HENRY BUTLER
Solo Piano Concert
MONK’S BLUES
Thursday, 10/4/07, 8 pm
Nelson Music Room
$20 • $5*
Blind since he was born, Henry Butler’s sound is steeped in the gospel tones and R&B inflections of his native New Orleans, and the veteran’s grasp of the African American musical tradition— and the mixed roots of that tradition— isn’t much short of intuitive.
But Butler’s had plenty of classical training, too, and his ability to fly across genres owes as much to his formal schooling as it does to his connection to the Southern tradition. Compared to Art Tatum, Jelly Roll Morton, and Antonin Dvorák, Butler has also been linked to Thelonious Monk, sharing the N.C. native’s polymathic style and none-too-subtle inflection of the blues.
The show at Duke represents a rare chance to hear the master pianist playing acoustically in the intimate setting of a music room. Butler will fill up the space with an inspired exploration of Monk’s links to the blues. He’ll also push the earlier genius’s influence into new territory, using Monk’s music to take even further turns on the African American piano tradition.
“Jazz has been in the recycling business for a long time. I’m not the recycling kind. I’m a continuous explorer.”
--Henry Butler
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