Barry Miles - Scatbird 1972

Barry Miles is an American musician and composer from New Jersey. Miles's talent showed itself at an early age and he was presented as a child prodigy on some of the same shows that the likes of Miles Davis and John Coltrane appeared on. He made his first solo jazz record in 1961 as a drummer and composer at only 14 years old. After Princeton University he focused more on piano and ways of mixing different styles of music with jazz in an improvisational manner, which resulted in a live recording presenting his 'syncretic' approach to music.

As the 60's passed Miles started to incorporate more influence from rock and roll and electric piano, which soon developed into a familiar sound of fusion and Miles's records were one of the pioneers of the genre. On the records he worked with his brother Terry Silverlight and on some like 'White Heat' from 1971 featured John Abercrombie. Overall his solo career perhaps got less attention because besides being a music director he was also maybe known more as a prolific studio musician on many albums, and the studio work Miles is probably best known for is playing keyboards and co-producing records of Al Di Meola.

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