mike bloomberg is the only democrat who can take on trump. and trump knows it. i'm mike bloomberg and i approve this message. captioning funded by cbs and ford. we go further, so you can. >> anyone who tells you that donald trump is not going to be a tough opponent is kidding themselves. he is getting unbelievable amounts of money from his billionaire friends, and they have a strong base of support. >> senator bernie sanders is now the democratic front-runner. could he beat president trump, and will his democratic socialist message stand up to more moderate views in his own party in one of the criticisms in the senate, joe biden has said you never got anything done. amy klobuchar -- are you getting mad? >> i'm mad. silently hissing, that's all. >>298 men, women, and children

were murdered while traveling from amster that dam to malaysia tenti-missile shredded their airliner over ukraine. no one has ever taken responsibility, but tonight you will hear the evidence and the testimony of those who lost family in such an unimaginable way. >> i want to know who killed my children. ♪ ♪ >> this musical prodigy has been performing around the world since he was 11 years old. and he's blind. which caught the attention of this neuroscientist who wanted to see what would happen inside his brain. >> okay. shall we give it a shot? >> yep. >> the part that's used for sight when he listens to music. >> this is what changes in his

brain. >> lights up. >> i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm bill whitaker. >> i'm anderson cooper. >> i'm sharyn alfonsi. >> i'm scott pelley. those stories and more, tonight, on "60 minutes." ( ticking ) i switched to miralax for my constipation. stimulant laxatives forcefully stimulate the nerves in your colon. miralax works with the water in your body to unblock your system naturally. and it doesn't cause bloating, cramping, gas, or sudden urgency. miralax. look for the pink cap.

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>> cooper: bernie sanders had an impressive win last night in the nevada caucuses. he also won in the new hampshire primary and leads the democratic field in national polls. it's a stunning turn of events for a man who calls himself a "democratic socialist," and is the first to admit he's been preaching the same populist, progressive message for decades. as the mayor of burlington, vermont, then a u.s. congressman, now an independent senator who caucuses with the democrats, sanders has been arguing that the very rich should pay higher taxes so that everyone can have health care, education, and a decent paying job. sanders is 78-years-old, and is filling arenas with huge crowds of young, enthusiastic supporters. he's used to being the underdog, but now, grudgingly, has to admit: in the democratic race for president, he's the frontrunner. after your entire career, to now

be the frontrunner of the democratic party-- >> bernie sanders: yes, that is a bit shocking. i will agree. i will agree with you there >> cooper: the democratic party has moved to you, if anything? >> sanders: in many ways, they have. and-- and the ideas that seemed radical four years ago are now kind of mainstream. >> cooper: the ideas are still pretty radical. i mean, you've been saying with pride that you're making a lot of people nervous. you said, "wall street's getting nervous, the insurance industry's getting nervous, drug companies are getting nervous, and the democratic establishment is getting nervous." >> sanders: yep, that's what i said. you know what? they should be getting nervous! >> cooper: you're also making though a lot of democratic voters nervous. >> sanders: i don't think so. i-- look, you know, you have a lot of candidates out there. and each candidate has his or her supporters. >> cooper: but a lot of voters are voting for candidates who aren't calling medice for all, whon'lling r a revolution. is everybody really wanting a revolution like that? >> sanders: yeah, let's go easy on the word "rev-- political revolution," you know? we're-- we're trying to follow-- >> cooper: y-- you're the one who's using the word. >> sanders: well, i mean, you know, but i don't want people-- you know, to overstate that. but here is the point.

it's not good enough to complain, "oh, i cannot afford my healthcare. i can't afford childcare. i can't afford to send my kid to college. i'm paying half of my income in rent." you know? if you're not happy about that, you got to be involved in the political process. only millions of people standing up for justice can bring about the kind of change that this country requires. and i believe that has got to happen. >> cooper: sanders says the change he envisions most closely resembles scandanavian and european countries with democratic governments and comprehensive social programs. but that's certainly not how president trump has characterized it. >> donald trump: well, i think he is a communist. >> cooper: and it's not just president trump. at the debate this past week in las vegas, this is how former new york mayor michael bloomberg responded to one of sanders' proposals to require greater employee ownership of large companies. >> michael bloomberg: i can't think of a ways that would make it easier for donald trump to get re-elected than listening to this conversation.

