Jazz / Fusion, Jazz-Pop, Smooth Jazz
Jonathan Butler - Guitar, Programming, Producer, Keyboards, Vocals
Alex Al - Synthesizer Bass, Bass
Bill Reichenbach Jr. Trombone
Christine Cano Package Design
D.C. Digital Editing, Digital Drums
Doug Sax Mastering
Erik Zobler Engineer
Jerry Hey Horn Arrangements, Oboe Arrangement, Flugelhorn, Cello Arrangement, Trumpet
Koji Egawa Digital Editing
Kurt Lykes Vocals (Background)
Lexy Shroyer Production Coordination
Lil' John Roberts Drums
Michael Wilson Photography
Paulinho Da Costa Percussion
Phil Ayling Oboe
Ricky Peterson Keyboards
Robert Hadley Mastering
Stephen Erdody Cello
Stephen Walker Art Direction
2002 album on Warner Brothers from one of the most popular artists in smooth jazz. The title track features Boney James. This is the tenth album from the Grammy-nominated singer-guitarist.
Smooth jazz superstar Jonathan Butler gets his album, Surrender, off to a surprisingly rootsy start with "This Is Love," featuring live drums and Butler's trademark vocals. Butler has always expressed a deep soul influence and the whole album has a Stevie Wonder-lite sound about it. Despite the fact that the guitarist favors belabored introductions that merely set up predictable melodies and grooves, fans of Butler should find much to enjoy here. "Take Me Back" has a nice folk feel, kind of like James Taylor meets Babyface and contains just the hint of African vocal harmony on the intro. Similarly, "Back to Love" is a catchy r&b groover with much crossover appeal. This track, as others on Surrender, might have benefited from slightly hipper production, such as a two-step dance beat à la Craig David's "Fill Me In," but satisfies nonetheless. ~ Matt Collar, All Music Guide
Jonathan Butler
Active Decades: '70s, '80s, '90s and '00s
Born: Oct, 1961 in Capetown, South Africa
Genre: Jazz
Styles: Urban, Jazz-Funk, Fusion, Crossover Jazz, Smooth Jazz
South African expatriate Jonathan Butler isn't really a jazz artist, but his laid-back, slightly jazz-tinged approach to R&Bpop has earned the singer/guitarist/songwriter/producer a lot of supporters in the urban contemporary, adult contemporary, quiet storm, and smooth jazzNAC markets. Butler has enjoyed a following since the late '70s, although he reached his commercial peak in the late '80s, and he continues to tour and record in the 21st century. Born in Cape Town, South Africa, in October 1961, Butler was only a child when he started singing and playing acoustic guitar. Butler, who was the youngest of about 12 children, absorbed a variety of music when he was a kid. He was an admirer of South African stars like singer Miriam Makeba, but he was also hip to the American soul and jazz artists who lived thousands of miles away in the United States. Stevie Wonder became a major influence, and so did former-hard bop-guitarist-turned-R&Bpop-singer George Benson.
Sadly, Butler learned about the horrors of South Africa's racist apartheid laws at an early age; when he was growing up, South Africa had an oppressive system of racial segregation that was quite comparable to the jim crow laws that plagued the southern U.S. until the early '60s. Apartheid (which, thankfully, has since been abolished) was the subject of some of Butler's '80s recordings. Although he was never a hardcore protest singer à la Gil Scott-Heron, Peter Tosh, or Bob Marley, he wrote some anti-apartheid songs here and there. Butler, who spoke Afrikaans before becoming fluent in English, was a teenager when British producer Clive Calder signed him to the London-based Jive Records in 1977; Introducing Jonathan Butler, his largely instrumental debut album, was released that year and employed Bob Cranshaw (who is best known for his long association with Sonny Rollins) on bass. At the time, Butler was often compared to Benson, a man who, like Butler, has been praised for both his singing and his guitar playing. It wasn't long before the teenage Butler won a Sarie Award, which is the South African equivalent of an American Grammy or a Canadian Juno Award.
But Butler didn't remain in South Africa much longer; in the early '80s, he escaped from apartheid and moved to England (where Jive's main office was located, and where Butler remained for 17 years). Butler maintained a loyal following in the '80s and '90s, not only in his native South Africa, but also, in the U.S. and Europe. One of his biggest releases came in 1987, when Jive released a self-titled album that contained a hit cover of the Staple Singers' "If You're Ready (Come With Me)" (which found him performing a duet with British urban contemporary singer Ruby Turner). And Butler's next Jive album, 1988's More Than Friends, was also a big seller; that CD gave us the major hits "Lies" (which was nominated for a Grammy) and "Sarah, Sarah." Butler continued to record for Jive in the early '90s; then, in the late '90s and early 2000s, he provided three albums for N-Coded Music: 1997's Do You Love Me?, 1999's Story of Life, and 2000's The Source. After that, Butler (who turned 40 in October 2001) left N-Coded and moved to Warner Bros., which released Surrender in June 2002.
---Alex Henderson, All Music Guide |
