I grew up in Stockholm Sweden and I came
to the US when I was 10 years old and at
13 I had a near-death experience it
completely changed my personality and it
led me to becoming a jazz musician when
I was six years old in Sweden I took
classical violin lessons probably
because my father is a professional
classical violinist but almost almost
every lesson I had with him ended with
tears running down my face the
relationship with my father has it’s
always been chaotic and even abusive in
Stockholm I was also bullied a lot in
school I had few friends and was very
lonely
I had difficulty comprehending
everything I was taught in school so
much so that my mom would spend hours
reteaching me everything that was
covered in class every day we managed to
get away from Sweden and move back to
the US when I was 10 years old going
from the Swedish educational system to
the American system was really hard for
me because in Sweden there are no tests
and there are no there are no grades so
on top of all the learning struggles I
had in my dad I was busy trying to
memorize material for a test that’s
seemed like it was trying to trick me at
every turn at a music recital I saw a
little kid play the piano so I dropped
the violin and I started doing classical
piano lessons but like most kids I
rarely practiced it wasn’t even the
music that got me interested in this it
was the fact that this little kid his
performance was so captivating
I mean he had a nice button-up shirt he
had a nice slacks concert dress shoes
and when he finished his piece he stood
up one arm on the keyboard while darm
around his waist
bowing as the audience clapped I said I
won’t do that the summer when I turned
13 years old I had to spend six weeks
with my father and his girlfriend and
they made it very challenging for me so
fast forward I’m still 13 I’m back at
school I’m walking out of class and I
collapse when the paramedics came I was
unconscious and at the hospital they
said I lost almost half my blood nobody
looked hopeful it turns out the stuff I
vomited was coagulated blood and I’ve
been losing blood a while because I had
twenty ulcers in my stomach and
intestines I had class four hemorrhaging
which means that so much blood in the
body has been lost that the body can’t
maintain blood pressure or circulation
and without immediate blood transfusions
the organs will fail the patient falls
into a coma and dies I didn’t know what
was happening to me I woke up but I had
no idea where I had been I was in shock
but strangely as I woke up again I felt
detached from everything that was
happening to me all of a sudden I felt
calm and reassured that whatever was
going to happen from that point onward I
obviously I didn’t die they saved my
life over a couple days with seven units
of blood transfusions that comes out to
about three and a half quarts of blood
it took me over a year to become healthy
again but looking back I realized
something within me had shifted I was no
longer the person I was before the
collapse all of a sudden I had a new
drive for learning
I started excelling in school I got to
the point where for the first time I
could do homework and assignments on my
own without the help of my mother my
grades improved and I made the honor
roll as I said previously with the piano
like most kids I rarely practiced but
after the incident happened
I saw YouTube video of someone playing
jazz and I knew that’s what I want to do
so I switched from classical piano to
jazz right then and I spent over 10
hours a day playing practicing listening
to Keith Jarrett Oscar Peterson Hank
Jones John Coltrane Miles Davis and so
many jazz greats and this went on for a
while and I remember feeling really
frustrated that my fingers wouldn’t do
what my brain was hearing so clearly and
in my first year of learning jazz I
began winning awards and now I’m
considered one of the top young jazz
pianists in the country in the 18 to 22
year old age range so how else am i
different for me music and life cannot
be separated the feeling of being alive
comes from playing music I’m more
conscious of the world I live in I’m
more aware of the suffering of other
people I remember seeing a girl being
bullied by a group of boys that I got so
upset that I chased them down the street
I would have never done that before I
was much shorter than two I feel more
connected to everyone in everything
you know I don’t know if this is true
but I wonder does it have to do with any
of those people whose blood saved my
life I’d like to think maybe maybe I’ve
got the blood of a great jazz musician
and a kind human being or two running
through my veins so everyone please
donate blood if you’re a kind person if
you care about humanity give blood also
we could use more jazz musicians I wrote
a tune about this experience helping me
on this is Sebastian Kaczynski on drums
from Poland and Sam Smith on bass from
New York the tune is called the coming
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Applause] [Music]
[Music] you
[Applause] [Music]
[Music] [Applause]
