I don’t know if this topic has ever been raised before - apologies if it has.
Whilst listening to Jordan’s “The Road Home” recently it occurred to me – why did someone with such an immense talent never join a major band in his twenties / thirties, or become a session musician ? It is incredible to think that he joined DT, his first "proper" band, as such, if you exclude the RM Project, when he was over 40.
Consider the situation. You are an exceptionally talented keyboard player, and you live in New York City, one of the leading centres of music in the world. It is the 80’s. Why did some major band or musician not snap him up ? Alternatively, why did he not become a session musician, a la someone like Steve Lukather on the west coast, who is actually younger than Jordan ? A city like NYC would surely have provided loads of work in the 80’s and 90’s, so why did Jordan never become part of this scene ?
Reading Rich Wilson’s book, I note that Jordan became involved in some business venture in the 80’s which never really took off, and after meeting his wife he then became a product specialist with Korg and then Kurzweil. I hesitate to say that he “wasted” his talent but he certainly didn’t make the most of it, and he only (deservedly) came to the forefront when he joined DT. In the meantime, other, probably infinitely less talented musicians were making a good living in NYC whilst Jordan languished beneath the radar.
Has this topic ever been raised with Jordan himself ? Obviously, if he had become a session musician, with the monetary rewards that it brings, he may never have joined DT in the first place. Or, he might have formed / been approached to join a band that ultimately became successful in their own right.
I would be interested to hear other peoples views on this subject.
