Buddy Miles Express - Electric Church 1969

Buddy Miles' second album (credited to Buddy Miles Express) gets most of its attention in retrospect for the role of Jimi Hendrix, who produced part of it and played on some tracks as well. On its own merits, though, it's a fairly respectable soul-rock album. Hendrix was referring to his own material as "electric church" music on some occasions in the late 1960s, and likely he had something like the soul-funk-rock fusion of Band of Gypsys in mind when he conceived this. Of course Miles played in Band of Gypsys, and there wasn't any way the music he was writing and singing on his own was going to measure up to what Hendrix was doing. On the other hand, here his writing and singing benefit from not being placed within the context of a band in which Hendrix was primarily responsible for those functions (thus leading to inevitable unfavorable comparisons), as was the case on the Band of Gypsys album. The songs are mostly vehicles for Miles' high, soulful vocals and the energetic funky arrangements, but as such things go they're pretty solid and pleasurable. Naturally for some listeners, the go-to highlights will be "69 Freedom Special," which has some good Hendrix wah-wah licks, and "Miss Lady," on which Jimi plays in a more conventional R&B style. While the majority of this is feel-good and brassy, Miles does show he's capable of handling more tender soul melodies and sentiments in "Cigarettes & Coffee" and "My Chant." AMG.

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