to the US when I was 10 years old and at
13 I had a near-death experience it
completely changed my personality and it
led me to becoming a jazz musician when
I was six years old in Sweden I took
classical violin lessons probably
because my father is a professional
classical violinist but almost almost
every lesson I had with him ended with
tears running down my face the
relationship with my father has it’s
always been chaotic and even abusive in
Stockholm I was also bullied a lot in
school I had few friends and was very
lonely
I had difficulty comprehending
everything I was taught in school so
much so that my mom would spend hours
reteaching me everything that was
covered in class every day we managed to
get away from Sweden and move back to
the US when I was 10 years old going
from the Swedish educational system to
the American system was really hard for
me because in Sweden there are no tests
and there are no there are no grades so
on top of all the learning struggles I
had in my dad I was busy trying to
memorize material for a test that’s
seemed like it was trying to trick me at
every turn at a music recital I saw a
little kid play the piano so I dropped
the violin and I started doing classical
piano lessons but like most kids I
rarely practiced it wasn’t even the
music that got me interested in this it
was the fact that this little kid his
performance was so captivating
I mean he had a nice button-up shirt he
had a nice slacks concert dress shoes
and when he finished his piece he stood
up one arm on the keyboard while darm
around his waist
bowing as the audience clapped I said I
won’t do that the summer when I turned
13 years old I had to spend six weeks
with my father and his girlfriend and
they made it very challenging for me so
fast forward I’m still 13 I’m back at
school I’m walking out of class and I
collapse when the paramedics came I was
unconscious and at the hospital they
said I lost almost half my blood nobody
looked hopeful it turns out the stuff I
vomited was coagulated blood and I’ve
been losing blood a while because I had
twenty ulcers in my stomach and
intestines I had class four hemorrhaging
which means that so much blood in the
body has been lost that the body can’t
maintain blood pressure or circulation
and without immediate blood transfusions
the organs will fail the patient falls
into a coma and dies I didn’t know what
was happening to me I woke up but I had
no idea where I had been I was in shock
but strangely as I woke up again I felt
detached from everything that was
happening to me all of a sudden I felt
calm and reassured that whatever was
going to happen from that point onward I
obviously I didn’t die they saved my
life over a couple days with seven units
of blood transfusions that comes out to
about three and a half quarts of blood
it took me over a year to become healthy
again but looking back I realized
something within me had shifted I was no
longer the person I was before the
collapse all of a sudden I had a new
drive for learning
I started excelling in school I got to
the point where for the first time I
could do homework and assignments on my
own without the help of my mother my
grades improved and I made the honor
roll as I said previously with the piano
like most kids I rarely practiced but
after the incident happened
I saw YouTube video of someone playing
jazz and I knew that’s what I want to do
so I switched from classical piano to
jazz right then and I spent over 10
hours a day playing practicing listening
to Keith Jarrett Oscar Peterson Hank
Jones John Coltrane Miles Davis and so
many jazz greats and this went on for a
while and I remember feeling really
frustrated that my fingers wouldn’t do
what my brain was hearing so clearly and
in my first year of learning jazz I
began winning awards and now I’m
considered one of the top young jazz
pianists in the country in the 18 to 22
year old age range so how else am i
different for me music and life cannot
be separated the feeling of being alive
comes from playing music I’m more
conscious of the world I live in I’m
more aware of the suffering of other
people I remember seeing a girl being
bullied by a group of boys that I got so
upset that I chased them down the street
I would have never done that before I
was much shorter than two I feel more
connected to everyone in everything
you know I don’t know if this is true
but I wonder does it have to do with any
of those people whose blood saved my
life I’d like to think maybe maybe I’ve
got the blood of a great jazz musician
and a kind human being or two running
through my veins so everyone please
donate blood if you’re a kind person if
you care about humanity give blood also
we could use more jazz musicians I wrote
a tune about this experience helping me
on this is Sebastian Kaczynski on drums
from Poland and Sam Smith on bass from
New York the tune is called the coming
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Applause] [Music]
[Music] you
[Applause] [Music]
[Music] [Applause]
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