New Orleans piano legend brings the party to Newmarket 

Henry Butler, one of the most distinctive New Orleans based pianists on the scene and a five-time W.C. Handy Award winner for Best Blues Instrumentalist– Piano category, will bring his unique musical gumbo of jazz, blues, Caribbean and R&B into a solo setting sure to rock the house at the Stone Church in Newmarket on Thursday, June 1.

“He’s a great piano player and singer,” says local jazz and blues expert Bruce Pingree, who spent some time in 2000 serving as Butler’s road manager. “He’s a classically trained musician, studied jazz with Alvin Batiste, met and spent time with Professor Longhair and coalesced all of that into a very original and personal approach to music. He’s one of those amazing musicians that can get a crowd going right from the start.” Along those lines, Dan Emerson, writing in the Twin Cities Pioneer Press, notes that Butler can “still transport an audience to the heart of the Crescent City faster than a nonstop 747.”

Blind with glaucoma since infancy, Butler began playing piano at the age of six, later adding baritone horn, valve trombone and drums while attending the Louisiana State School for the Blind in Baton Rouge. In a reflective piece on www.henrybutler.com, Butler says, “My love of music has spanned across most of my life. I was born in New Orleans and started playing on a neighbor’s piano. My neighbor said I had ‘good ears,’ but I later learned that I had perfect pitch when I started taking formal lessons at the L.S.S.B. During high school, I played in a couple of R&B, blues and funk bands where I learned to arrange and orchestrate. Soon I started playing in nightclubs—and earning quite a bit of money. Through those club gigs, I realized how much I thoroughly enjoyed being a musician.”

That joy in making music is a hallmark of any Butler show. His performances are a rich amalgam of American traditions, blending jazz, blues, soul/R&B and pop with a strong dose of Caribbean and Latin influences. There are moments of powerful exhilaration and others of delicate beauty. He makes use of his vocal ability to augment his prodigious keyboard work, which draws on varied influences, from McCoy Tyner to Professor Longhair. Humor also plays a role in his shows, where he’s likely to take an obscure tune and turn it into a full blown New Orleans-style dance party.

Butler is also a renowned photographer, with several gallery showings of his photographs under his belt, including a 2005 exhibit titled “How Eye See It” at the Jonathan Ferrara Gallery in New Orleans (www.jonathanferraragallery.com/special.html). “His photos are remarkable,” Pingree says.

Like many musicians from the Crescent City, Butler was forced to flee his home in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. His Web site includes several images of his home after the flooding had receded, where the extensive damage includes a destroyed grand piano. Butler has been living in Boulder, Colo., since the storm, contemplating whether or not he wants to move back to New Orleans. He has made several return appearances to the city, however, and has contributed greatly to helping revitalize New Orleans’ great music scene. As part of that revitalization, Butler continues to tour, taking the sounds of New Orleans to audiences across the country and around the world. And that’s a good thing—the greater music community still needs to be reminded that quality music transcends superficial barriers.

Another renowned New Orleans keyboard master, Dr. John, perhaps summed it up best when he said Henry Butler “…is the pride of New Orleans, a visionistical down-home cat and a hellified piano plunker to boot….”