this is ridiculous. we're not going to throw out capitalism. we tried that. other countries tried that. it was called communism. and it just didn't work. >> cooper: you said it was a cheap shot that he said that. what's going to happen on the stage w-- with president trump, he's going to be doing shots all the time-- on you, on this. >> sanders: and you know what? we will fight back. and this is what we will bring up. we will bring up is that the president of the united states is a pathological liar. and it is increasingly clear that many people just don't believe anything that he says. he is a fraud. i look forward to taking him on. >> cooper: what is democratic socialism? >> sanders: when donald trump was a private businessman in new york, he got $800 million in tax breaks and subsidies to build luxury housing. that's called corporate socialism. what democratic socialism is about is saying, let's use the federal government to protect the interests of working families. >> cooper: back in the 1980s, sanders had some positive things to say about the former soviet

union and the sandinistas in nicaragua. >> sanders: everyone was totally convinced. >> cooper: here he is explaining why the cuban people didn't rise up and help the u.s. overthrow cuban leader fidel castro: >> sanders: he educated their kids, gave them healthcare, totally transformed the society, you know. we're very opposed to the authoritarian nature of cuba, but, you know, it's unfair to simply say everything is bad. you know? when fidel castro came into office, you know what he did? he had a massive literacy program. is that a bad thing? even though fidel castro did it? >> cooper: a lot of p-- dissidents imprisoned in-- in cuba. >> sanders: that's right. and we condemn that. unlike donald trump, let's be clear, you want to-- i do not think that kim jong-un is a good friend. i don't trade love letters with a murdering dictator. vladimir putin, not a great friend of mine. >> cooper: a month ago, sanders ws told by u.s. intelligence that vladimir putin's government has been attempting to help his campaign. and last week, lawmakers were briefed that moscow is also trying to help re-elect president trump. on friday, sanders offered this

message to putin: >> sanders: as president of the united states, mr. putin, you will not interfere in our elections. >> cooper: you believe winning absolutely relies on a voter turnout that this country's never seen before? >> sanders: that's right. i-- i think-- look, anyone who tells you that donald trump is not going to be a tough opponent is kidding themselves. the way you beat trump is bring nontraditional voters into the political process. >> cooper: donald trump got elected talking to white middle class americans-- white working class americans, promising to-- to make america great again. your stump speech, your critics say, sounds like nothing works in america, hasn't for generations. is america great? >> sanders: in many ways, we are. in some ways, s-- very significant ways, we're not. we'rnot great when half of our people today are living paycheck to paycheck. when 500,000 people tonight are going to be sleeping out on the streets, including 30,000 veterans. you know, my father came to this country at the age of 17 without

a nickel in his pocket. couldn't speak a word of english, had very limited education. we are a great nation, because people like my father would never have dreamed in a million years that their kids would become united states senators or be successful in many other ways. >> cooper: how much of your political beliefs are based on your experiences growing up in brooklyn-- with your family? >> sanders: a lot, anderson, a lot. i grew up-- and i don't want to hear-- anyone to think i'm-- we were desperately poor. we were not. my father worked every day of his life. he worked very hard, just never made a whole lot of money. and, you know, as a kid, this stays with you your whole life. these are the things you don't forget. the incredible arguments between my mom and my dad-- over money-- you know? why didn't we have enough money to do this? and should we buy this and do that? and why are you buying this clothing? and bah bah bah bah. >> cooper: your mom got sick when you were a teenager. >> sanders: mhmm. >> cooper: does that inform your view on medical policy, on

medicare for all, and all of that? >> sanders: i don't like to, you know, talk about personal stuff that much. but it does. >> cooper: it's interesting you don't like to talk a lot about personal stuff. most people running on a campaign they want people to know that side of them. why do you think that's not important? >> sanders: i'm not saying that's not important. i'm a kind of-- private person in a sense. and i-- and i-- you know, i'm not particularly anxious to tell the world about everything personal in my life. >> cooper: one of the things obviously people do know about is you had a heart attack a few months ago. if-- if you're elected, running for a second term, you'd be 82- years-old. somebody running for a second term at 82, shouldn't that give voters pause? >> sanders: well, i haven't won the first term yet, so let's-- we'll see what happens on the second term. being old has an advantage in the sense that the issues that i fight for are not new to me. >> cooper: one of the criticisms of you in the senate, joe biden has said that you never got anything done. >> sanders: pssst >> cooper: amy klobuchar has been-- are you getting mad? >> sanders: i'm not mad. just silently hissing, that's all. ( laughs )

