Henry Butler
Blues After Sunset (Black Top Records)
Jazz aficionados know all about Henry Butler’s overwhelming virtuosity as pianist, but on this release the artist explores the blues vocabulary that underlies much of his work as jazz musician. In so doing, Butler has produced a recording of tremendous expressive power. At the keyboard, Butler transcends the predictable ideas and familiar turns of phrase that often pass for blues piano playing these days. Moreover, his command of the keyboard suggests the work of four incredibly gifted hands, not two. Not surprisingly, Butler proves equally impressive as singer, his vocal work at once ferociously expressive and musically unerring. By adding this recording to his discography, Butler places himself among the two or three most versatile and gifted jazz soloists working today.
