Buddy Miles FUNK MONSTER – Part 1

Buddy Miles – Working Harder Everyday
Buddy Miles – Colossus

Overview

I am deep in the mode of digging through Buddy Miles catalog, going through some of my favorites from the mid to late 70’s – because I have favorites to share with you all – ones I’ve been jamming on for a few years. And I’m talking to real funk heads who worked with Buddy Miles to get more info – maybe some interviews will come out of this. Anyone got insight into Buddy Miles’ “funk years”?? Leave some comments for us.

Like so this is only part 1 of what I call my favorite “greatest funk hits” of Buddy Miles, a great who passed away in February of 2008.

It’s my opinion people stopped paying attention to Buddy from the time he completed the monster hit “Them Changes” in 1970, all the way up until he appeared as the voice of the California Raisins in 1986. I am certainly wrong, but I surely feel Buddy’s funk output is way overlooked, and that Buddy is known more as a soul rock man, doing Allman Brothers and Neil Young covers. Regardless, here’s a good overview of Buddy Miles’ career via Pandora. But a bio like this overlooks some of the real funky highlights, like for instance Buddy’s intersections with P-Funk

Discovering Buddy’s Funk

Sure I loved Buddy Miles’ greatest hits collection (here on iTunes), but I had no idea that he was this funk monster. I remember, not sure what year it was – mid to late 90’s – (can somebody help me out?) but I was at a Bernie Worrell New Years Eve concert at the Knitting Factory in New York City. As we stumbled out around 2 AM, somebody from the Worrell concert was like hey, Buddy Miles is playing at the Bitter End. It was just me, alone, on New Years Eve, but I stumbled across Lower Manhattan, paid $15 and found myself in the middle of the funk! Buddy Miles, a very wide dude but muscular, was on the drum kit just killing it with James Brown funk. He was singing his ass off and I danced mine off! This set went from like 2:30 to 3:30 AM. I was like ok, I caught this last set. And he’s like “I’m coming back in a half hour”. 4:00 AM Buddy hits the stage with a guitar. I’m not going to overload you with a review here, but it blew my mind, just switching instruments on each set. There was another set at 5:30. I’m not sure how long this kept going, but I stumbled back to my friend Rosie’s apartment well after the sun came up.

Flash forward to 2000, and I was working with my band fONKSQUISh with trumpeter / vocalist / arranger Richard “Kush” Griffith. Kush is a story for a whole another post, and you can read my Kush tribute over at Soul Sides. Kush was a member of the James Brown band (aka The J.B’s), and P-Funk and associated bands (Bootsy’s Rubber Band, Fred Wesley & The Horny Horns, Parliament, Brides of Funkenstein). But “Kush” did much more than that, and one of his gigs was as the band leader for the “Buddy Miles Regiment”, the group name for a Buddy Miles helmed double album that came out in 1981 – Buddy Miles Regiment – “Sneak Attack” on Atlantic Records. I found a great detailed post on the album over at My Favourite Sound.

So Kush told me about “Sneak Attack” double LP and then I went on to find more great Buddy Miles funk tunes on his Casablanca records. I’ll post some up in the part 2 post because the Casablanca LPs are my favorite outputs from Buddy Miles. It would be hard to license a greatest Buddy Miles funk hits I think, I mean he also was at Columbia / Epic, and there are a few funk gems on those too. I wasn’t so much a fan of the “Faces of” LP, anyways, there are many gems and you can see his “funk years” output here.

Two Gems from “Sneak Attack”

At the top of the post we have two cuts from the double LP, these are studio cuts. I say “studio cuts” because it’s interesting to note that side 4 of “Sneak Attack” (see back cover photo) was a live set recorded at a Chino prison.

One jam is “Working Harder Everyday” – man Buddy just puts down a bedrock beat led by cowbell and congas that won’t quit – but the percussion doesn’t get in the way – this beat is tight and solid. At about 5 minutes into this 10 minute plus minor key blues-funk burner, I’m reminded of how much I love Buddy’s guitar style. I’ve never heard anyone play closer to a style of Eddie Hazel (though maybe somebody would tell me I should say Hendrix!).

“Colossus”, second up, is one of those up tempo “let us show you what we got” funk – disco style instrumentals from the late 70’s (I think of like “Joyous” by Pleasure, or “Machine Gun” by the Commodores, or a Slave jam). You know the kind right? Like this one, “Colossus”, well it unfurls into a crazy funk break laden with synths, congas, and horns. I’m sure the break has been sampled. I mean it’s too easy.

More to come + Resources

I didn’t want to lay too much Buddy Miles funk on you all at once. So I’ll be back with some picks from the Columbia / Casablanca LPs and some further insights into Buddy’s intersections with P-Funk. I would really love to see a greatest hits of the later years come out at some point, or at least these albums remastered. I want to hear every part of Buddy on the drum kit clearly ; I want to really feel the guitar parts against these really angular, tight, but open / airy type beats Buddy lays down. These mp3s I’m sharing with you are only poor rips from vinyl records.

I noticed Buddy Miles has a web site, asking for donations, though I am not sure who runs that.

I don’t want to make the same mistake that I am complaining about and overlook any part of Miles’ career. Thomas Fawcett from on The Corner blog got a chance to do a nice post on Buddy with a focus on his earlier work and his last days in Austin, Texas. Fawcett’s post included an October 2007 interview with Buddy Miles, below, and an overview of the early years.

Thomas Fawcett / The Corner radio spot on Buddy Miles with Buddy Miles interview