The one thought going through mind during my 9 hour drive back NYC last Monday going 60mph in the slow lane with the engine light on, was: "...so worth it..." I had a great time in Ohio over the weekend, and I hope to be back sometime soon.
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 Feveband By 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 life - 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.
Tales of Passing Cars While Drive 60 in the Slow Lane
Sunday, April 18, 2010
After a tedious day of driving 60 miles an hour in the slow lane (due to both my engine and brake lights being on continually and violent shakes above 62mph), I arrived at Pats in the Flats in Cleveland, my favorite Cleveland punk/dive bar, after 9 hours of driving, only to immediately lock my keys in my car. Good times, good times. Thankfully, shows at Pats usually start around 10:30pm, so I had time to call AAA, which I just joined last Wednesday in case of a breakdown in transit, and they came in about 15 minutes. Amazing?
Flat Can Co. tore it up with the longest set I've ever seen them do: 20 minutes. All out blast of rock insanity. I played second and Self Destruct Button shredded what was left of Mother Music in another maybe 25 minute-long set which sounded like an hour+ set crammed in to one, insanely dense 25 minutes of multi-metric punk/metal. I really like their now-incorporated singing/shouting (everybody but the drummer blasted out the anthems).
Now I'm sitting here in Oberlin, getting set for a show at The Feve, the bar I graduated from in '06, with Oberliner Rhafiq Bhatia's trio with special guest my good buddy Kassa Overall sitting in drums. I'm stoked. I was also delighted to find a super nice piece in the Oberlin Review about the show tonight. Shout out to Will Roane! I'll post the full article in a blog entry after this one.
And, in typical Oberlin style, the students are celebrating the beginning of Earth Week with a mini-festival in the square feature awareness-raising booths and jam bands.
Just got this nice review of "Solo" in Step Tempest. I hit a triple!
"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.)"
Check out this awesome review of Solo in All About Jazz:
"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."
Just uploaded this video taken from Monday (Feb 15) at the Ivy Room in Oakland, CA. A guy there had a bunch of sweet old school projectors and was improvising video along with the music.
