Why jazz?

David Milazzo assumed the pose of Rodin's Thinker, hunching forward and rubbing his chin.

"The essential question," the 15-year-old murmured with a sigh.

Then he shook his head and looked to friend and fellow musician Mike Sink, 16, for help.

"I think there's more freedom in jazz than in any other music," Mike replied. "I started with jazz. My dad, that's all he listened to, so that's what I was exposed to. . . . And I'm pretty grateful for that. I grew up on jazz."

It's a little unnerving to hear a 16-year-old refer to something he "grew up on," but then, David and Mike aren't typical teenagers. The two recently won full scholarships worth about $10,000 to the prestigious Berklee College of Music summer jazz workshop in Boston.

Mike, a sophomore at Concord High, has been playing piano since he was 3 years old. His mother, Sylvia, said she and his father, Tim, immediately knew he "had something going on that was unusual" and let him delay preschool a year to play more.

"My biggest concern is that he doesn't squander his talent," she said. "My husband and I see that Michael has a gift, really from God, and we want to see him use it."

So before he ever set foot in a classroom, Mike was playing the music of the soulful and world-weary.

"Well, the first first thing I played was 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,' " he said. But "after that, it was the blues. It was all I did. . . . It was my best friend."

By comparison, David, a Bow High School sophomore, was a late bloomer. He first picked up a saxophone at age 9, when he started goofing around on his father's old instrument one night.

"It was one of those gotcha moments," his mother, Terry, said of the raw talent David showed from the beginning. "We never would have had an inkling."

David said it wasn't until eighth grade that he "got serious." Now he practices two to four hours a day. Mike pegs his practice time at about three hours. That isn't counting the time they spend being shuttled around to tutorials and gigs throughout much of New England.

Training

For the past four months, David has been studying with, among others, a jazz clarinetist at Berklee, perfecting his skills on the clarinet and sax.

Harry Skoler, an associate professor in the school's woodwind department, said he is thrilled to be working with David.

Asked how many students he's had like David in his 25 years of teaching, he paused. "Let's see, the maximum would be maybe seven or eight . . . maybe."

David's gift, he said, lies in his ability to balance the technical, intellectual and emotive elements of playing while maintaining an individual sound.

"The whole thing comes together and it sounds like David," he said. "I think that's something we all shoot for, but that's pretty rare, especially so young. . . . He transcends his instrument."

Mike's longtime teacher, Edgar Kuklowsky, was equally effusive about Mike's abilities. In his 16 years of teaching, he said he has never had a student who has accomplished what Mike has at such a young age. Mike started taking lessons from Kuklowsky when he was 8; he didn't know how to read music at the time and was relying on his ear.

"He's one of those ideal students," he said. "He thirsts after sounds."

Mike takes one jazz and one classical lesson a week. He also spends six hours every Saturday studying in a preparatory program at the New England Conservatory. (next page »)