I've been asked over the years if playing simple groove music on a gig gets in the way of my 'fusion' drumming chops. I was prompted to create this list of a few 'pop' recordings I've played drums on, when someone recently asked that question again. The answer is certainly 'no', but instead of explaining verbally, I thought it would make more sense for anyone interested to just listen to a bunch of 'pop' drumming I've done over the years alongside the 'jazz' drumming I've done. I think the time I've spent playing in both genres is about 50/50 and I've found each to be equally interesting, rewarding and enjoyable.

I top the list with my drumming on Odyssey's 'Native New Yorker' album, because that's the first 'pop' recording I played on, when I was 19 years old. Up to that point I had been playing drums in my brother Barry Miles's 'jazz/fusion' group along with the outstanding musicians that came through the band at various times. My listening playlist from early on was always a combination of jazz, rock, pop, country, Indian, African, Latin, classical and more, so it was natural for me to have an aspiration to get into the thriving studio session scene at that time in New York which I knew would challenge me to play drums in styles I didn't have as much experience with as jazz. In addition to Barry's focus on his original music with his band, he was a busy session musician in Manhattan. He was always forthcoming talking up his 'little brother Terry' and saying I was a fine drummer. One of those people was Charlie Calello who Barry had been playing on a lot of sessions for (Charlie arranged Laura Nyro's 'Eli and the Thirteenth Confession' album which had a huge influence on me. I later played drums on Laura's 'Mothers Spiritual' album). Barry suggested I call Charlie to tell him to give me a gig! I did, and to my surprise Charlie said, "OK kid, I have a session next week I can use you on. Do you know why I'm gonna give you a break?". I said, "Because I'm young, right?". Charlie said, "Yeah, that's right". That recording turned out to be a couple of tracks that got on the 'Native New Yorker' album which became a smash hit. I walked,into that session and found myself playing with the top people in the music industry: Charlie Calello as arranger and conductor, Tommy Mottola as executive producer, Sandy Linzer as songwriter, Will Lee on bass, Pat Rebilot on piano, Eric Weissberg and John Tropea on guitars. Thank you Barry for believing in me, and thank you Charlie for giving me a break. You opened the door for me to play on many more 'pop' recordings and projects.