A virtuosic jazz and R&B pianist and a schooled gospel vocalist, Henry Butler is a fierce performer as well as an expressive composer. "Once I sit at a keyboard, it's right there," says Butler. "I have an instrument on which I can express anything I want."

Blind since infancy, he began his formal music education at the Louisiana State School for the Blind, where he studied piano. Butler attended Southern University in Baton Rouge where he studied with jazz great Alvin Batiste. His mentor taught Butler the importance of playing what's in the mind's eye, to improvise. With Batiste's help, he added the jazz legacy of Art Tatum, Bud Powell, Charlie Parker and John Coltrane to the Crescent City R&B he'd absorbed from Eddie Bo, Tommy Ridgley, James Booker and Professor Longhair.

After earning a master's degree from Michigan State University, Butler moved to Los Angeles in 1980, when he began performing and working for Motown Records and the Stevie Wonder organization.

Butler's discography includes his 1986 debut Fivin' Around, and its spirited follow-up The Village. After a two-year hiatus, Butler recorded Orleans Inspiration live at Tipitina's with Leo Necentelli of the Meters, displaying the upper reaches of his voice and treading the fine line between soul, rock and jazz.

Critics raved about this virtuoso pianist. Three records followed: Blues and More, Vol. I, a solo piano exploration; For All Seasons (1996), a pure jazz album; and Blues After Sunset (1998), where Butler's gravitation to the blues bridged swing, bob, traditional jazz, gospel, soul, blues, funk . . . you get the picture. He plays with passion and blends old and new. Vu-Du Menz, Butler's 2000 collaboration disc with acclaimed bluesman Corey Harris '91, prompted an Amazon.com reviewer to write: "Even Martians would shake their hips to this much swing."