RIP Buddy Miles

[carlygtr56]

Very sad news. Buddy , Billy, Jimi were my musical teachers. I loved Buddy's solo stuff as well. What a tremendous career. I tip my hat to the man, RIP Buddy....

[Ron Thorne]

Man, I really dug Electric Flag & Buddy Miles Express, as well as Buddy's contributions to Jimi Hendrix. Them Changes was like an anthem in the mid 60's.



R.I.P., George "Buddy" Miles~

[Gentle Giant]

Can't find news on the net, this must be fresh scoop. Anyone have the details?

[Scott Dolan]

Ain't much out there yet.

http://www.news8austin.com/content/y...sp?ArID=201464

[carlygtr56]

Originally Posted by Gentle Giant

Can't find news on the net, this must be fresh scoop. Anyone have the details?

http://www.news8austin.com/content/y...sp?ArID=201464

[Scott Dolan]

Beatcha!!

[Brian Olewnick]

Machine Gun, baby.

[randalljazz]

http://www.variety.com/article/VR111...goryid=16&cs=1

i saw him live with carlos santana, new years day, 1972, in diamond head crater (oahu, hawaii--still have the vinyl). what a day! what a concert! what a way to start a new year!

[Jazzooo]

I was lucky enough to play 5 shows with Buddy last September. For a big man, he was frail, but when we hit with his walk-on music, he got up out of his wheelchair and literally danced his way across the stage to the mic. He was sweet and genuinely grateful that the crowds stood for him, and he gave it his all every single show. Sounded great too! RIP, Buddy.

[gonzo]

bootsy collins sent out a myspace bulletin about buddy's death. it seems that buddy's family doesn't have enough money for burial. bootsy's gonna repost to let us know where to send donations.

[Gary Sisco]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/ar...hp&oref=slogin

Of course he'll always be remembered for Band of Gypsys but to me, at the time, his claim to fame was for having been the drummer of Electric Flag, one of my very top short list of favorite bands as a teenager. I wore a couple of lp's of "A Long Time Coming" out and still own it today on CD.

RIP

[Gentle Giant]

Buddy could play him some mean gee-tar, too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLLCTjIMmCs

[Gary Sisco]

I can't stand the way he sings but I love to hear him drum.

[Derek Taylor]

Man, that's a bummer… he had his limitations, but worked well within them. Some sweet vintage Buddy on these (esp. “Record Plant 2x”):

[GoodSpeak]

Doug had mentioned he was in poor health....sorry to see him go.



Rest in Peace, Buddy.

[Chris D]

For some reason, "Them Changes" became the anthem for our high school football team. We'd crank it up in the locker room, start banging the lockers and get all fired up and ready to hit.

Well, my mind is going through them changes
I feel just like commitin' a crime
Every time ya see me goin' some where
I feel like I'm goin' outta my mind, yeah

[Lois Gilbert]

Buddy Miles, 60; drummer with Hendrix, voice of California raisins
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
February 28, 2008
Buddy Miles, the rock and R&B drummer, singer and songwriter whose eclectic career included stints playing with Jimi Hendrix and as the lead voice of the California Raisins, the animated clay figures that became an advertising phenomenon in the late 1980s, has died. He was 60.

Miles died Tuesday of congestive heart failure at his home in Austin, Texas, according to an announcement on his website.

A massive man with a distinctive, sculpted afro, Miles hit his peak of popularity when he joined Hendrix and bassist Billy Cox to form Hendrix's Band of Gypsys, which the New Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll called "the first black rock group." Miles had played with Hendrix on the guitarist's influential "Electric Ladyland" album released in 1968.

The Band of Gypsys made just one album, a live set recorded on New Year's Eve in 1969-70, and two of Miles' songs, "Them Changes" and "We Got to Live Together," were included on the album. He gave the recording a memorable drum riff on one of Hendrix's signature songs, "Machine Gun."

But, according to Miles, the Band of Gypsys association was brief and stormy. He told The Times in 1988 that Hendrix's management, not the guitarist himself, fired him within a month of the concert. He thought Hendrix's managers were leery of continuing with an all-black group.

"It had to be a racial thing," Miles told The Times. "I think it had to scare them because of the political aspect at the time."

Miles was born Sept. 5, 1947, in Omaha. He developed an interest in drums at an early age and by 12 was playing in his father's jazz combo. Within a couple of years he was in demand as a session player and a sideman, working with top-name R&B groups, including Ruby and the Romantics and the Delfonics. According to the Rolling Stone encyclopedia, he played on the session that produced the Jaynetts' 1963 hit "Sally Go Round the Roses."

While playing with Wilson Pickett in 1967, he was approached by guitarist Mike Bloomfield, who asked him to join the blues, rock and soul group Electric Flag. Miles played on three of the band's albums before forming his own group, the Buddy Miles Express, in 1968. Next came his association with Hendrix.

Over the years, Miles recorded two albums with Carlos Santana, one of which went platinum, and worked with other leading music figures, including Muddy Waters and John McLaughlin. He re-formed the Buddy Miles Express in the mid-1970s and had a hit with his song "Them Changes."

By the late 1970s, however, Miles' career came to a halt over convictions for grand theft and auto theft. He served time in the California Institution for Men at Chino and at San Quentin State Prison. He was incarcerated until 1985 and formed bands at both prisons.

After he was released, he sang with Santana's group and got the raisin gig while working on an album with the guitarist. The popular television commercials for the California Raisin Advisory Board featured a quartet of singing and dancing Claymation figures with Miles, as Buddy Raisin, doing the lead singing covering Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through the Grapevine."

The commercial's popularity spawned a million-selling offshoot album of remakes of rock and soul oldies, "The California Raisins Sing the Hit Songs."

[Dr Dave]

Originally Posted by Gary Sisco

I can't stand the way he sings but I love to hear him drum.

That just gave my heart a throb, to the bottom of my feet
And I swore as I took another pull, "That Buddy can't be beat."