The Buddy Miles Express was a musical group fronted by American drummer/vocalist

Buddy Miles George Allen "Buddy" Miles Jr. (September 5, 1947February 26, 2008) was an American composer, drummer, guitarist, vocalist and producer. He was a founding member of the Electric Flag (1967), a member of Jimi Hendrix's Band of Gypsys (1969–197 ...

. It was formed after the 1968 breakup of Miles's earlier group

Electric Flag The Electric Flag was an American soul rock band, led by guitarist Mike Bloomfield, keyboardist Barry Goldberg and drummer Buddy Miles, and featuring other musicians such as vocalist Nick Gravenites and bassist Harvey Brooks. Bloomfield forme ...

. They released four albums.

Background

1968

The Buddy Miles Express was formed after the Electric Flag, of which Miles was a member, broke up in 1968. The group also contained four other former Electric Flag members. ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' announced in its October 12 issue that the group had signed to

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it is ...

and was to record under the direction of Lou Reizner, the head of Mercury's London operation. Miles also recruited

Jim McCarty James Stanley McCarty (born 25 July 1943) is an English musician, best known as the drummer for the Yardbirds and Renaissance. Following Chris Dreja's departure from the Yardbirds in 2013, McCarty became the only member of the band to featur ...

, with whom he had caught up with on the west coast. McCarty had been with

Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels Mitch Ryder (born William Sherille Levise, Jr.; February 26, 1945) is an American musician who has recorded more than 25 albums over more than four decades. Career Ryder formed his first band, Tempest, when he was at Warren High School, and th ...

. He accepted Miles' offer as he wanted to work with a band that had that "big sound" with its horn section. It was announced in the November 16, 1968 issue of ''Billboard'' that the group to make its first appearance in New York for a benefit concert for Biafra at Bill Grahams

Fillmore East The Fillmore East was rock promoter Bill Graham's rock venue on Second Avenue near East 6th Street in the (at the time) Lower East Side neighborhood, now called the East Village neighborhood of the borough of Manhattan of New York City. ...

. The Express were announced as the headline act. Their debut album ''Expressway to Your Skull'' was released on

Mercury Mercury commonly refers to: * Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun * Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg * Mercury (mythology), a Roman god Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to: Companies * Merc ...

SR 61196 in 1968.''Billboard'', November 30, 1968 �
Page 77, 78
/ref> The liner notes for the album were written by

Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...

. The November 30 issue of ''Billboard'' picked "Train" and "Spot On The Wall" as fuel for the group's chart rise. The single for the album, "Train", was produced by

Lou Reizner Lou Reizner (born Chicago 1934, died London 26 June 1977) was a record producer, A&R executive and head of Mercury Records European operations. He produced Rod Stewart's first two solo albums, the orchestral version of The Who's rock opera Tommy, ...

1969

In 1969, ''Electric Church'' was released. Jimi Hendrix produced one side and Ann Tansey of Mercury Records produced the other. For the week ending June 7, 1969, their album entered the ''Billboard'' Top LPs chart at 147. Around September 1969, Robert Fitzpatrick took legal action against the group, Mercury Records and the Ashley Famous Agency for breach of contract. He sought around $30,000 in damages and also to stop the group members from being paid until he was reimbursed. That same year, Jim McCarty left the band and joined

Cactus A cactus (, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 127 genera with some 1750 known species of the order Caryophyllales. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, from the Ancient Greek ...

1970s

On April 25, 1970, the group plus

Ballin' Jack Ballin' Jack (stylised as Ballin'jack) was an American horn rock group formed in Seattle, Washington in 1969 by Luther Rabb (bass and vocals) and Ronnie Hammon (drums). They had a minor hit in 1970 with "Super Highway", which hit #93 on the Billb ...

opened for Jimi Hendrix at The Forum in Inglewood,

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. In May 1972, the group appeared at the 2nd British Rock Meeting Concert, an event which ran from May 20 to May 22. The event, which was held in

Germersheim Germersheim () is a town in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, of around 20,000 inhabitants. It is also the seat of the Germersheim (district), Germersheim district. The neighboring towns and cities are Speyer, Landau, Philippsburg, Karlsru ...

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

, featured acts including

Humble Pie Humble Pie are an English rock band formed by guitarist and singer Steve Marriott in Moreton, Essex, in 1969. They are known as one of the first supergroups of the late 1960s and found success in the early 1970s with songs such as " Black Cof ...

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philo ...

Atomic Rooster Atomic Rooster are a British rock band originally formed by members of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, organist Vincent Crane and drummer Carl Palmer. Throughout their history, keyboardist Vincent Crane was the only constant member and wrote ...

Linda Lewis Linda Ann Fredericks (born 27 September 1950), better known as Linda Lewis, is an English vocalist, songwriter and guitarist. She is the eldest of six children, three of whom also had singing careers. She is best known for the singles " Rock-a ...

Osibisa Osibisa are a Ghanaian-British Afro-Rock band founded in London in the late 1960s by four expatriate West African and three London based Caribbean musicians. Osibisa were the most successful and longest lived of the African-heritage bands in ...

and

Curved Air Curved Air are an English progressive rock group formed in 1970 by musicians from mixed artistic backgrounds, including classical, folk, and electronic sound. The resulting sound of the band is a mixture of progressive rock, folk rock, and fus ...

