While at SXSW, take a moment…

…to reflect about the recent passing of famed drummer and Austin resident, Buddy Miles.

George Allen Miles, Jr. (September 5, 1947 – February 26, 2008), known as Buddy Miles, was an American rock and funk drummer, most known as a member of Jimi Hendrix's Band of Gypsys from 1969 until Hendrix's death in 1970.

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.

Asked how he would like to be remembered by the American music magazine Seconds in in 1995, Miles simply said: "The baddest of the bad. People say I'm the baddest drummer. If that's true, thank you world."^[6]

A memorial concert will take place on March 30 at Threadgill’s on Riverside Drive, South Austin.

SOURCES: Wikipedia, The Reader, news reports