of hearts! We talk to the super-talented kids and their father Jerry George about their music journey.
Jerry has an enchanting story of how his kids got associated with music — “We belong to a musical family — my dad is a violinist. I had a keyboard at home and Jacob used to meddle with that. When he was just two, he played a worship song on the keyboard, and could grasp the tunes in a matter of minutes! It was a shocking surprise for us to see a toddler do this. Similarly, my younger son Jonathan would arrange the utensils as his drum kit at home and play with them. We could see that Jonathan had an inkling towards drumming and we got his first-ever drum set when he was two-and-half years old!”
A rather calm Jacob tells that he got spotted by the organisers of Little Big Shot through his YouTube videos. “They found me on YouTube and sent an e-mail invite asking me to perform at their show. Initially, they interviewed and selected us from India,” he adds.
At that point of time, Jonathan was not in the picture. “I wanted to be featured on the show as well — and all I could do was to pray. It was during the interview that my brother Jacob told them about our band — JJ Brothers — and added that I was the lead drummer in it. We were asked to send a jamming video and we got into the show together,” explains Jonathan.
Revealing more about their performance, Jacob shares, “We practiced the piece for two months. It’s a medley, which includes different genres — jazz, rock, fusion and many more. I’ve been training under Dr Surojeet Chatterjee at KM Music Conservatory (of AR Rahman’s) for four years.”
Their father Jerry adds, “Years ago, I was looking out for a piano teacher for Jacob and we landed up at KM Music Conservatory. I got introduced to Dr Surojeet and I asked him to take care of my son.” Jonathan learns drumming from YouTube. “I am a self-taught drummer. As of now, YouTube is my teacher and I learn from Tony Ostojic and ‘Buddy Rich’ videos. I practice for four hours a day,” little Jona mentions.
Future goals
Jacob already has a band and does not want to get into films. “I want to become a pianist known across the globe and I aim to entertain people with my music,” says Jacob. Jonathan wants to become a world-famous drummer. “I want to travel around the world. Also, I want to raise funds for needy children with my music,” explains the nine-year-old.”
Jonathan has also found a friend in LA — Andrey, a guitarist from Costa Rica. They are doing an album together which is in its early stage!
