This past New Years weekend I had a real chance to sit back and reflect on mine and Kathy’s life together..it was exactly 30 years ago Nëw Years eve that Kathy took me home from Cornell Medical in Westchester where I was dealing with severe anxiety. I dealt with it and made it back. It was a great lesson in this life that is for sure. It never goes away but understanding how to deal with it sure takes you a long way..
From the minute I got back to New York City in January 1974 up until now it really amazes me about how many have doubted what I was capable of doing and pulling together. I started working with electronic keyboards in 1974 and so many people said to me I was wasting my time and that nobody was going to be interested in synthesizers..it was a passing fad. If I didn’t play jazz and all the changes I wasn’t going anywhere. When I was working for years honing my craft and people asked me my goals I told them it was to work with MilesDavis. I got a lot of laughs and doubts saying Miles would never be interested In those synthesizers.
When I did the demos for Celebrating the Music of Weather Report almost every record company told me nobody would be interested in weather report because they were broken up 15 years ago. I remember standing in the office of Bruce Lundvall And opening up swing journal from Japan and it was number #1 For two months! And even the label I was on doubted I could get all of the people that I said I could. But I hung in there and delivered
Not to mention how many times over eight years I was turned down to make
A Love Affair,The Music of Ivan Lins.. The best in the business turned me down at least three times. I hung in there for eight years and waited for the right moment. When that happened we made the album with a stellar group of artists and musicians and got a Grammy and nomination.. I got a call from a number of record companies who doubted me who actually called to congratulate me and ask me how was it possible I got Sting As they’ve been trying to get him to do a project for them.. I was able to say well “maybe he didn’t like your project”!
Other things happened along the way like forming a Global Noize and doing Jazzfest in NOLA 3 years..(New album in 2024!) Making Soul Summit with Reggie Young,Bob Babbitt ,Steve Ferrone and others.
And just putting together all of my projects which took a lot of patience, a lot of disappointments, and good moments for sure when I saw it all come to fruition. One never should give up when they know they are right and have the focus together.
When I turned 70 I knew it was time to go and that New York had nothing left for me and I had nothing left to give it. When I told Kathy my Idea to move to Portugal she One hundred percent stood behind me and put an incredible effort into making this happen. With the help of others and their belief over the years and knowing us and knowing what we stand for..were there to help
I think I also proved by writing my book The Extraordinary Journey of JasonMiles...A Musical Biography.. We raised the money to get it done and published and as I mentioned before I can’t thank so many of you who were there to believe in me and pre-order the book and then those who ended up buying the book when it came out and I still hope there’s a lot more to read this unique experience that very few can talk about and have experienced.
So now here we are in 2023 by no means starting from scratch but definitely embarking on this next part of life. And I’ll leave you with something very simple by just saying when people say you can’t do it or they doubt you, don’t doubt yourself! It is out there if you want it but it’s not going to be easy because the doubters are always lurking around waiting to say I told you so.
It took me a while to think if I really wanted to post this, But I did because it’s important for people to know in this life sometimes you hopefully get out of it what you put into it but it takes time and there was so many roadblocks and obstacles along the way.. thanks for taking the time for reading this and all those that have been on this journey with us and you know who you are.. We do really love you!
