About Jamil

BIO/RESUME?

Since I haven't needed to provide a job resume forever I've put these paragraphs together to provide an overview of myself in case I ever need to get the job of working with the right people.

I was born in Washington, D.C. to a 1st generation Palestinian refugee father who was a diplomat there and at the UN, and a 3rd generation Minnesota Swede mother. After I graduated early from St. Paul's Highland Park High School I went to work in a foundry so that I could buy music gear, especially guitars. I did that for a couple of years until I got injured thanks to a bucket of hot castings that melted my shoes and burned my legs. I soon changed course and eventually made my way back to the U of M (I had attended elementary school there until they closed it), where I spent more than 30 years as an IT manager and director. I was lucky being in the right place at the right time with the advent of the microcomputer. I was involved with building and running more than 100 computer classrooms and labs benefiting innumerable students. By the time I retired I had hired more than 1000 staff who worked with me (emphasis on with). I also taught a computer class to hundreds of international students who came to the U of M to study agriculture. I was given the annual Dean's Award from the College of Human Ecology (now the College of Design), which I received for fiercely promoting the necessary educational technologies in the school's curriculum to supplant the archaic ones. I was the only person from outside of the college to ever win that award. I also received the Department of Disability Services annual award for providing technology to all students in need of adaptive technologies in ways that would allow them to be treated the same as everyone else (yes, this was a huge change).

At the same time, and because of my love for music (mostly blame The Beatles), I also played in a band, The Smokin' J's (double entendre as the first incarnation of the band was JJ (moi), JC, and AJ), doing shows almost every weekend around the Midwest for decades. We recorded a CD that got major airplay on a variety of radio stations. And, I concurrently managed a vintage guitar store in St. Paul called Pete’s Guitar. At Pete’s I personally spent time with, and sold guitars and related gear to, everyone from AC/DC, Jeff Beck, The Clash, Bob Dylan, Heart, Rory Gallagher, Metallica, Jimmy Page & Robert Plant, Tom Petty, The Rolling Stones, U2, Van Halen, Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Who, ZZ Top, and numerous others. It was an amazing time with unbelievable learning experiences that I could never replicate today. I was also lucky enough to meet Freddie Mercury and Prince. I'm no longer in a band, so I now play everything on my recordings of originals. Thankfully, my son Gabriel shares my love of music and has been the brains behind the recording studio technology that we've been using.

I have founded and chaired 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) nonprofit organizations that supported parents and children. I would love to do that type of thing again where profits from the musical and artistic ventures I'm involved with can contribute to those in need. It's because of all I've done and where I am now that I like to help other artists. I feel that this is not a choice but a calling as I try to turn the intense and growing fear that I have for the future of this planet and its inhabitants into hope, with Talepieces being a brand that I continue to develop. As you may know, a tailpiece on a guitar anchors the strings to the body of a guitar, so Talepieces is a play on words involving stories and music.

I was a Beatles fan growing up, but after reading Brian Wilson's autobiography I caught up on what I had been missing. He quickly became one of my favorites and I was so lucky to be able to meet him during his last show here at the Orpheum. It was a Christmas concert. Run, run, reindeer.

When I learned that Angus was an artist I asked him for sketches like this one. One of the sketches that he made for me wound up on his guitar picks that we had made for him at Pete's for the Razor's Edge Tour (Thunderstruck!),