>> cooper: amy klobuchar says to be a progressive, you need to make progress, implying you haven't. a georgetown university study that you had one of the worst records for bipartisan cooperation in the senate. >> sanders: oh, boy. dead wrong, dead wrong, dead wrong. when i was in the house, year after year after year, i passed more bipartisan amendments than anybody else in the house. >> cooper: in terms of getting your bills through congress, we found i think, what, seven bills that you were the primary sponsor on that got enacted. two of them were-- involved naming post office buildings. >> sanders: yeah, but if you look at the affordable care act, my name was not on that bill. but you speak to anybody in congress, i led the effort to bring $11 billion more into community health centers and expand-- primary health care in this country. i mean, the-- as you well know, anderson, congress is a complicated place. >> cooper: there's profound skepticism in congress about sanders' ability to get his agenda passed. two-thirds of democrats in the senate have not signed on to

medicare for all, which would cost an estimated 30 to 40 trillion dollars over ten years. and that's just one of bernie sanders' many proposals. there's also free public college, cancellation of all student debt, a federal job guarantee, and a green new deal to rapidly reduce carbon emissions. how much will that cost? >> sanders: obviously, those are expensive propositions, but we have done our best on issue after issue-- in paying for them. >> cooper: do you know how all-- how much though? i mean, do you have a price tag for-- for all of this? >> sanders: we do. i mean, you know, and-- and-- the price tag is-- it will be substantially less than letting the current system go. i think it's about $30 trillion. >> cooper: that's just for medicare for all, you're talking about? >> sanders: that's just medicare for all, yes. >> cooper: do you have-- a price tag for all of these things? >> sanders: no, i don't. we try to-- no, you mene making public colleges and universities tuition free and canceling all student debt, that's correct. that's what i want to do. we pay for that through a modest tax on wall street speculation. >> cooper: but you say you don't know what the total price is, but you know how it's going to be paid for. how do you know it's going to be

paid for if you don't know how much the price is? >> sanders: well, i can't-- you know, i can't rattle off to you ever nickel and every dime. but we have accounted for-- you-- you talked about medicare for all. we have options out there that will pay for it. >> cooper: taxes on corporations and billionaires are the primary options he's proposed. but to finance medicare for all, middle class families would also pay an additional 4% tax on their income over 29,000 dollars. sanders says they'll end up saving money because they wont have to pay premiums, co-pays, or deductibles. but under medicare for all, nearly 160 million americans will have to give up their private health insurance. isn't that a dangerous message for democrats to say, "you know what? we're going to take away your private insuranc we're-- we're going to give you something better--" >> sanders: let's talk about-- >> cooper: "--run by the government." a lot of people don't trust that. >> sanders: it's not run by the government. medicare allows you to go to any doctor you want for better or worse, this is not socialized medicine. this is keeping the same system intact, but getting rid of the private insurance companies, giving people another card,

which allows them complete freedom. >> cooper: though he's campaigning as a champion for the poor, bernie sanders became a millionaire four years ago, thanks largely to royalties from his best-selling book, "our revolution." his democratic rivals have given him some grief about it during the debates. you know-- what they're getting at. they're-- they're-- they're in-- they're suggesting the it's hypocritical, it's criticism-- that they're not their share. >> sanders: we pay our fair share of taxes. >> cooper: he doesn't think billionaires like michael bloomberg are paying their fair share, nor does he think much of the job bloomberg did as mayor. >> sanders: i think the more people understand bloomberg's record as mayor of new york, where he engaged in horrifically racist policies of stop and frisk, people in america don't want that. >> cooper: you have promised to support the democratic nominee. personally, though, the idea of you going out campaigning for michael bloomberg, a billionaire, how would that even work? >> sanders: i-- >> cooper: i mean, can you honestly tell your supporters to support-- >> sanders: well, i-- i think this is the problem of a bloomberg candidacy. it's not just my supporters, he

is not going to be a strong candidate. but, what i have said, and you quoted me correctly, is i said on day one i will support the democratic nominee, no matter who that nominee may be. >> cooper: at the end of our interview, sanders unveiled a new plan that would guarantee free, high-quality childcare and pre-kindergarten to every kid in the country from infancy to age four. >> sanders: so what we are calling for is universal childcare. >> cooper: how are you going to pay for this? >> sanders: we have a tax on wealth to pay for that. >> cooper: for all the people who like the idea of it, there are going to be a lot of democrats, again, who are saying, "well, wait a minute, yet again, this is another program that-- it's not clear how it's going to get paid for-- >> sanders: well, listen-- >> cooper: --it's just going to add to-- >> sanders: it is clear how it's going to be paid for. look, anderson-- >> cooper: more taxes. >> sanders: it's taxes on billionaires. you know? you know, i get a little bit tired of hearing my opponents saying, "gee, how you going to pay for a program that impacts and helps children or working

