Billy Butler

Biography

A very tasty soul-jazz and blues guitarist, Billy Butler adroitly blended a Charlie Christian strategy with ’50s R&B grooves and backbeats. He coaxed a warm, fats build from his hollow-bodied guitar, and supplied deceptively basic solos and fills that became staples from the R&B electric guitar vocabulary. Costs Doggett’s “Honky Tonk,” offering Butler, could very well be the prototype R&B electric guitar instrumental. “Ram-Bunk-Shush” and “Big Boy” are various other features of his tenure with Doggett. He started using doo wop/R&B group the Harlemaires in the past due ’40s, after that led combos until 1952, when he became a member of Doc Bagby’s trio. Butler co-wrote “Honky Tonk” while using Doggett from 1954 to 1961. He also documented with Ruler Curtis, Dinah Washington, Panama Francis, Johnny Hodges, Jimmy Smith, and David “Fathead” Newman within the ’60s. Butler proved helpful in Broadway pit rings from the past due ’60s, but discovered time for documenting periods with Houston Person and Norris Turney in the past due ’60s and ’70s. He led his very own band and documented for Prestige in the past due ’60s and early ’70s. Butler also documented with Al Casey and Jackie Williams. He toured European countries frequently within the ’70s and ’80s, carrying out periods there and in the us.

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