Music has lost one of its stalwart drummers, and possibly its greatest Afro.

Buddy Miles, who cofounded and played drums in Band of Gypsys with Jimi Hendrix, passed away yesterday at his home in Austin, Texas. He was 60, and a cause of death has yet to be announced.

"It is with tremendous sadness that we must share with all Buddy's fans around the world that Buddy passed away peacefully and quietly at his home last night in Austin, Texas surrounded by his family," Miles' family said in a statement on his Web site. "Buddy will be greatly missed as a wonderful person and as a truly gifted musician who gave so much to so many through the years."

Miles was born September 5, 1947 in Omaha, Nebraska, and he got his start playing drums in his father George's jazz band the BeBops at the age of 12. Miles played with a number of acts in the 1960s, including Ruby & the Romantics, the Ink Spots, and Wilson Pickett. After a gig in Brooklyn, New York, guitarist Michael Bloomfield asked Miles if he wanted to form a new band, a venture that would become the Electric Flag.

Miles met Hendrix in the early 1960s but didn't begin collaborating with him until 1969, when Hendrix produced an album by the Buddy Miles Express and Miles played drums on Hendrix's landmark Electric Ladyland album.

When Hendrix broke up his trio, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, the pair formed Band of Gypsys with bassist Billy Cox.

The group's lone self-titled album chronicled its show at the Fillmore East in New York City on New Year's Eve 1969. It is widely regarded as one of the best live performances ever released as an album.

After Hendrix's death on September 18, 1970, Miles became something of a Hendrix ambassador, contributing drums to a number of posthumous Hendrix releases, including Cry of Love and Crash Landing.

In 2004, Miles and Cox revisited the Band of Gypsys material for a live album, The Band of Gypsys Return, released in 2006. Miles has participated in a number of Hendrix tributes and promotional events over the years.

Miles reformed the Buddy Miles Express after Hendrix's death, landing a huge hit in 1974 with the album Them Changes, whose title track became Miles' best-known song.

Miles recorded a live album in Hawaii with Santana in 1974 that became a top seller. Much of his work after that pairing was in the studio, often with superstar acts such as Stevie Wonder, David Bowie, and Bootsy Collins.

He spent time in jail in the late 1970s and early 1980s on drug-related charges, but burst back onto the scene in 1986 as the talent behind the California Raisins, producing and singing on the three albums released by the animated characters. The group's biggest hit was a cover of Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through the Grapevine."

The Raisins' popularity led Miles to rejoin Santana as lead singer and, in 1994, creating a new edition of Buddy Miles Express. He also served as a session drummer for the likes of David Bowie, Stevie Wonder, Carlos Santana, Barry White, and George Clinton.

At the time of his death, Miles was working on three album projects and helping to raise money for several organizations and sponsors that support hurricane-disaster relief efforts and the Children's Craniofacial Association. Miles' family said that a tribute show is in the works.