class families or middle class families? how you going to pay for that?" and yet, where are people saying, "how are you going to pay for over $750 billion on military spending?" how you going to pay for a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the 1% in large corporations which was what trump did? when you help the billionaires and you help wall street, "hey! of course we can pay for it. that's what america's supposed to be about." well, i disagree. ( ticking ) listening to audible. it's audiobooks, news, meditations... gotta go! ♪ ♪ hey! you know, i do think it's weird you've started commuting when you work from home. i'll be in my office. download audible and start every day off right. (suspense music)

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>> pelley: with a single shot, 298 men, women and children were massacred in ukraine. the dead were traveling from amsterdam to malaysia when an anti-aircraft missile shredded their widebody airliner. that was six years ago and no one has been held accountable. the downing of malaysia flight 17 was a shock to the world. how could innocent civilians leaving the netherlands on vacation to asia lose their lives in a war russia started with ukraine? after a years-long investigation, dutch prosecutors say they know who is responsible. this is the story of the hunt

for the suspects now charged with 298 counts of murder. in a dutch hangar, heavy with the smell of fuel and fire, malaysia flight 17 has been resurrected from 8,000 fragments. 77einge 7 200 feet long, was torn by an estimated 800 pieces of shrapnel, each the size of a bullet. a warhead detonated ten feet to the left of captain eugene choo's windscreen. the dutch safety board says the greatest density of holes, 102, is through his window. shrapnel tore through the cockpit and out the other side. the cockpit sheared away. and the rest of the plane flew another minute and a half. passengers were thrashed by explosive decompression and a 500 mile an hour wind at 40 degrees below zero.

one passenger was found wearing his oxygen mask. >> samira calehr: i want to know who killed my children. >> pelley: it was july 17, 2014, that samira calehr walked her boys, 19-year-old shaka and 11- year-old miguel, as far as amsterdam airport security would let her. the youngest boy was worried. >> samira calehr: he hugged me really tight. and he told me, like, "mom, i'm so afraid to take this plane. you know, i'm so afraid what happen when the airplane will crash?" i told him, "miguel, come on, you've been on flights many times. you are with shaka. everything is going just to be fine." he said, "you promise me?"

i said, "i promise everything will be okay." the brothers were going to see their grandmother in bali. samira planned to come back to the airport the very next day because her middle son, mika, couldn't get a seat on flight 17. >> mika calehr: so, i never got a proper goodbye, said a proper goodbye, and that really is something that i have to deal with for the rest of my life. >> samira calehr: i cannot forgive myself that i promised my baby, miguel, that everything will be fine. who am i to tell him that everything's going to be okay? >> pelley: that's what a son wants to hear from his mother. >> samira calehr: but i feel like i lied to him. who am i to give him that guarantee? it's been like hell. i feel emptiness. i feel sadness.

there is a hole in my heart. it will always hurt. and i miss them every day. >> pelley: her boys were among 193 dutch citizens onboard. >> piet ploeg: it's 911 for the netherlands. the netherlands, all people in the netherlands were very, very, very shocked. >> pelley: shrines in dutch homes are common including the one to piet ploeg's brother, sister-in-law and nephew. his nieces didn't go on their family vacation. you had to tell your nieces what happened. >> ploeg: i don't want to think too much about that moment. it's too emotional for me. i saw my nieces falling in each other's arms when they realized their parents and their brother were dead. it was a terrible, terrible moment. yeah. >> pelley: no one had any understanding that they were

going to be flying over a warzone. >> ploeg: oh, you didn't think about it, and after mh17 we always think about it. >> pelley: flight 17 was three hours into a 12 hour route when it came within range of a war. in 2014, russia dismembered its neighbor to the west, it annexed part of ukraine and, today, pro-russian militias, supplied and manned by moscow, are fighting to control eastern ukraine. in the days before the flight 17 murders, two ukrainian military planes were shot down. but despite that, the day flight in it was cloudy. flight 17, at 33,000 feet, appeared only on radar until it fell through the clouds across 20 square miles. >> andy kraag: we considered it a national crisis. because, if you think, it was

