George Allen "Buddy" Miles Jr. (September 5, 1947 – February 26, 2008) was an American composer, drummer, guitarist, vocalist and producer. He was a founding member of the Electric Flag (1967), a member of Jimi Hendrix's Band of Gypsys (1969–1970), founder and leader of the Buddy Miles Express and later, the Buddy Miles Band. Miles also played and recorded with Carlos Santana, John McLaughlin, and others. He also sang lead vocals on the California Raisins claymation TV commercials and recorded two California Raisins R&B albums.
Miles was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on September 5, 1947. Miles's father played upright bass for Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Charlie Parker, Dexter Gordon, and others. By age twelve, Miles had begun touring with his father's band, the Bebops. He played with his father's band for several years.
Given the nickname "Buddy" by his aunt after the drummer Buddy Rich, he was often seen as a teenager hanging out and recording at Universal Promotions Corporation recording studios, which later became Rainbow Recording Studios.
In order to become a professional musician, Miles dropped out of Omaha North High in 1965. The school awarded him an honorary degree in 1998.
Miles played with a variety of rhythm and blues and soul acts as a teenager, including Ruby & the Romantics, the Delfonics, and Wilson Pickett. In 1964, at the age of 16, Miles met Jimi Hendrix at a show in Montreal, where both were performing as sidemen for other artists.
In 1967, Miles joined Hendrix in a jam session at the Malibu home of Stephen Stills. They also went on to play together again in 1968 in both Los Angeles and New York. In the same year, Miles moved to Chicago where he teamed with guitarist Mike Bloomfield and vocalist Nick Gravenites to form the Electric Flag, a blues/soul/rock band. In addition to playing drums, Miles sometimes sang lead vocals for the band, which made its live debut at the Monterey Pop Festival in mid-1967.
In early 1968, the band released A Long Time Comin', its first album for Columbia. The Electric Flag's second album, An American Music Band, followed late the same year. Shortly after that release, the group disbanded. In the same year, Hendrix used several guest artists, including Miles, during the recording of his album, Electric Ladyland. Miles played drums on one long jam that was eventually split into two album cuts, "Rainy Day, Dream Away" and "Still Raining, Still Dreaming", with a different song, "1983... (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)", edited in between.
At age 21, after the breakup of the Electric Flag, Miles put together a new band with Jim McCarty, who later became the guitarist for Cactus. This new group performed and recorded as the Buddy Miles Express. In 1969, Hendrix wrote a short poem as a liner note for Expressway To Your Skull, the first studio album recorded by the Buddy Miles Express. Hendrix went on to produce four of the tracks on the group's follow-up album, Electric Church. The title of the latter LP was taken from Hendrix's poem on the first.
In 1969 he appeared on British jazz guitarist John McLaughlin's album Devotion.
1970s: More bands and collaborations
In 1970, after the Buddy Miles Express split up, Miles began a collaboration with Hendrix and bassist Billy Cox. Together, they formed Band of Gypsys, producing one self-titled live album before disbanding.
Later in 1970, while recording the album We Got to Live Together, Miles learned of the death of Hendrix, which he mentioned on the inner cover of the album. Released in 1971, We Got to Live Together was produced by Miles and Robin McBride.
Also in 1971, although the Electric Flag had been inactive for nearly three years, Columbia released a greatest hits album. In 1974, Miles and the Electric Flag re-formed briefly and released another album, The Band Kept Playing, on the Atlantic label.
Miles went on to produce other records as the Buddy Miles Band. One song he had written and recorded with the Band of Gypsys, "Changes", was also recorded by Miles with his own band and released by Mercury Records as "Them Changes" soon after Hendrix's death. Miles' former Band of Gypsys sideman, Billy Cox, performed bass guitar on this track. The band also included bassist David Hull and guitarist Charlie Karp. The Buddy Miles Band's live album again included "Them Changes," which had become Miles' signature song. The song was released a fourth time on a live record Miles recorded with Carlos Santana.
It was mentioned in the February 10 issue of Billboard, in both the From The Music Capitals of the World section and Sam Sutherland's Studio Track section that Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper were to reunite with Miles to record an album for the Columbia label. It was to be released around mid 1973.
In 1973, Miles recorded an album with the Gun's Adrian Gurvitz called Chapter VII, as well as drummed on a song from Gurvitz's project Three Man Army's album Third of a Lifetime. The Chapter VII album cover included photos of Miles and his family along with some shots of Carlos Santana, Jimi Hendrix, and Sly Stone. In 1974 Miles released All The Faces Of Buddy Miles on CBS produced by Johnny Bristol, an album aimed at the funk and soul market. It included "Pull Yourself Together," which gave Miles a chart placement on the R&B charts when it was issued as a 7" single. Another track, "I'm Just A Kiss Away", was a huge dance hit amongst followers of the UK "rare groove."
Miles was signed by the record label, Casablanca Records. Miles' work for the label included the album released under his own name, More Miles Per Gallon. From that album he had a national hit with, "Rockin' and Rollin' on the Streets of Hollywood". The following year, he released Bicentennial Gathering of the Tribes (1976). The album's liner notes a quote from President John F. Kennedy concerning American Indians. In the mid 1970s, Miles recorded Roadrunner co-produced by long time friend Jim Paris. In 1980 Paris and Miles re-united, and together they produced Sneak Attack with Miles's new band The Regiment, released by Atlantic Records in 1981.
Miles served a prison term for grand theft in the late 1970s and later another term for auto theft in the early 1980s.