Hell & Back

Hell & Back

Editorial Reviews
<"b000159eug2999"> About the Artist
In the grand pantheon of rock and funk drummers, Buddy "Sugah Bear" Miles owns a storied legacy that stretches back to the psychedelic rock heyday of the late 1960s...and all the way up to today. Hell And Back is his most significant studio project of the last decade (aside from a power trio called Hardware's bone-crushing Third Eye Open, another original Black Arc release produced by Bill Laswell that features William "Bootsy" Collins on space bass and Steve Salas on guitar), and at the time of its release marked the long-overdue return of the nomad gypsy drummer and his Buddy Miles Express—giving you more Miles to the gallon and some new grooves to galvanize the tread in your worn-out tires.

In 1967, while performing with Pickett, he was approached by Michael Bloomfield and Barry Goldberg and asked to join a new psychedelic rock band called The Electric Flag. With Miles on drums, the Flag recorded one high-voltage slab of vinyl before parting ways in 1968. Up from the skies came the freshly-formed Buddy Miles Express and a renewed friendship with Jimi Hendrix, with whom Miles had been running as early as June of 1967, when the two played the Monterey Pop Festival. Hendrix's archetypal and apocalyptic Electric Ladyland marked the beginning of their fruitful collaboration in the studio, with Miles laying down a solid backbeat dripping with the blues for "Rainy Day" and "Still Dreaming". Hendrix would return the favor by writing the beautifully envisioned liner notes for BME's Expressway to Your Skull and producing tracks for the follow-up Electric Church in 1969.

After the breakup of the Jimi Hendrix Experience in late 1969, Hendrix recruited Miles for what would be one of the lasting musical statements of both their careers. Over the protests of his management, who feared the repercussions of adopting a so-called "Black Power" stance in his music, Jimi formed the Band of Gypsys with Billy Cox on bass and Miles on drums and backing vocals. Arguably the first true "black rock" band, the Gypsys debuted at Bill Graham's Fillmore East on New Year's Eve 1970 and opened their historic set with the Hendrix classic "Machine Gun".

Whether it's silky soul, sizzling fatback rhythms, or over-the-top crunch, the Buddy Miles Express has come a long way down the highway, coming up with a whole new thang to expand even further on the ever-shifting boundaries of the black rock canon.

<"b000159eug4999"> Album Description
Buddy Miles re-emerges with a sonic jolt of hard rhythm & blues on his most powerful recording ever, fusing the deepest circuits of soul, gospel, funk and rock 'n roll while channeling the influences of Wilson Pickett, Jimi Hendrix, Funkadelic and more. Fast-forward to the present day, with the re-release of Hell and Back, and the legacy of Hendrix-as well as the influences of other artists with whom Miles has worked-still burns brightly, fueled by deeply soulful performances and a rootsy emphasis on the funk. Mixing original compositions with reworkings of some favorite standards, Hell and Back recalls the funky exuberance of the string of albums that Miles and the Express recorded in the 1970s for the Casablanca label. But for all its '70s funk flavor, Hell and Back also boasts a technological edge that hurtles the music forward into the 21st century. Whether it's silky soul, sizzling fatback rhythms, or over-the-top crunch, the Buddy Miles Express has come a long way down the highway, coming up with a whole new thang to expand even further on the ever-shifting boundaries of the black rock canon.

Hell & Back, Music, Buddy Miles Express, Blues, Blues Music, Hard driving rhythm & blues , fusing the deepest circuits of soul, gospel, funk and rock 'n roll while channeling the influences of Wilson Pickett, Jimi Hendrix, Funkadelic and more..., Pop

Hell & Back

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