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Ruth Davies’ Blues Night featuring Henry
Butler
Online: “Henry Butler is arguably the greatest living proponent of the classic New Orleans piano tradition, playing an amalgam of boogie-woogie, jazz, blues, and classical in the lineage of Professor Longhair, James Booker, Tuts Washington, Allen Toussaint and countless other emperors of the ivories…” – CMJ New Music Report Ruth Davies’s annual Blues Night is always a highlight of the Stanford Jazz Festival. Davies is a bassist with rock-solid blues and jazz credentials, including performances with John Lee Hooker, Etta Jones, Charles Brown, and Van Morrison. This year her special guest will be New Orleans piano innovator Henry Butler, who seasons his blues with an eclectic variety of influences. After learning to play several instruments as a child at the Louisiana School for the Blind, Butler went on to study classical voice, earning a master’s degree. He also immersed himself in jazz and, with the encouragement of his mentor, clarinetist Alvin Batiste, Brazilian and Caribbean music. His recorded output includes everything from post-bop jazz piano trios to rocking electric blues, though recently he has returned to his roots, channeling his various influences into the blues of his native city. Called “the pride of New Orleans” by none other than Dr. John and a “piano genius” by All Music Guide, Butler released his first live recording on the New-Orleans based independent label, Basin Street Records, in April of this year. What is the first recording you remember hearing
as a child? Who is your favorite jazz musician under the age of 30? What job would you have if you weren’t
a jazz musician? What’s the strangest experience you’ve
ever had on the bandstand? What’s your favorite food? What’s the most exotic place you’ve
traveled to as a musician? What’s the last book you’ve
read? If you could play with any other musician, living or dead
(with whom youhave not played), who would it be and why? What’s your favorite tune? What’s your favorite thing
about being a Stanford Jazz Workshop faculty member? What’s your favorite jazz venue? Who is your greatest musical influence? If you were stranded on a desert island and could only have
three recordings with you, what would they be? How much do you practice each week? What hobbies do you have? If you could be any other type of artist other than a jazz musician,
what would you be and why? Do you have a favorite music-related
joke (that can be told in mixed company!)? When did you become interested in music, and what circumstances
or events led to your becoming a professional musician? If you were to describe your music as a color, what color would it
be and why? |
