Gone Too Soon

ilentertainer | March 31, 2008

The music world lost two supremely talented and distinctive artists recently when R&B and rock drummer/singer/ songwriter Buddy Miles and Canadian guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Jeff Healey passed away. Miles succumbed to congestive heart failure at the age of 60 on February 26th in Austin, Texas, and Healey died a few days later in Toronto after a lifelong battle with cancer. He was 41-years old.

Buddy Miles is best known for teaming up with Jimi Hendrix in the Band Of Gypsys (a seminal project that signaled a new musical direction for Hendrix), and co-founding The Electric Flag with guitarist Mike Bloomfield. During the mid ’80s Miles was the lead singer for the California Raisins quartet, singing Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” on a series of commercials sponsored by the California Raisin Advisory Board. The popular commercials led to a million-selling album of the Raisins singing classic rock and soul oldies. Miles was also a hit songwriter, writing “Them Changes” – his signature tune – from the live Band Of Gypsys album and on his own Buddy Miles Express album.

George Allen “Buddy” Miles was born in Omaha in 1947. He was a musical prodigy who began playing drums as a child and was nicknamed “Buddy” because of his love for drummer Buddy Rich. Miles played with The Ink Spots and The Delfonics as a teenager and was playing with Wilson Pickett at 14. It was while he was playing with Pickett that Bloomfield heard him and snatched him away for The Electric Flag.

Miles was a hard-hitting, funky, soulful drummer and vocalist. Detroit bassist, singer, and songwriter James Cloyd, who played with Miles in Chicago says, “Buddy had a distinctive groove. You couldn’t mistake it for anyone else. He was heavy duty on the two and four.”

I had the pleasure of seeing Miles a couple of times at Kingston Mines. He generated pure energy and excitement with his rock-solid groove, taking the wildly dancing crowd higher and higher. The last time I saw him in Chicago, he was playing the Double Door with Junior Brown.

Healey was also a musical prodigy. Blinded at 8-months-old by a rare form of cancer, he picked up a guitar (urged by his father) as a 3-year-old. Not knowing you weren’t supposed to, he placed the guitar flat across his lap, resulting in a revolutionary approach that became his signature style.

By the time he was in his early teens, Healey had absorbed various musical styles. “I progressed through so many different styles of music through my teen years, both as a player and a vocalist, particularly the jazz and pop of the early 20th century,” he said in his Jeffhealeyband.com bio. “I always knew that in some way, I’d be connected to, and involved in, the music business.”

By 14, Healey was playing Toronto clubs and leading his own band, Blues Direction. In the early ’80s he shared a bill with Albert Collins at Albert’s Hall in Toronto, and jammed with B.B. King in Vancouver. Around that time Healey met longtime bassist Joe Rockman and drummer Tom Stephen at the infamous Grossman’s Tavern’s Sunday-night jam session. They formed The Jeff Healey Trio and were soon signed to Arista Records, who released the Grammy-nominated See The Light, featuring the Billboard top-5 hit “Angel Eyes,” in 1988. That same year Healey received critical acclaim for his appearance in the movie Roadhouse with Patrick Swayze, which helped propel him to rock-star status.

And Healey lived the rock-star life in the ’90s, touring extensively with ZZ Top, Little Feat, Bonnie Raitt, and Bob Dylan, and appearing on David Lette-rman and “The Tonight Show.” Having had enough by the end of the ’90s, Healey and band quit the road, and decided to go in another musical direction.

Healey put the blues on the back burner for awhile to learn the trumpet, modeling himself after his all-time hero, Louis Armstrong. In 2002 he formed Jeff Healey And The Jazz Wizards and recorded two albums. The band played regularly at Healey’s club in Toronto. He never put the blues down, however. Mess Of Blues (Ruf/Stony Plain), his first blues/rock album in eight years, is scheduled for a U.S. release in April.

NEW RELEASES: Blood Brothers is hard-rocking Texas blues duo Smokin’ Joe Kubek and Bnois King‘s Alligator Records debut. Kubek and King rock through 13 originals and one memorable Lightnin’ Hopkins tune, “Stop Drinking,” in their inimitable Texas fashion . . . Chicagoan Eddy Clearwater pays tribute to his roots with West Side Strut (Alligator). Produced by guitarist Ronnie Baker Brooks, West Side Strut harkens back to the golden days of Chicago blues. Brooks adds funky, high-energy guitar on “Hypnotized” and “Do Unto Others” and guests include harmonica great Billy Branch adding a high-energy and fun version of Muddy Waters’ “Walking Through The Park.” Ronnie’s dad, Lonnie Brooks, is featured on the Chuck Berry-inspired “Too Old To Get Married,” and Otis Clay and Jimmy Johnson share vocals on the “message” song, “Do Unto Others.”