Jimi Hendrix and Buddy Miles, Panhandle Free Concert, San Francisco, 1967
Buddy Miles was born 74 years ago.
A rock and funk drummer, most known as a founding member of the Electric Flag in 1967, Miles was then as a member of Jimi Hendrix's Band of Gypsys from 1969 until January, 1970.
Born in Omaha, Miles was known as a child prodigy. At 12, he played in The Behops, his father, George Miles, Sr.'s, jazz band. Miles Sr. had played upright bass with Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Charlie Parker and Dexter Gordon.
Miles was given the nickname, "Buddy," by his aunt after the drummer Buddy Rich. He played in a variety of rhythm and blues and soul acts as a teenager, including Ruby & the Romantics, the Ink Spots, the Delfonics and Wilson Pickett.
By 1967, he moved to Chicago, where he formed the Electric Flag with guitarist, Mike Bloomfield, and bassist, Harvey Brooks. Nick Gravenites was the vocalist. The blues-soul-rock band made their main live debut at the Monterey Pop Festival in mid-1967 and released their debut Columbia album, A Long Time Comin', in early 1968.
Miles sometimes sang lead vocals for the Electric Flag, in addition to playing drums. The group broke up after their second album, An American Music Band, in late 1968. He then formed The Buddy Miles Express, with Jim McCarty, later the guitarist for Cactus.
A Greatest Hits album by the Electric Flag was issued in 1971 by Columbia. In 1974, the Electric Flag reformed briefly and released the Atlantic album, The Band Kept Playing.
After the Electric Flag, Miles began a closer musical relationship with Hendrix. After the Buddy Miles Express split up, Miles would begin the collaboration with the Hendrix and bassist, Billy Cox, who produced the Band of Gypsies album.
Miles had met Hendrix in an earlier time, when he was only sixteen and both were acting as sidemen for other artists in the early '60s. The meeting had occurred in Canada in 1964, at a show both were participating in.
Miles died on February 26, 2008 of congestive heart disease at his home in Austin at the age of 60.
Here, Miles performs “Runaway Child” in Finland, 1971
Buddy Miles with the Electric Flag