Easy answer, no of course you are not too old.
The thread raises some interesting questions though, just how much natural ability needs to be nurtured during formative years in order to be among the best later in life.
Surely ones ability to assimilate new skills diminishes with age, have you tried learning a new lanuage to the point of fluency recently? Probably not, and yet this is something that is best undertaken by small children if they are to avoid tell-tale accents.
To me there are two distinct skill streams to music (shout up if you disagree), 1/ The non creative - the mechanics of playing the instrument to a high level, reading and following music & 2/ The creative, in a nutshell meaningful improvisation. Both can be achieved to a high / professional level and inevitably there is some blurring between the two.
To draw a parallel, an author (the creative) may not be capable actor (non creative) nor the actor an effective writer.
Now here is the rub for myself as a late starter, i can manage 1/ and see continuing improvement for a long time to come, but 2/ the one that i really aspire to, evades even the seemingly first basic steps.
Alternatively i may never have had a creative bone in my body at any age any may have found improv impossible at quarter my current age!