not only that we were doing a criminal investigation, but the most important thing in the beginning was the recovery mission. >> pelley: andy kraag is lead investigator for the netherlands. >> kraag: first, we needed to recover all the casualties to get them back home, so that the next of kin could mourn. actually, we were in national mourning. >> pelley: in a nation so small it seemed everyone knew someone touched by the murders. for days. convoys of hearses, stretching beyond sight, were met by gauntlets of grief. fred westerbeke is the chief prosecutor who's been on the case from the start. have all of the remains been identified? >> fred westerbeke: we were able to identify, from the 298 ndsualties, 296.r twpeope 't >> pelley: with no admission of

guilt, 350 investigators from five countries began almost six years of work. >> kraag: we started with multiple scenarios in the beginning. one was, was it an accident? that could be discarded quite quickly. the other one, was it an explosion from the inside? and the last two, most importantly, was it air-to-air, like, was it shot by a plane? or was it surface to air? >> pelley: those scenarios narrowed quickly because of a technique new to the police-- civilian internet investigators. just days before the murders, eliot higgins started a u.k.- based group of online detectives that he calls bellingcat-- named for a fable of mice tying a bell to a cat to warn of danger. higgins found images, crowdsourced online. >> eliot higgins: so this is one of the first videos that was shared online after mh17 was shot down. and it was shared claiming that

this was a buk missile launcher. >> pelley: and how do you know across all these images that you're looking at the same convoy? >> higgins: so there's certain details that kind of leap out at us. there's the white truck. but you can see there's a black exhaust pipe on the side of that truck. it's a very small detail, but it does helps us show that it's very similar to the truck that's in other photographs and videos. >> pelley: matching randomly sourced pictures with geolocation techniques, higgins and his colleagues spotted an anti-aircraft system in the right place on the right day. images that had been shot earlier led him to the convoy's starting point. >> higgins: and that took us back to a town called kursk. and in kursk, there's a missile brigade called the 53rd air defense brigade, and we were able to establish for certain the missile launcher came from that particular brigade. >> pelley: and kursk is in russia. and the 53rd brigade is a russian military unit. >> higgins: yes. and it was probably very likely crewed by russian crew.

>> pelley: higgins also discovered the missile system retreating after the shootdown-- with one, incriminating, difference. you're saying that there's a missile missing from this picture? >> higgins: that's right. so, there's one there. there's one there. and there's one just out of the back of there as well. but there should be a missile between these two missiles. >> pelley: it wasn't long before eliot higgins got a call from dutch investigators. how important was the information that came from bellingcat? >> kraag: that was pretty groundbreaking at that time. so, we've learned a lot from them as well. but that's just one layer of the evidence, because we have to build up evidence that can stand in court. we also have the witnesses, forensic evidence et cetera. >> pelley: the investigators told us, layers of evidence came from the weapon itself. its missile warhead is packed with a unique bowtie shaped shrapnel. this signature shrapnel was found in the bodies of the flight crew.

another layer of evidence came in thousands of phone calls, intercepted among russians and their allies." we have just shot down a plane," a rebel commander said before realizing the catastrophic mistake. yet another layer of evidence was supplied by ukrainian villagers. you have eyewitnesses to the missile launch. is that correct? >> westerbeke: yeah. >> pelley: more than one? >> westerbeke: i'd say i have an eyewitness. and how many, i didn't say how many. >> pelley: what military unit did the missile system come from? bradof the armed forces ofrd the russian federation. >> pelley: is there any room for doubt in that? >> westerbeke: no, there is no doubt at all. >> pelley: they don't know who pushed the button, but, this past summer, dutch prosecutors charged three russians and a ukrainian with 298 counts of murder.

sergey dubinsky was head of intelligence for the pro-russia rebels in ukraine, prosecutors say, oleg pulatov, and leonid kharchenko, were involved in delivering the missile system. the highest-ranking russian accused is igor girkin a retired colonel in russian intelligence. he was in charge of the pro- russia militia in ukraine. we found him in moscow living under the protection of the russian government. he told us, "someone has to be the scapegoat, so they picked me and others who couldn't even theoretically shoot down this plane. the militia did not bring down the boeing plane. i have no other comment." how helpful have the russians been in this investigation over the last five years? >> westerbeke: i'd say they haven't been helpful at all. because what they should've done

is give us all the information and all the proof we needed in this difficult investigation. they should have told us that at the second day after it happened, they should've told us, "we made a mistake," or "we did something which shouldn't have happened." they should have come forward. that is what they should have done, and they never did. >> pelley: still unhelpful, the russians will not extradite the defendants. if they're convicted, even though they're not in the courtroom, is that enough for you? >> samira calehr: no. >> mika calehr: everybody will be haunted by the fact that they're still out there and not in custody. >> pelley: the trial is scheduled to begin march 9 and will be heard by a panel of three dutch judges. samira calehr told us she will not attend. piet ploeg will not miss it. the families have the right to speak in court and i wonder what you intend to say. >> ploeg: i want them to know

