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

Come warm up a bit with us this Friday, Nov. 26th at Egan’s Ballard Jam House. Its going to be party. D’vonne Lewis on drums, Evan Flory-Barnes on bass, and special guest Jeff Grant on voice and guitar. Get your reservations soon, Egan’s is a small place!

Friday, November 26th. 7pm

Johnny Butler Trio
with
D’vonne Lewis (drums) & Evan Flory-Barnes (bass)
with special guest Jeff Grant (guitar, vocals)

Egan’s Ballard Jam House
1707 NW Market Street, Ballard
Admission: $10

To make your reservations, please call (206) 789-1621

Thursday, Nov 11.

Doors at 7:30 / Sets at 8 and 10pm

Sullivan Hall

214 Sullivan St. (btw Bleecker and W 3rd)

$10 entry or $15 with advanced copy of CD when you order online!!

Click Here to Reserve Your Tickets Online

Scurvy’s Fracture

“Saxophonist Johnny Butler’s band Scurvy underscores close relationship between punk rock abandon and the freedom of improvised music while also incorporating ambitious compositional ideals found in both progressive rock and modern jazz. With a horn frontline of Butler and Ryan Snow on trombone and the rhythm section of viciously incisive guitarist Adam Caine, bassist Rus Wimbish and ace drummer Jason Nazary, there is great potential to juxtapose multiple sonic elements that would otherwise contrast wildly.

The band’s extensive road experience is evident in the cohesion with which they run through the material. Prog-heavy moments like “Jenny Found a Hole” or “Half-Brain” contrast with the improvisational abandon of “Snow Caine” or “Side A Is Dead”. “Chime In” seems to spit the difference to great effect, sounding something like the defiantly unkempt offspring of Captain Beefheart, Henry Cow and Slayer. The Henry Cow comparison is perhaps most notable on “Inversion”, Butler’s melody floating above a dizzying rhythmic construction, as things inevitably explode into a frenzied free improvisation before returning to the theme.

The lion’s share of the feature spots ends up going to Caine and Snow (often playing a heavily distorted amplified trombone). Butler’s role here is a bit subtle in this very un-subtle music: with a recent superb solo release demonstrating his incredible saxophone playing, in this project he sticks closer to his melodies, allowing the band to put more of their personal voice into the mix. Nazary’s unaccompanied introduction to “One, Two, Three” is a visceral excursion, effectively set up by the preceding introspective drone piece “Irradiance”. Butler’s saxophone solo on “One, Two, Three” floats euphorically above the thicket of pounding bass, fractured guitar chords and propulsive drumming. The maze-like hocketing in the closer, “QNG”, rises and falls, opening up to a great trombone solo, phrases tossed off in various directions as things transition to a blazing Caine/Butler duo. Throughout, Wimbish’s bass grounds things with both structure and fluidity. The entire band gradually fades into the distance, leaving only a reverb-laden melody that ultimately fades as well.”

Sister Sparrow and the Dirty Birds

CMJ Showcase

Rockwood Music Hall Stage 2

Saturday, October 23rd, 10pm.

FREE

We also have a new website: www.sistersparrowandthedirtybirds.com

1. John Coltrane – Interstellar Space

2. John Coltrane – The Olatunji Concert

3. Nirvana – Nevermind

4. The Beatles – Magical Mystery Tour

5. Soundgarden – Superunknown

6. Pearl Jam – Ten

7. Old Time Relijun – Uterus and Fire

8. Jimi Hendrix – Electric Ladyland

9. Kurt Rosenwinkle – The Next Step

10. Radiohead – Kid A

11. Maktub – Khronos

12. Evan Parker – Lines Burnt in Light

13. Bill Evans Trio – Sunday at the Village Vanguard

14. Brandi – Full Moon

15. Michael Jackson – Dangerous

I just spent a little time looking for a copy of this online to stream and I didn’t have much luck. There are, however, LPs floating around on some online retailers. If I can find a streaming sample somewhere, I’ll post it.

Mountains is one of those now-a-days rare groups whose recordings are hard to find online via file sharing, so I was happy to discover “Etching” (Thill Jockey) at one of my local record stores, Soundfix Records, who specialize in new prints. Apparently, “Etching” was recorded at mountain-man Brendon Anderegg’s home studio in real time with no overdubs. They printed a limited number of hand-stamped LPs and sold them on their subsequent tour.

