Buddy Miles: Blues Berries



RUF 1073

More about Buddy Miles

15.00 Euro


The Bluesberries project was recorded in Austin Texas, at Arlyn Studios, from February 9, 2000 until February 16, 2000. Additioal recording including the entire song "Down At The Crossroads" and most of the vocals for the entire project at Diamond Head Studios in Dallas, Texas, from February 2000 through August 2000. The engineers in Arlyn were Larry Greenhill and Steve Chadie, with Jim Gaines as producer from February 10-13, 2000. Gregg Diamond is the executive producer.

Release date

3/2002

Release Notes

Buddy Miles
Them Changes - Buddy Miles Live Anthem
Sometimes a life explodes. In other words: have you ever heard about guys who don't have all the luck? Sure, you know them, don't you? Blues man Albert King once had the right song for them: "Born Under A Bad Sign!" If it weren't for bad luck, he wouldn't have any luck at all. King named it! The real Blues man knows all about the downs, which look like ups to him.
Now is the right time to talk about Buddy Miles. More than once, he sang Albert King's tune. He knows it by heart. Buddy Miles, the bandleader, singer, drummer and left-handed guitarist, went through all the "ups" by himself. He has experienced life from the viewpoint of his most famous song, "Them Changes", recorded in 1970. Today, Buddy Miles knows how life can put you through changes. He has the right to sing the blues.

Born as George Miles in 1945, he started out as a teenage prodigy. At the age of twelve, he began playing drums in his father's jazz combo, The Bebop's, in Omaha, Nebraska. In those early days, his career included stints with such luminaries as the Ink Spots (who are credited with inspiring the "doo-wop" vocal genre of the 1950s), The Delfonics, Ruby & The Romantics, Otis Redding and, last but not least, Wilson Pickett in 1966. In 1967, young blues-guitarist Mike Bloomfield (Paul Butterfield's Blues Band, Al Kooper, Bob Dylan) attended a Wilson Pickett show at the RKO Theatre in Brooklyn, New York, and was impressed by Miles inimitable bottom-heavy drumming style. Afterwards, Bloomfield successfully recruited Miles for his own brand-new psychedelic blues-rock band, the Electric Flag. Bloomfield's subsequent departure left the drummer in control. In the wake of a disappointing second album, Miles retained its horn section for his next venture, the Buddy Miles Express. During these days, he had also become friends with Jimi Hendrix. Both of them had played the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. Later on, it was Miles who laid down a solid backbeat for "Rainy Day" and "Still Raining" on Jimi's Electric Ladyland. Hendrix, in return, produced and wrote some sleeve-notes for Expressway To Your Skull, the first hard driving, electric soul album by the Buddy Miles Express. In 1969, the Jimi Hendrix Experience broke up, and Miles replaced the former Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell. Arguably the first true "black rock band" - long before Living Colour - Jimi Hendrix's Band Of Gypsys debuted at Bill Graham's Fillmore East on New Year's Eve 1970. They opened their historic second set with the Hendrix classic "Machine Gun". Later on, they did a fine version of Buddy Miles's Hit "Them Changes", sang, and played together on "We Gotta Live Together", another track written by Miles. Sadly, Hendrix died in 1970, and soon afterwards, Buddy Miles could be heard drumming along with his own band, called Buddy Miles Band. With Them Changes (1970) and the eponymous title track, Miles hit the charts. Them Changes lasted an impressive 74 weeks on the Billboard Album Charts. An integral part of his career, the song returned in great form on Miles's collaboration with another prominent guitarist: Carlos Santana. The resulting album Carlos Santana And Buddy Miles! Live! (1972) was recorded live in an extinct Hawaiian volcano - you can feel the heat still today!

Up to here, it sounds like a fairytale success story, at least on the surface. In those days, it seems, as far as musicians were concerned, you couldn't go wrong with Buddy. He played the drums on Muddy Waters's classic Fathers And Sons album (1972), where he was reunited with old friend Mike Bloomfield. In 1979, he began a four-year stint as the lead singer for Santana and recorded one more album with the guitar legend in 1987 (Freedom). Perhaps you remember his singing on a California Raisins commercial in 1986? His re-recording of Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" became one of the most successful commercials in television history. However, it wasn't only dancing raisins, which were in need of his singing and playing. Once again, musicians wanted him. He worked with Parliament-Funkadelic alumni Bootsy Collins, and they recorded Hardware - Third Eye Open in 1992. He reformed The Express and recorded Hell And Back (1994) - and these were only some of his musical activities. Over the years, he could be heard on more than forty albums on his own or along side Stevie Wonder, David Bowie and John McLaughlin. He has been touring constantly, playing small and big venues, ripping off the roofs with his ecstatic interpretations of Hendrix's "All Along The Watchtower", or doing some fine version of Albert King's "Born Under A Bad Sign". The people love him for doing his thing. Everything sounds fine. Is there any reason to sing the blues? However, what about "them changes"?

Well, all right, that is only one part of the story. While Miles-o-philes hail him as an "innovator whose embryonic fusion of Rock and Soul supplanted the advances made by such contemporaries as Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone" (Scott Wagoner), there is also a special kind of disagreement from the critics. He never was everybody's darling, not even in 1979, when "The Rolling Stone Record Guide" wrote: "His taste is awful, his playing almost always overbearing and he manages to make more judgmental errors than seem possible. 'Them Changes' is his anthem, and a decent funk song, which in this context is miraculous." Criticism is one thing but what's worse-even the law fought him! Johnny Cash may have played a gig at San Quentin, however, Miles stayed there, and in Chino, as an inmate.

More than once it was alleged in the eighties and nineties that Miles had fallen on hard times. In fact, he paid his dues. His life fell to pieces and he had to struggle hard to get back on his feet again. But he did! Today he knows what he is singing about. Born under a bad sign, singing for love and understanding! So, if you are looking for the real thing, do not look any further. Buddy Miles is your man. He is a real dude!

There is one more reason to listen to him: he has made this new album "Blues Berries" full of rollicking blues. No horns, no "tasteless" free form funky drumming and you will not hear any electronic gimmicks. It is nothing but the Blues, played by some masters. The members of his band surely know one or two things about the good old rolling and rocking blues. Some of them are seasoned enough to have played with Johnny Winter in 1968 and later on with Steve Ray Vaughn. They know less is more. Listen to the songs: aren't they stripped down to the bone? It is not the old-fashioned, twelve bar blues, but a special kind of blues-rock with catchy melodies and words of truth. And, please, listen to Buddy singing the Blues. His voice, full of a lifetime of "them changes", is better than ever. If he sings about the ups and downs of life, you can be sure, he is not talking falsely. He may have had a bad reputation, but now with this new album, he is back in full glory and deserves some well-earned respect. There are not too many of the true originators of modern Rock, Soul and Blues left. Buddy Miles has the experience and his own well-worn kind of street-credibility. His fans all around the world know: It is easy to believe him, when he sings the Blues. That is why you too should give him a hand. Before life explodes again. Come on!

Adrian Wolfen (Editor of "Jazzthetik"-Magazine, Germany)

Musicians:
Buddy Miles - Vocals and Drums
Chris Layton - Drums
Tommy Shannon - Bass
Rocky Athas - Guitar
Greg Diamond - Acoustic Guitar
Robert Ware - Bass
Mark Leach - B-3/Keyboards


Tracklist

  1. Tobacco Road
  2. Big Mama
  3. Compassion For The Blues
  4. Live Is What
  5. Rock & Roll
  6. Come On Back
  7. Texas Cannonball
  8. Bayou Delta
  9. Miss Suga' Fine
  10. Down At The Crossroads