Home » Jazz Musicians » Jim Butler
Jim Butler
Jim Butler, a native Californian, has been playing the saxophone for over 45 years. He focuses on modern and original jazz. The Jim Butler Jazz Group have recorded seven CDs: "Journeys" (2003); "Live in Tokyo!" (2005); "Night of a Thousand Years" (2009); "Postcards from the World" (2014); "Let’s Get Lost" (2019); "Perseverance" (2022); and "Short Stories" (2023).
Jim started out as a music educator, directing a jazz ensemble and teaching saxophone, woodwinds, and Jazz Studies at The University of North Florida. He has a Doctorate in Music from the University of Texas at Austin. During this time he appeared professionally as a saxophonist with many different artists including Mel Torme, Crystal Gail, The Drifters, Rosemary Clooney, Tony Campesi, and Sam Moore.
Jim was Lead Alto Saxophonist for the United States Air Force Field Bands for 23 years until his retirement in 2018. In the Air Force Band, he toured to North and South America, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, and performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Bob Mintzer, Ed Shaughnessy, Jim McNeely, Toni Tennille, and other notables in the music industry. As Director of the Air Force Commanders Jazz Ensemble, he led the group in tours of the United Sates, and to the Monterey Jazz Festival.
Jim is a former saxophone student of Harvey Pittel and Jim Rotter, and has also studied with David Liebman and Charles McPherson.
Jim lives in Tokyo and remains very active as a musician and educator. Catch the group at their next show!
Gear
Selmer Mark-6 alto and tenor saxophones
Super Action 80 soprano sax
Meyer 6mm mouthpiece (ASx) Vandoren Java reeds (ASX)
Tags
The Jim Butler Group: Postcards from the World
by Edward Blanco
Saxophonist and band leader Jim Butler is a veteran musician who splits time between his home town of San Francisco and Tokyo and with the appropriately- titled Postcards from the World, delivers an audacious set of modern jazz blending select standards with fresh new material marking his group's fourth album together. Having led The Jim Butler Group on tours around the country, in Asia and the Middle East the past ten years, the album is in a sense, the culmination ...
read moreButler’s sax has a simplicity to it that belies its complexity and directed energy. He plays sax that sounds natural and right,but engages at all kinds of levels. Whether it’s dancing notes across the funky version of “Afro Blue” or dropping notes like raindrops on “So Many Stars,” he always plays with the right tone, feel and connection.”
– Michael Pronko, “Jazz in Japan (September 2018)
“Jim Butler’s new CD, Postcards from the World, should have a label attached: warning contents are hot. Butler’s fiery alto takes the listener on a tour of his own compositions and a couple of standards for good measure. Blistering tempos that always swing make this a must for any collection.” –Bill Moody, jazz drummer, author of The Man in Red Square, and host of “Stolen Moments in Jazz” on KSBY FM 91.3 San Francisco - April 17, 2014
Wayne Shorter
saxophone
John Coltrane
saxophone
Charlie Parker
saxophone, alto
