Born on September 21, 1948 in New Orleans, Louisiana, Henry Butler was a jazz and blues pianist who was blind since infancy. He began his musical training at the Louisiana State School for the Blind, where he learned to play drums, baritone horn, and the valve trombone. He then decided to concentrate on the piano and singing after hearing Fats Waller’s “Viper’s Drag”. By the time he was 16, he was performing regularly as an arranger and composer while also attending school. Henry Butler performed as both a soloist and with groups such as Henry Butler and Jambalaya, Henry Butler and the Game Band, Papa and the Steamin’ Syncopators, and Butler, Bernstein and The Hot 9. He also performed and recorded with a wide range of artists including James Booker, Charlie Haden, Jonathan Batiste, Odetta, Cyndi Lauper, Jack DeJohnette, Freddie Hubbard, and many others. In 1984, Henry Butler turned to photography as a hobby, which earned him even more accolades and attention. His first two albums - Fivin’ Around (1986) and The Village (1988) – were jazz-oriented but he soon started incorporating his New Orleans and blues influences into his later work including Orleans Inspiration (1990), Blues & More Vol. 1 (1992), and Blues for Sunset (1998). The album Vu-Du-Menz (2000) was a collaboration with Delta-blues guitarist/vocalist Corey Harris. Henry Butler turned to all-electric blues rock for his album The Game Has Just Begun (2002), followed by the album Homeland in 2004. When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in August 2005, Henry Butler lost his home along with his 1925 Mason & Hamlin piano, unpublished compositions, scores, masters, and an enormous library of musical material in Braille. He left New Orleans and moved to Boulder, Colorado for a short time before settling in New York City. He released his first live solo album, PiaNOLA Live, in 2008. He and trumpeter Steve Bernstein formed an 11-piece big band called The Hot 9 and released the 2014 album Viper’s Drag, which referenced the song that inspired his musical journey decades before. Henry Butler died on July 2, 2018.
