. >> denny silas: yeah. yeah.cal 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 yoursel