Miles, Buddy

▪ 2009

George Allen Miles, Jr. 

      American drummer and singer

born Sept. 5, 1947, Omaha, Neb.

died Feb. 26, 2008, Austin, Texas

was a soulful singer and an innovator in the fusion of psychedelic rock with soul, jazz, and blues. He had begun performing by the age of 12 with his father's jazz band, the Bebops, and he went on to work with the Ink Spots, the Delfonics, and Wilson Pickett. In the late 1960s Miles formed his own groups, the Electric Flag (with Mike Bloomfield) and the Buddy Miles Express, but he was best known as the drummer in Jimi Hendrix's all African American trio, the Band of Gypsys (assembled in 1969). That group, with Billy Cox on bass, recorded an eponymous live album that featured the song “Them Changes,” which became Miles's signature song after he rerecorded it with his own band. His powerful drumming was featured on more than 70 albums with artists such as Stevie Wonder, Barry White, and Carlos Santana. During the 1980s Miles achieved a modicum of celebrity as the vocalist on the Claymation California Raisins commercials. In 2004 Miles and Cox released the album The Band of Gypsys Return.

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