Hamiet Bluiett, Henry Butler, Radio Beat
By Seth Rogovoy
(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., July 27, 2000) -- There are many saxophone greats in
jazz, but few express as much pure joy and fun in their playing as Hamiet
Bluiett. Listening to any of Bluiett’s recent recordings, including
“Libation for the Baritone Saxophone Nation” (Justin Time), “Young Warrior,
Old Warrior” (Mapleshade), “Same Space” (Justin Time) and “Live at the
Knitting Factory” (Knitting Factory), one senses a musician on a
never-ending quest to explore every possible note, squeal, texture, timbre
and sonority that can be wrestled out of a baritone sax. That, or a man who
just loves to blow.
“I’m tired of everybody acting all serious all the time about
music,” said Bluiett in a phone interview last week. “I mean, it’s not a
comedy show, but why not be joyful?”
And this from a musician with impeccable avant-garde credentials: a
founder of BAG (Black Artists Group), the St. Louis equivalent of Chicago’s
experimental AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians), a
bandmate of Lester and Joseph Bowie, Charles Mingus, Abdullah Ibrahim, Muhal
Richard Abrams, Sam Rivers, Don Pullen, Babatunde Olatunji, and fellow
saxophonists Julius Hemphill, Oliver Lake and David Murray in the
groundbreaking World Saxophone Quartet.
“Too much music today makes you want to go out and shoot someone,”
said Bluiett. “Sure, sometimes I’m mad and it comes through, but the
feelings in my music can run the gamut from joy to terror.”
Perhaps the key to Bluiett’s appeal lies in the combination of
free-spirited improvisation he brings to his playing, along with a healthy
dose of honking rhythm and blues and funk. On “Libation for the Baritone
Saxophone Nation,” a superstar bari-sax quartet effort credited to the
Bluiett Baritone Nation, Bluiett and fellow saxophonists James Carter, Alex
Harding and Patience Higgins lay down the gauntlet on “J.B.’s Groove,”
proving that you don’t need electric basses and guitars to create rich, fat
funky rhythms (although Ronnie Burrage’s drums sure do help).
The album as a whole is a kind of a liberation manifesto for the baritone
saxophone, the Rodney Dangerfield of the sax family. In Bluiett’s hands,
however, the baritone attains levels of eloquence never dreamed of for the
unwieldy, walrus-like instrument. This is partly due to Bluiett’s
willingness to extend the instrument’s range beyond what convention dictates
(including squawks and squeals into the soprano range), but also a product
of Bluiett’s advanced musical intelligence and free-thinking approach to
group improvisation and harmonies.
“Same Space,” a trio album featuring Bluiett with keyboardist D.D. Jackson
and djembe player and vocalist Mor Thiam features a whole other side of
Bluiett, bringing together African rhythms “Aseeko” with American gospel
(“Closing Melody”). In addition to baritone, Bluiett plays contra bass
clarinet, wood, and flute, and he also appears as a rapper and a spoken-word
artist. Bluiett is clearly not one to be easily pinned down or pegged.
“Music is exhilarating,” said Bluiett. “I have a love affair with it.”
Bluiett will be at Club Helsinki in Great Barrington on Saturday
night, accompanied by a guitarist, a bassist, and a drummer.
Henry Butler: Polymorphous blues
The first thing you notice on “I’ve Got My Eyes On You,” the first song on
Henry Butler’s “Blues After Sunset” (Black Top), is the sheer amount of
playing the singer/pianist pours forth on what, after all, is basically a
simple blues number. Never has boogie-woogie piano sounded so lush and
dramatic, and you immediately want to go back and listen to Dr. John and see
if he packed as many little riffs and curlicues into every available corner
of a tune the way Butler does.
The second thing you notice is the way Butler’s voice plays off the piano
like elastic being pulled off of the keys. Maybe it’s his classical training
as a vocalist, or his jazz background, which makes his voice function as a
duet partner to his piano.
The third thing you notice is the orchestral arrangement of the tune, until
you listen closer and realize that it’s a solo piece for Butler on piano and
voice. Even on a piece like “Baby, Let Me Hold Your Hand,” to which
guitarist Snooks Eaglin contributes some well-placed rhythmic chords, it’s
Butler’s hyperactive right hand, in the tradition of Professor Longhair and
James Booker, that suggests the entire front line of a New Orleans marching
band.
The blind pianist and New Orleans native began performing at age 14 while
attending the Louisiana School for the Blind. At Southern University in
Baton Rouge, he studied with jazz clarinetist Alvin Batiste, and
incorporated the lessons of jazz greats Art Tatum, Bud Powell, Charlie
Parker and John Coltrane into the New Orleans-style r&b he played until that
point.
After graduating from Michigan State University with a master’s degree in
classical voice, Butler enjoyed a successful recording career as a jazz
pianist in the 1980s and ‘90s. He also performed and recorded with others,
including fellow keyboard greats Stevie Wonder, McCoy Tyner, and new-age
plunker George Winston.
In recent years, Butler has returned to his roots in New Orleans-style
honky-tonk blues, and his most recent recording, “Vu-Du-Menz” (Alligator),
is a duo album with singer-guitarist Corey Harris, in the tradition of the
classic piano-guitar duets of Tampa Red and Georgia Tom, Leroy Carr and
Scrapper Blackwell, and Casey Bill Weldon and Black Bob.
But when played by someone with as virtuosic command of his instrument as
Butler, and by someone with as wide-ranging a musical background, which
includes avant-garde jazz, classical, new-age music and even Jewish klezmer
music, Butler’s piano blues cannot help but transcend the ordinary
barrelhouse.
Henry Butler is at Club Helsinki in Great Barrington tonight at 9. Phoebe
Legere is scheduled to warm up the crowd for Butler.
Radio Beat
Another in our series of periodic tallies of the most-played
recordings -- most new, some old - on our imaginary radio station:
1. Gary Lucas, Improve the Shining Hour (Knitting Factory)
2. Hamiet Bluiett/Bluiett Baritone Saxophone Group, Live at the
Knitting Factory (Knitting Factory)
3. Phoebe Legere, Blue Curtain (Einstein)
4. Bluiett Baritone Nation, Libation for the Baritone Saxophone
Nation (Justin Time)
5. Henry Butler, Blues After Sunset (Black Top)
6. Gary Lucas, Skeleton at the Feast (Enemy)
7. Roy Nathanson, Fire at Keaton’s Bar and Grill (Six Degrees)
8. Frank London’s Klezmer Brass Allstars, Di Shikere Kapelye
(Piranha)
9. John Zorn, Taboo and Exile (Tzadik)
10. The Legendary Marvin Pontiac (John Lurie), Greatest Hits
(Strange and Beautiful)
11. Kronos Quartet, Caravan (Nonesuch)
[This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on July 27, 2000.
Copyright Seth Rogovoy 2000. All rights reserved.]
