
BIOGRAPHY
Some musicians are content to find one thing they like to do, and then to keep doing it for the rest of their career. Jason Miles is definitely not that kind of artist. Repetition is not a concept that even makes sense to him. Why stay stuck in one place when you can explore and experience something different? Moving determinedly forward has been Miles’ guiding philosophy since he began playing music professionally, more than four decades ago.
Jason Miles: A Life of Musical Innovation, Courage and Creativity
With a bold move to a new country, and several innovative projects in the works, the veteran musician and producer looks toward an exciting future
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Producer, composer, keyboardist and arranger Jason Miles has brought to every new project he’s undertaken a boundless sense of curiosity and adventure. No less than Roberta Flack said about him, “Jason Miles has raised the level of excellence for the musicians who have had the good fortune of working with him, myself included. He has enriched the lives of millions of people.” And Miles Davis, in his 1991 autobiography, labeled Jason a genius—not a term he threw around!
From extensive collaborations with such giants as Miles Davis, Luther Vandross, Grover Washington Jr., David Sanborn and Marcus Miller, to his own critically acclaimed recordings, including Black Magic (2020), Kind of New 2: Blue Is Paris (2017), To Grover With Love: Live in Japan (2016), Kind of New (2015), Global Noize (2008), What’s Going On? Songs of Marvin Gaye (2006) and Miles to Miles (2005), New York native Miles has always been a restless seeker. The Grammy winner has shifted seamlessly between a multitude of genres, from R&B to pop to Brazilian music and even children’s music and country (producing Suzy Boguss’ Sweet Danger)—and, of course, several different strains of jazz, from Latin to fusion.
As a master of the art of the synthesizer, and an innovator in synthesizer programming, Miles’ work can be heard on recordings by Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, Michael Brecker, The Crusaders, Ruben Blades, Freddy Cole, George Benson, Joe Sample, Herb Alpert, Vanessa Williams and many others. He has performed at top festivals and venues throughout the world, including the Monterey Jazz Festival, Jazz Aspen, Umbria Jazz, North Sea, Jacksonville Jazz Fest, Cape Town Jazz Festival, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and Tokyo Blue Note.
Most artists who can boast of a career as all-encompassing and impressive as Miles’ would be content to repeat themselves, to fall into habit. But such complacency is not even in Jason Miles’ vocabulary. As he celebrated his 70th birthday, even with the pandemic making such a prospect extremely difficult and daunting, he and his wife Kathy packed up all of their essential possessions, disposed of the rest and moved to the city of Lisbon, Portugal, to start anew. For Jason, Lisbon offered an opportunity to shift his artistry into new areas with new collaborators.
In just a couple of years, Miles has already performed numerous gigs with local musicians, in various settings and configurations, and recently released two albums, including one cut with a group of Lisbon musicians. And there’s plenty more to come.
“I made the decision to relocate to Portugal after reflecting on my 50 years in the music business, knowing that I was capable of doing whatever I wanted to do musically, on the highest creative level. I’ve never lost confidence in that,” says Miles. “New York City had given me so much but now it had nothing left to give me, and I didn’t have anything left to give it. The music world I knew was now gone: the studios, clubs, the vibrant scene, all gone. I was also worried about the state of the country. I didn’t want to sit around and contemplate my life. I wanted to begin the next phase and I didn’t feel it was in the U.S. It was time for a new adventure.”
After making the move in late 2022, it didn’t take long for Portuguese music fans to embrace Miles’ music. “European jazz fans truly love the New York groove I have brought over here,” he says. “The jazz audience in Portugal is small compared to other places, and there are not many places to play this music, but I’ve found some great musicians, and wherever I go, it is met with warmth and enthusiasm.”
One of Miles’ two new 2025 releases, The Lisbon Electric 4tet, is a reflection of the hybrid American-European jazz-funk deep-groove sound that Jason has spearheaded since his arrival. Mixed and mastered by Jimmy Bralower, the seven-track album features Vicky Marques (drums), Yami Aloelela (bass) and Tiago Oliveira (guitar), and of course Miles playing keyboards. Of their first gig, Miles recalls, “They were superb and we really clicked. I got offered a show at the Super Bock Em Stock festival in Lisbon and the audience went wild. I decided to go in the studio with them and I feel it is very strong.”
The second new offering from Miles isn’t wholly new. Cosmopolitan is a remastered updating of one of Miles’ earliest albums, and features such heavyweight musicians as bass giant Marcus Miller, the late saxophonist Michael Brecker, and percussionist Badal Roy, also now deceased. The album, originally cut in the ’70s, “represents the real beginning of my being respected as an artist,” Miles says, “when I immersed myself into becoming the best musician I could. I studied jazz and classical music and learned about synthesizers and electronic music, while always checking out music in the fertile grounds of New York City. Cosmopolitan was my first musical statement. Musicians and industry people started to take notice of me. I was growing my reputation as a synthesizer master, and from there I grew into doing sessions, started my production journey, started to play live and slowly kept on growing and creating a reputation until my real breaks started to happen.”
Of all the breaks that came his way, Jason counts his time with the legendary Miles Davis as being among the most significant events in his life. Jason’s synthesizer genius is heard prominently on three of the trumpet genius’ landmark albums: Tutu (1986), Music from Siesta (1987) and Amandla (1989). “I could write a book about these three Miles albums,” he says.
And, in fact, Miles has already written two books—his 2022 memoir, The Extraordinary Journey of Jason Miles: A Musical Biography, which tracks his career up until the European move—and a sequel, on the way this year. Titled Journey to the Center of My Life In the Music Business, “It’s a perfect followup to my first book,” Jason says. “It’s a deep dive into the many characters I came in contact with and more stories of some of the amazing albums I was a part of.”
In celebration of the publication of his memoir, and his lifelong dedication to the mastery of the piano—to which he has recommitted himself since the transatlantic move, raising his level of creativity on the instrument—Miles has been performing a solo piano show that covers his half-century in the music business.
In addition to the second book, there will be two new albums: The Unity Funk Project: Dedicated to Bernie Worrell, and Brazilian Love, Miles’ follow up to A Love Affair: The Music of Ivan Lins. Now that Jason and his wife are settled in and enjoying their new life together in Lisbon, he believes that there is no limit to what he can create and achieve. Inspiration is never in short supply.
“Moving to Portugal was the right thing for us to do,” he says. “Although I had a good life, I was stagnating in the U.S., and I also wanted Kathy to have a new life here as she contributed so much to the success we have had. In many ways, the move is a celebration of our life together. I also want Americans to know that they are missing what so much of the world has to offer by not exploring and not being brave enough to make bold moves. You have to in order to get to the next place. Life shouldn’t just be on autopilot.”