The Enid News and Eagle, Enid, OK

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April 30, 2009

Autistic and vision-impaired, Waller student plays the keyboard and drums

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By Bridget Nash Staff Writer

Cobee Clark is not your typical Tri-State Music Festival performer.

Cobee, who plays keyboard and drums, is autistic and vision-impaired, but he prefers to call himself “atypical.”

And, there’s nothing run-of-the-mill about Cobee.

“He’s a savant,” said Clark’s mother, Gi. “He can hear a song one time and play it.”

“I was playing (music) when I was 2 years old,” Cobee said.

He can recognize primary colors but not objects, so he cannot read music.

“He can hear a piece of music — he can’t see it — and he can just start playing it,” said Dave Toelle, Cobee’s band director at Waller Junior High School. “He’s just really amazing.”

Cobee is in seventh grade and plays keyboard and sometimes drums in the school band.

“He’s never had one lesson in his life,” his mother said.

Cobee played with the band and played a solo during Tri-State, but he is looking forward to a different kind of performance Satur-day.

“I’m marching in Tri-State,” he said.

Toelle said Cobee will play the bass drum in the parade. He will not hold the drum, but rather he will walk alongside someone who is holding the drum.

It looks like the only thing Cobee loves more than playing music is performing his music.

“He’s just a performer,” Toelle said. “He knows how to react to the audience and get them going.”

Tri-State judge Marsha Tatham, of Enid, got a taste of Cobee’s performance ability when he performed his solo Thurs-day.

“He came in and introduced his song and it sounded like we were on ‘The Tonight Show,’” Tatham said.

While Cobee can’t play the music exactly as it is written, because he can’t see it, the song was performed well and he received a superior rating, she said.

“He put a new spin on things that was just really interesting and clever and entertaining,” Tatham said. “You could feel his spirit.”

Cobee recently got the chance to perform before a large audience on stage with country music star Phil Vassar.

Gi said while Cobee was on stage with Vassar, Vassar would try to “stump” him by playing music he was sure Cobee had never heard. But Cobee could always play it after hearing it once.

Cobee and Vassar have maintained a relationship, and Vassar presented Cobee with an autographed electric piano.

In turn, Cobee has given Vassar some feedback. In fact, Cobee told Vassar he did not like his song “Why Don’t Ya,” and he should not release it. Vassar re-leased it anyway and Cobee performs the song on keyboard, but not before saying, “This is the song I don’t like.”

Recently, Cobee has started singing while he plays and also has started composing his own music.

Cobee’s family enjoys finding new music for him to play. He plays country, pop, classical and anything else he hears.

“It’s just really interesting how he picks things up,” Toelle said. “He’s just a really neat student.”

“It’s fun to ride with him in the vehicle and listen to the radio and then come home (and hear him play what was on the radio),” said Michael Moore, Cobee’s stepfather.

Cobee is the son of Gi Clark, Michael Moore and Steven Clark, all of Enid.

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