I took my first listen to the LP right after I got back from the store with one of my home-brewed espressos in hand. The album has but one song, which clocks in at about 38 minutes in total, meaning they had to split up the song on the LP. And, needless to say, it is a beautiful experience to hear in its entirety. It comes babbling in like an opening overture, and using the subtlest variations in sonic textures, it evolves into an ever blossoming field of sounds. The first thought that came into my mind was that it sounds like a Robert Fripp & Brian Eno collaboration, complete with Robert Fripp styled guitar at about 20 minutes in; or like music to a smart tech commercial or yoga studio.

You can stream “Etching” straight from Thrill Jockey’s Website HERE.

“Johnny Butler plays the alto sax. He heads up an interesting ensemble, Scurvy, which I cover in one of my other blogs (see www.gapplegate.com/musicalblog.htm). He also has developed a composition-performance style using his sax and live loops. An EP of this music has just been released, Johnny Butler Solo (no label listed). He gives a nod to Robert Fripp’s work with guitar and loops, and when you listen to the EP you can see he has taken the concept and come up with his own distinctive approach and sound.

There are four pieces on the disk, each different, each in its own way evocative, musically inspired and a pleasure to hear. He goes with the rhythmic possibilities of the loop format on one piece, the saxophone choir sound with (nice) soloing on top on another, and there are two that flesh out fully orchestral soundscape panoramas.

That all of the results develop out of Mr. Butler’s saxophone in a live setting is impressive. The results are stunning musically, which of course is what counts in the end. Johnny Butler creates music that shows a keen ear for honing in on good musical ideas and then deftly handling the loop technology to get some highly interesting sounds. Mr. Butler is a gas!”

“Johnny Butler’s solo album is epically slow and intensely beautiful, the soundtrack to a science fiction film that makes the ambient, submerged mood of the music its highest priority. Performed by a lone saxophonist with a loop station, Butler stays out of the way of the sound: on “Cathedral,” lulled reverberations drift in and out of focus, while on “Katrina” Butler swoops over a bouncing, brooding, chorus.

“Cathedral”’s cleansing and distorted tones overlap like the buildup of Steve Reich’s “Music for 18 Musicians,” presenting vague melodies like the rigid spires of a cathedral disappearing and reappearing through rushing water. “Katrina” is a well-presented, concise song, with saxophone functioning as melody and rhythm section.  “Glitch” is indistinguishably live and mechanical. Butler introduces melodies one by one, looping them at different lengths to twist rhythmic feels. He swells these looped interludes to include more and more notes, ranges, timbres, and a melee of stuttering saxes.

His most effective pieces are the more ambient ones on the album, as they bring to light the perfect saxophone machine-sounds in a dramatic, slow, haunting atmosphere.  “Eulogy” achieves this with a landscape of delay and a feedback-hounded simple, folkloric melody.  Butler sounds like he’s calling out to the dead, or like bagpipes at the procession, marching slowly through a rainy graveyard. The tone is not bleak or hopeless, only tinged with sadness and spiritual solemnity. Johnny Butler’s solo album is an interaction with himself, yet still sounds lonely. The honesty depicted through these live performances is slow, electronic, and the effect is lingering.”

Read the Full Article Here

“Don’t [know] much about Mr. Butler or his music (he plays with an electric 5-some known as Scurvy) is a fascinating experience. One saxophone and a looping system, this EP (just over 24 minutes) was recorded live without overdubs in various studios and 1 track from NYC’s Otto’s Shrunked Head Tiki Bar & Lounge.”

“The 4 tracks range from an elegiac work (the long soft tones of “Cathedral”) to gospel-tinged (“Katrina”, which features a melodic fragment that sounds like “Cool, Cool Water”) to the rhythmical and sonic experiment that is “Glitch” to the mournful “Eulogy” (composed after George W. Bush’s re-election, written for a fallen soldier that the composer did not know but had read about in the paper.) The last piece is reminiscent of Joe Zawinul’s “In A Silent Way” in its long, contemplative, phrases. This music works because Butler doesn’t try to overwhelm the listener with too much sound. The melodies are well-drawn – even the funky “Glitch”, with its riff-driven structure, has a satisfying circular melody line. Rating: triple (points for audacity and invention.)”

See the Whole Article

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