what they have done, and what they have done to not only to the victims, but also the next of kin. they have to feel it. >> pelley: prosecutors told us their investigation is continuing beyond the trial. they hope to charge additional suspects. for its part, russia has spun any number of stories about what might have killed 298 innocent victims-- stories that, so far, have not withstood the evidence presented by the silent witness of malaysia flight 17. ( ticking ) >> cbs sports hq is presented by progressive insurance. i'm greg gumbel in new york. earlier here on cbs, number 16 seaton hall beat st. john's behind a team-high 18 points from miles powell. the pirates remain one game up

in the big east standings. a couple of resume-boosting upsets in big 10 play. ohio state held on to knock off number-seven maryland. indian surprised number-nine pen stated. for more go to cbssportshq.com. -oh, it's tapas. -tapas. get out of town. it's like eating dinner with your parents. sandra, are you in school? yes, i'm in art school. oh, wow. so have you thought about how you're gonna make money? at least we're learning some new things. we bundled our home and auto with progressive, saved a bunch. oh, we got a wobbler. progressive can't protect you from becoming your parents, but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. that's what the extra menu's for. when you bundle with us. in getting key nutrients peopfrom food alone. one a day, covers all of them. in just one serving. one a day, and done. well, actually...we're from a lot of places.

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this is a stodream.the american it starts here, in a middle class neighborhood with a middle

class kid named mike. when his father died, his mother went to work and became the breadwinner. she instilled in mike a belief in hard work and a drive to build a better life. so he started a company from scratch with an idea and endless hours- today, that makes him the only democrat in the race who's created 20,000 jobs. he's the only democrat who's run the largest and most diverse city in america, rebuilding after 9-11, creating over 450,000 jobs and expanding health care coverage to 700,000 people. the only democrat who's built a grassroots movement to combat gun violence and he's a leader combatting climate change. the only democrat who's never taken a penny from special interests. now mike is running to deliver on the american dream for everyone with common sense solutions and the ability to get it done. because mike bloomberg is the um and trump knows it. i'm mike bloomberg and i approve this message.

( ticking ) >> alfonsi: every so often, someone so young does something so amazing you can't help but 'sther, "how do they do that?" t whaathappen play piano. matthew is a jazz pianist who is blind, and since the age of 11, he's been performing around the world. he's been called a prodigy, and his talent is so extraordinary he's also caught the attention of scientists who are now studying his brain and trying to understand his vision of music. ♪ ♪ matthew whitaker doesn't just play music, he plays with it. twisting melodies, crafting

complex harmonies and improvising at lightning speed. ♪ ♪ it's acoustic acrobatics performed over 88 keys and it is not for the faint of heart. ♪ ♪ this past spring, matthew made his first appearance at the new orleans jazz festival. we watched backstage with his dad. the sheer complexity and spontaneity of his sets-- like this "look ma no hands!" moment- make the most seasoned musicians sweat, and jazz fans go wild. ♪ ♪ he plays with his shoes off so he can feel the pedals and his head turned so he can feel the crowd. it's new orleans jazz fest. this is the tiffany of jazz festivals. was this a dream? >> matthew whitaker: it is

amazing to be here. like, this is where jazz started. >> alfonsi: do you get nervous before a big show like this? >> matthew whitaker: honestly, i was a tiny bit nervous. but, you know, once i started playin', i-- i felt good. jazz fest is a jambalaya for the senses. >> alfonsi: it's a lot of music coming at you! >> matthew whitaker: it's a lot! >> alfonsi: we negotiated our way through the thick roux of humidity, suffocating crowds, and the 14 stages of music that, often boil over into the fairgrounds. can you hear all the different stages? are you like, is this like overwhelming? we're right behind the tuba. titthewas able to cu thh identify songs in seconds. >> matthew whitaker: he's playing "just closer." yeah. "just a closer walk with thee." >> alfonsi: you got that song just that quickly? >> matthew whitaker: yeah. >> alfonsi: i heard like three notes and you already know what song it is? lord! matthew grew up in hackensack, new jersey. >> moses whitaker: he is just

