There, he recorded his first album, Introducing Jonathan Butler, in 1986.īutler had made his name in Africa and England, but it was not until 1987, when he toured as pop star Whitney Houston ’s opening act, that he was noticed in the United States, where he had released an all-instrumental album. British record label Jive then offered Butler a recording contract and, in 1985, he and his wife, Barenese, and their baby daughter moved to London. During this time, he became a born-again Christian. ” So Butler stopped recording for several years.
Music or it ’s pop music, and I was experimenting with jazz, funk, gospel, and fusion all together …There was no room for that. 1982 children: Randy, and Jodie.Ĭareer: Musician, guitarist, introducing Jonathan Butler, Jive, 7 987 Jonathan Butler, Jive, 1987 Breaking Away, Jive, 1988 More Than Friends, Jive, 1988 Heal Our Land, Jive, 1990 Best of Jonathan Butler, Jive, 1993 Deliverance, Jive, 1990 Head to Head, Mercury, 1994 Do You Love Mei, N-Coded, 1997 Story of Life, N-Coded, 1999 The Source, N-Coded, 2000.Īddresses: Performing Right Society, Copyright House, 29/33 Berners St., London WIT 3AB. He told USA Today, “It ’s either traditional At a Glance …īorn 1961, in Cape Town, South Africa married: Barenese, c. He was not allowed to use the bathrooms in some of the theaters he performed in.īutler ’s frustration with racist South African politics was compounded by the problems he saw with record industry there. He was forced to play separate concerts for whites and blacks, and was refused restaurant service and lodging in some of the towns he played. Though a star, Butler was still subjected to the South African apartheid system.
He scored pan-African hits with his covers of “Please Stay ” and “I Love How You Love Me, ” and became the first black child on South African television, and the first black to win a SARY, the South African equivalent of a Grammy award. Butler later won a talent contest and got a job -and a #25-a-week salary -with a musical troupe that toured South Africa, Libya, and Zaire.īutler had reached pop star status by the time he was 13. She organized a family singing group starring Jonathan, who first picked up a guitar at age six.
”īutler ’s late father, Abraham, was a musician and, while other shantytown families illegally trafficked in liquor or ran brothels, Butler ’s mother, Elizabeth, had other ideas to make money. “If we had stopped laughing, ” he said in an interview with People, “then we would have had problems. The youngest of the bunch, Butler claimed he and his siblings always tried to ease their suffering by cracking jokes and having a laugh. The children were often hungry and had holes in their shoes -food, water, and clothes for 17 children were in short supply. He lived in a cardboard shanty with his parents, nine brothers, and seven sisters. ”īorn in South Africa, Butler grew up in the shantytown of Athlone, outside prosperous, white Cape Town.
Although he has been likened to such jazz guitarists as George Benson, Wes Montgomery, and John Scofield, Butler has shied away from such comparisons, calling himself in Guitar Player, a “singer who plays guitar. A prolific songwriter, he has written for pop artists including Patti LaBelle, Kenny Loggins, and Al Jarreau. He left the apartheid-entrenched country and went on to record a dozen solo albums and make more than 25 guest appearances on records by Marcus Miller, the Yellowjackets, and Dionne Warwick, among others. As a child, Jonathan Butler was a pop star in his native South Africa where, because he was black, he was refused service and lodging in many of the towns he played.
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