. The group released their ''

Booger Bear ''Booger Bear'' was an album released by The Buddy Miles Express in 1973. It was released in both stereo and quadraphonic formats. It made the ''Billboard'' charts in 1974. Background The album received a positive review in the November 23, 1973 ...

'' album in 1973. A ''Billboard'' reviewer referred to it as a production of the first order. Also mentioned was the time and care put into the material and selections. The direction was more towards commercial rock than hard blues. This album was also released in

Quadraphonic Quadraphonic (or quadrophonic and sometimes quadrasonic) sound – equivalent to what is now called 4.0 surround sound – uses four audio channels in which speakers are positioned at the four corners of a listening space. The system allows for th ...

SQ Matrix format. It differed from previous releases in SQ and QS in that it didn't stick to the "front of the music" format. There was more directionality in the music and voices on one song, "Louie's Blues" coming from the rear were effective. The ''Billboard'' review mentioned Columbia's engineers really opening up the spectrum. The album entered the ''Billboard'' Soul LPs chart at no 56 and remained on the chart for a week.

1980s to 1990s

On December 27, 1984, the Buddy Miles Express played at San Francisco's Kabuki Theatre, an event sponsored by Bill Graham and Radio KRQ, with some of the proceeds going to

World Vision In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

to help Ethiopian famine refugees. Miles reformed the Express sometime after playing with

Bootsy Collins William Earl "Bootsy" Collins (born October 26, 1951) is an American bass guitarist and singer. Rising to prominence with James Brown in the early 1970s, and later with Parliament-Funkadelic, Collins established himself as one of the leading n ...

in the early 1990s. The last album release that was credited to the Buddy Miles Express was ''Hell And Back'', released on

Rykodisc Rykodisc is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, operating as a unit of WMG's Independent Label Group and is distributed through Alternative Distribution Alliance. History Claiming to be the first Compact Disc, CD-only independ ...

RCD 10305 in 1994.

Musicians

; ''Expressway To Your Skull'' * Terrence Clements ... tenor saxophone * Marcus Doubleday ... trumpet, flugelhorn *

Virgil Gonsalves Virgil Gonsalves (September 5, 1931 – October 20, 2008) was an American jazz saxophonist and clarinetist, though primarily a baritone saxophonist. Career Born in Monterey, California, Gonsalves was a baritone saxophonist with the orchestras ...

... baritone saxophone, soprano saxophone, flute *

... guitar * Bill McPherson ... tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, flute *

... vocals, drums, guitar, organ, bass * Bill Rich ... bass *

Herbie Rich Herbie Rich (February 23, 1944 – May 12, 2004) was an American multi-instrumentalist from Omaha, Nebraska, who was a member of The New Breed, The Electric Flag, and the Buddy Miles Express. He also played with Jimi Hendrix, Mike Bloomfield and ...

... organ, tenor saxophone * Ron Woods ... drums ; ''Electric Church'' * Peter Carter ... trumpet * Tom Hall ... trumpet * Duane Hitchings ... organ * Jim McCarty ... guitar * Buddy Miles ... vocals, drums * Bill Rich ... bass * Bobby Rock ... saxophone * James Tatum ... saxophone * Tobie Wynn ... saxophone ; ''Booger Bear'' * Bill Atwood ... trumpet * Jo Baker ... background vocals * Donny Beck ... synthesiser, organ, clavinet, piano, background vocals * Steve Busfield ... lead guitar, background vocals * Bob Ferrara ... tenor saxophone * Robert Hogins ... organ *

Mingo Lewis James "Mingo" Lewis (born 8 December 1953) is an American percussionist and drummer who played with Santana, Al Di Meola, Return to Forever (he was a band member for Di Meola's first five albums), and The Tubes. Playing Lewis plays congas, bong ...

... percussion, congas * Buddy Miles ... lead vocals, drums, guitar, bass, background vocals * Pat O'Hara ... trombone * Roland Robinson ... bass, drums * Ann Sampson ... background vocals * Pete Welker ... trumpet ; ''Hell and Back'' * Crispin Cioe ... alto saxophone, baritone saxophone * Larry Etkin ... trumpet * Bob Funk ... trombone * Arno Hecht ... tenor saxophone * Jeff Levine ... organ, piano, clavinet * Buddy Miles ... vocals, drums, guitar * Nicky Skopelitis ... guitar * Kevon Smith ... guitar * Joe Thomas ... bass * The Uptown Horns ... horns

Discography

Later years

Herbie Rich and his wife Hilda who he had married in 1989 became involved in the Christian ministry. They visited large malls around Atlanta, homeless shelters, schools and nursing homes, spreading the word. He died in Mableton, Georgia on May 12, 2004, at the age of 60. Buddy Miles died in Austin, Texas on 26 February 2008. Virgil Gonsalves died on October 20, 2008 in Salinas,

.Legacy.com �
Virgil Gonsalves, Jr., Obituary
/ref>

References

{{Authority control Musical groups established in 1968 Musical groups disestablished in 1970 American blues rock musical groups American psychedelic rock music groups 1968 establishments in the United States 1970 disestablishments in the United States