happy all the time. >> alfonsi: his parents, moses and may whitaker say matthew had an ear for music even before he could even talk. tell me about-- the first time he picked up an instrument. >> moses whitaker: he was playing "twinkle, twinkle, little star." but he was playin' it with both hands. matt was playing the chords and the melody of the song at the same-- >> alfonsi: had he had a lesson at this point? >> moses whitaker: he hadn't had a lesson or anything. and he was three years old. so my question was, "okay, who showed him how to do that? somebody had to show matthew how to-- how to play this song." and nobody showed him. >> alfonsi: matthew whitaker was born at 24 weeks. he weighed one pound 11 ounces. his parents were told he had less than a 50% chance of survival. one of the many complications he faced was retinopathy of prematurity, a disease which can lead to blindness. >> may whitaker: i think at the time i-- i didn't think he was going to make it. so it was, you know, just-- just very scary. >> alfonsi: may and moses whitaker watched helplessly as

matthew braved 11 surgeries to try and save his sight. after two anxious years, they decided they didn't want matthew to endure anymore. even if it meant he'd be permanently blind. >> moses whitaker: we just felt like he was going through too much. we were going through too much. because the doctors weren't seeing it was getting any better. we just said, "you know what? that's enough. we'll just deal with it as it is." >> alfonsi: they told you he might not even speak? >> moses whitaker: exactly. they said that he might not crawl. and he might not ever walk. because he needed those things to see. you know, most kids learn to crawl-- they learn to walk because they want to try to get to something. well, matthew couldn't see to get to anything. so a lot of his toys and stuff we had to have sounds. so that he would want to crawl-- want to reach those things. >> alfonsi: matthew did start crawling towards music. sometimes sliding up to the speaker to feel the music. no one in his family was a musician, but his grandfather bought him his first keyboard

when he was three-years old. how complicated were the songs he was playing early on? >> moses whitaker: they were nursery rhymes more so than anything. so they weren't that complicated. but what he was doing was complicated. because most kids don't play with both hands. and they don't play chords and the harmonies and all of that. and matt was doing that. >> alfonsi: so you realized he has a gift? >> moses whitaker: yes. >> alfonsi: let's get him a teacher. >> moses whitaker: yes, which was the difficult part. >> alfonsi: why was that the difficult part? >> moses whitaker: because at the time, we got a lot of answers where people were saying he's too young. he was three-years-old at the time. or, "i don't know how to teach a blind child." >> alfonsi: dalia sakas agreed eet mahew. sakas is the director of music studies at the filomen m. d'agostino greenberg music school in new york city-- a school for the visually impaired. >> moses whitaker: so we brought him over. and dalia played something on the piano, and matt repeated it. then she played something else and matt repeated it.

she said "bring him in. we'll make the exception." ♪ everybody sing amen everybody sing amen ♪ >> alfonsi: dalia has been teaching matthew ever since. she is a classically trained concert pianist. >> dalia sakas: i was performing a couple of recitals and the dvorak piano quintet is a piece actually for a piano and string quartet. so there's five of us. so matt and his mom came to hear, you know, the night i played. he comes in saturday morning. i walk into the studio and he's playing the opening of the dvorak quintet. you know, and then the cello comes in and he knew that whole thing. and i thought, "oh, very nice." >> alfonsi: dvorak's piano quintet is a challenging piece for five musicians. matthew was playing his version of all five parts on his piano. can he listen to a piece of music for the first time and then play it?

does he have that ability? >> sakas: yeah. >> alfonsi: just hearing it once? >> sakas: yeah. he can pretty much get it.at'sn. >> alfonsi: yeah. >> sakas: yeah. ( laughs ) ♪ ♪ >> alfonsi: it could be exhausting? >> sakas: yeah, well it was scary more than exhausting. >> alfonsi: why scary? >> sakas: because you didn't want to blow it. because you have someone of this talent, of this creativity, this enthusiasm. you don't want to squelch that. you don't want to mess up. he's obviously, you know, got something to offer to the world, and so you want to make that possible. ♪ ♪ >> alfonsi: she did. by the time he was 11, matthew was performing around the world. his first paying gig was in capri, italy, where he cut his chops with seasoned jazz musicians.

