Johnny Butler’s SOLO

TUESDAY, June 28th
Cafe Orwell
247 Varet Street
Brooklyn, NY
(347) 294-4759
www.cafeorwell.com

$5 Suggested Donation

I’m going to be posting some free digital downloads of both finished album tracks, and a couple songs that I simply don’t have space to fit on the album. So please come back and visit in the meantime.

-Johnny

Sat. March 12th. 8pm

Solo Saxophone and Laptop

@
Cafe Orwell

Click Here for Map

“Total Soloism”

“Solo performance is a paradox. It requires cojones, heightened self confidence and physical conditioning yet is as much about vulnerability and ritual self-sacrifice. Though a blatant form of outward artistic expression, it is peculiarly demanding of the intellect, a Cartesian musing, with the horn functioning as a brain tap.

After dabbling with resonances from John Coltrane and Miles Davis and enveloping his processed saxophone sound in cavernous reverb, Brooklyn-based Johnny Butler turns a polyphony of overdubbed horns (triggered by laptop) into Fritz Lang’s Metropolis machine on Solo (Self Release; 23:02).” -Michael Jackson

Needless to say, I was surprised to come across this preview article in the Oberlin Review for my show there last Sunday. Check it out!

Alum Johnny Butler to Play with FevebandBy Will Roane, Arts Editor

If students like their jazz with a side of tots, Feveband’s performance this Sunday at 9pm, with special guest saxophonist-composer Johnny Butler, OC ’06, just might hit the spot.

Described as “mind-blowing” by www. somethingelsereviews.com, Butler’s debut album, Solo features the saxophonist playing alongside his laptop, morphing the sound of the instrument into a cacophony if space-age phrases. All the while he maintains the grounded, viscerally emotive sound of the saxophone, widely considered to have the tone closest to the human voice of any instrument.

Butler, who just completed a national tour to support Solo, will

stop by The Feve with his laptop in tow. Ready to wow the audience with music that stretches the limits of jazz, he uses disjointed melodies to create harmonies on which to build additional melodies. Though Butler’s collaboration with Feveband is sure to please, listeners should make no mistake – Butler can, if necessary, effectively be his own band.

Butler’s technique is relatively unheard of in the jazz world, particularly for straight-ahead jazz musicians. AllAboutJazz.com described the looping of his horn through the laptop – which creates music that is both profoundly lonely and full of lif

e – as “familiar, yet ethereal.” Indeed, the young saxophonist’s sound creates that uncanny effect of familiarity within something exotic. Fans of avant-garde musicians like saxophonist John Zorn may draw parallels to Butler’s music, but they will certainly not feel as if theyve heard it all before.

Solo features four original compositions by Butler, from the otherworldly “Cathedral” to the hauntingly space “Eulogy.” Despite his prevalent use of a laptop, the saxophonist-composer’s album was recorded live, in real time, without any subsequent overdubbing. For this reason, Butler’s music maintains a special status between jazz and electronic music, two genres that have had a relatively tumultuous relationship. Perhaps steadfastly straight-ahead trumpeter Wynton Marsalis wouldn’t take to Bulter’s performance, but that hasn’t stopped the saxophonist from playing prolifically in and around New York City since his graduation from Oberlin.

So on Sunday night, if you find yourself at The Feve with a basket of tots at your disposal, prepare yourself to hear music that tests the limits of jazz.

“Butler does a masterful job subtly applying more coating to his sonic paint job until the resulting mosaic sounds like a choir of saxophones…”

and

“It’s perfect for when a mind-blowing experience is called for…”

Check out the Full Review at SomethingElseReviews.com

Buy on iTunes, Amazon

“On any street corner or venue it’s possible to hear a musician playing solo saxophone, its reed-song beckoning down thoroughfares to anyone that will listen. But by putting a spin on things, it’s quite another matter to hear and see that horn wired into a laptop computer, as it provides multiphonic voices and looped patterns, fed back into music that is familiar yet ethereal. Enter saxophonist Johnny Butler’s Solo.”

“…the instrument is navigated through multiple threads and simultaneous accompaniment and solo parts. Butler takes advantage of these concepts via hardware and software to examine new contours, shapes and textures through his saxophone; to become a veritable one-man saxophone ensemble, weaving multiple horn patterns that coalesce and separate in real time without the use of overdubs or post-recording manipulation.”

See the Full Review

And, for those interested in purchasing “SOLO”, its going to be release digitally on February 16th from many distributors including iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, and many more. I can also mail copies, just send me an email at johnnybutlerjazz@gmail.com.

*****2010 SOLO RELEASE TOUR DATES*****

Feb. 4 [WASHINGTON, DC] @ Bossa Bistro & Lounge w/ Many Arms 2463 18th St. NW

Feb. 5 [FREDERICK, MD] @ TBA w/Many Arms

Feb. 6 [PHILADELPHIA, PA] @ Highwire Gallery w/Many Arms – 2040 Frankford Ave.

Feb. 7 [BROOKLYN, NY] @ Public Assembly w/ Sister Sparrow and the Dirty Birds, Afuche, Many Arms – 70 N 6th St.

Feb. 15 [OAKLAND, CA] @ The Ivy Room – 860 San Pablo Ave

Feb. 17 [TACOMA, WA] @ Bob’s Java Jive – 2102 South Tacoma Way

Feb. 18 [SEATTLE, WA] @ High Dive w/ M Bison HAS BEEN MOVED. LOCATION TBA

Feb. 19 [SEATTLE, WA] @ Egan’s Ballard Jam House with Special Guest JEFF GRANT!- 1707 Northwest Market Street

Feb. 20 [PORTLAND, OR] @ Dunes w/ With Eyes Abstract, Jezebel Spirit, Noah Bernstein- 1909 Northeast M L King Boulevard

Feb. 21 [OLYMPIA, WA] @ Le Voyeur w/ Margaret Rhodes Butler – 404 E 4th Ave

Mar. 5 [NEW YORK, NY] @ The Parkside Lounge w/Captain Irascible- 317 E Houston

Enjoy!

-Johnny