Foley (musician)

Foley was born in Columbus, Ohio. Growing up he listened to Sly and the Family Stone, and after his mother bought him a bass (at age 12) he started playing with local bands. In 1987, he had a phone conversation with Marcus Miller, then Miles Davis's bass player, and afterward sent him a tape of his music. Weeks later he got a call from Davis, who'd heard the tape and asked Foley to send him a copy: Miles Davis was looking for a guitarist, but at that time Foley had been working on getting his bass to sound like a guitar. By May 1987 Foley was touring with Davis, and played with him until the fall of 1991.[2]

According to author George Cole, Davis gave Foley advice late in Foley's tenure with his band that changed the bassist's musical approach:

Ironically Miles died at the time when Foley was beginning to feel happy about his playing in Miles's band. "I didn't enjoy any performance with Miles for the most part until the last seven gigs before it was over – I started playing that gig," he says, "we were at Venice airport one night and he told me to play half of what I normally played. It really fucked me up the whole day and then I went on-stage and tried it and I began to realize that's what would make me phrase. That was the night I started to learn how to play."[3]

In 1993 he played a lead bass solo on Mint Condition's R&B Top 40 hit "So Fine" and the interlude track "Gumbo" from their album From the Mint Factory.

In 1993, during his time at Motown, Foley released 7 Years Ago...Directions in Smart-Alec Music. The album included "If It's Positive".[4]

The Cité de la Musique showed a Miles Davis exhibition from October 16, 2009, to January 17, 2010, that included Foley's "lead bass".

Foley tuned his bass nearly an octave higher than a standard bass guitar using piccolo bass strings and processed it through various effects, allowing him to sound like a lead guitarist.[5]

• Official website
• Discogs entry no.1
• Discogs entry no.2
• Allmusic entry