Michael Giles

Michael Giles ( born March 1, 1942 in Bournemouth, Dorset, England ) is a British jazz-rock drummer, best known as a founding member of King Crimson in 1969. His daughter, the model Amanda Giles, is married to Jakko Jakszyk ( formerly level 42).

His game is free and flowing, firmly rooted in the jazz tradition, yet heavily influenced by rock drummers like Mitch Mitchell and Ginger Baker. Often his game also had a very orchestral feeling to hear that, on many songs from the first King Crimson album, In the Court of the Crimson King. In concerts, he was a " monster player", he made a tight rhythm carpet on which guitarist Robert Fripp, bassist Greg Lake and saxophonist Ian McDonald were able to take their symphonic jazz-rock.

Giles left the group in late 1969, but he played as a studio musician on the second album, In The Wake Of Poseidon. After this production, he teamed up with Ian McDonald and recorded the album McDonald and Giles. A solo album, Progress, was recorded in 1978, but came only in 2002 on the market. He earns as a studio musician for a living.

Giles turned 1989 a new project that brought him together with former Yes and Asia keyboardist Geoffrey Downes and with the former Emerson, Lake & Palmer singer and bassist Greg Lake. The year-long collaboration Downes ' Lakes and Giles ' under the project name Ride the Tiger yielded eight new pieces, which are, however, remained partially unpublished until today. In 2002 he participated in the founding of 21st Century Schizoid band, a group that consists almost exclusively of former King Crimson members, but in which also his son- Jakszyk permitting. After the first tour, he retired in 2003 from the live business and handed the baton to Ian Wallace, another former King Crimson drummer.