Big Bad Buddy
Miles maintains his tempo

by Leo Adam Biga

Famed blues-rock drummer and singer Buddy Miles remembers a North 24th Street filled with music clubs when he was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s.

“It certainly is nothing like it was then. It’s like a ghost town down there now … there’s nothing for kids to do,” Miles said. “That’s why there’s so much havoc and trouble in Omaha and … in every major city … People don’t know how to go and party anymore. There’s too many senseless shootings. The time has come that we must band together as one.”

Miles, who lives in Austin, Texas, returns to accept the Omaha Star Award at the Aug. 3 Omaha Black Music Hall of Fame ceremony, where he’ll also perform. The 2005 inductee is using the occasion to deliver a message about the needless waste of young people to violence.

The lifetime train enthusiast hopes to convince Union Pacific Railroad to sponsor a nationwide tour, tracing the railroad’s lines, for him to educate young people “about how important their lives are.” His new CD, The Centennial, is named after the famous U.P. diesel engine at Kenefick Park.

He dreamed of being a train engineer. Instead he “followed in the footsteps” of his father, George A. Miles, Sr., who played upright bass with Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Charlie Parker and Dexter Gordon. Buddy began playing drums at age 8. “I’ve been a musician all my life,” he said. “I’ve done nothing else.”

As a teen he gigged with his father’s band, the Bebops, and with Preston Love, Sr. and Lester Abrams. He first made it in New York, hooking up with Wilson Pickett. He jammed in the Village with Eric Clapton. His big break came when Michael Bloomfield plucked him for the Electric Flag, a blues-rock band Miles still considers the best he ever played in.

He toured and recorded widely, opening for Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and playing on albums by Hendrix and Muddy Waters. More Hendrix collaborations followed, and the famed guitarist produced an album by the Buddy Miles Express. Miles played on Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland, and Miles formed with Hendrix and Billy Cox the trio Band of Gypsys, which released one album before Hendrix’s death.

Miles recorded hits and played with such artists as Carlos Santana, Stevie Wonder and David Bowie. His greatest commercial success came with his version of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” for a California Raisins commercial. The gig made the classic song big again and spawned three Miles albums.

A 2005 stroke has not slowed Miles. He’s even throwing down a challenge to Motley Crew bad boy drummer Tommy Lee and the rocker’s 2005 NBC Husker bit. “I’ll have a duel with that dude anytime he wants … We can do it at a Nebraska football game, too,” Miles said, “because I’ll drum him a new ass.” ,

Buddy Miles performs Friday, Aug. 3 at Omaha Black Music Hall of Fame’s Classical, Big Band, Jazz and R&B Awards. The show starts at 8 p.m. at Qwest Center Omaha. Visit blackmusicomaha.com.
26 Jul 2007