♪ ♪ since then, he's played in more than 200 clubs and concert halls around the world. that caught the attention of doctor charles limb. limb, a musician himself, is a surgeon and neuroscientist who uses m.r.i. brain scans to better understand how exceptionally creative people do wat they do. what's interesting about a kid like matthew? why do you want to look at his brain? >> charles limb: i think anytime somebody watches matthew play piano the first thing that you think is, "how does he do that?" except rather than just wondering i'm actually trying to answer the question. >> alfonsi: specifically, doctor limb wants to know why the brains of certain artists seem better wired to give rise to new ideas. in matthews case, improvising. but when doctor limb approached the whitakers, they were dubious. >> may whitaker: becausedyomes , "can we put your son in this scan?" and-- ( laughs ) right away you're thinking, you know, lab rabbit, or you know, what are they trying to do with

my child? >> alfonsi: once doctor limb also explained other artists had participated, the whitaker's agreed to let him scan matthews brain. he brought matthew to this m.r.i. facility at the university of california, san francisco, and put matthew in the scanner with a mini keyboard on his lap. >> limb: okay, shall we give it a shot? >> matthew whitaker: yup! >> alfonsi: matthew played a melody, with his feet keeping time, while doctor limb and his team recorded his brain's activity levels with the m.r.i. scanner. >> limb: what you're seeing on this computer screen is some brain data that we obtained from matthew. >> alfonsi: then doctor limb put matthew through a different series of auditory tests. he showed us the results. >> limb: so we started out not by looking at music, but by looking at somebody like this who-- would give a lecture that most people would consider to be a little bit boring. >> in an effort to alleviate the effect of the-- anyone? anyone? >> limb: this is what happened when he was listening to that. and then, interestingly, because

he is blind we looked at his visual cortex. and we didn't see any significant activity there at all-- >> alfonsi: so nothing's happening. >> limb: exactly. and then we switched the soundtrack for him. and we put on a band that he knows quite well, snarky puppy. ♪ ♪ this is what changes in his brain. >> alfonsi: jeez. lights up. look closely. this is his visual cortex listening to the boring lecture, and this is it listening to music. >> limb: pretty remarkable. his entire brain is stimulated by music. his visual cortex is activated throughout. it seems like his brain is taking that part of the tissue that's not being stimulated by sight and using it, or maybe helping him, to perceive music with it. >> alfonsi: so he's using that visual part of his brain to kind of see music as it were? >> limb: exactly, yeah. and so, it's sort of borrowing that part of the brain and rewiring it to help him hear music. >> alfonsi: when they told you that the visual cortex of your brain-- >> matthew whitaker: lit up!

like for music. like, that was amazing. i didn't even know that that was happening. >> alfonsi: what do you think it means? >> matthew whitaker: i love music. ( laughs ) >> alfonsi: his love of music has never been in doubt, but matthew's teacher dalia sakas wanted to make sure matthew wasn't just a flash in the pan prodigy. >> matthew whitaker: ah, i just switched the-- i keep switching those-- >> sakas: i know, i know, i know. keep going, you'll get it. you'll get it. >> alfonsi: she wanted him to be a literate musician. >> sakas: where is the second beat? >> alfonsi: so she decided he needed to learn to read braille music. to do that, you have to feel, read and remember dots that represent the music, first for the right hand, and then for the left hand. it's a painstakingly slow process. >> matthew whitaker: how far do you want to go to? let's keep just going, okay? >> alfonsi: and matthew does not tayli s n.owllo .ke slwhen we interviewed him, he ws exceedingly polite and exceedingly bored. >> matthew whitaker: ( yawns ) my gosh! i'm so sorry >> alfonsi: you're fine!

matthew just wants to play. >> matthew whitaker: may i go to the piano? >> alfonsi: so he did. ( "africa" by toto ) ♪ ♪ at the piano, he is pure joy. jumping from the classics... ♪ ♪ ...to beyonceé. ( "crazy in love" by beyonceé ) ♪ ♪ but what's so special is how he takes those songs, any song-- oh, you are speaking to my soul now! ( "naughty girl" by beyonceé ) ♪ ♪ improvising it on the spot to make it his own. ♪ ♪ matthew's latest album is calle" now hear this." his vision of music that a critic noted sounds like matthew is playing with six hands. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

( cheers and applause ) >> matthew whitaker: thank you so much! ( ticking ) >> friends at "60 minutes" pay tribute to producer katie texter who passed away before finishing this story at 60minutesovertime.com, sponsored by pfizer. te to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well enough. xeljanz xr can reduce pain, swelling and further joint damage, even without methotrexate. xeljanz can lower your ability to fight infections like tb; don't start xeljanz if you have an infection. taking a higher than recommended dose of xeljanz for ra can increase risk of death. serious, sometimes fatal infections, cancers including lymphoma, and blood clots have happened. as have tears in the stomach or intestines, serious allergic reactions, and changes in lab results.

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