Butler

THE BUTLER Did It, the 1978 album, featuring troubled keyboardist Harold Butler at his creative best, will be reissued next month by VP Records. This marks the first time the set will be released on compact disc.

A release from VP said The Butler Did It will be released on August 28. It is part of the Queens, New York company's extensive reissue roster, which also includes titles from producers Joe Gibbs and Henry 'Junjo' Lawes.

Thirteen songs

The new-look, The Butler Did, It has 13 songs, some written or arranged by Butler and performed by artistes who recorded mainly rhythm and blues-type reggae.

Among these artistes are Cynthia Schloss whose Love Forever is on The Butler Did It. Other songs include Beres Hammond (One Step Ahead), Ernest Wilson (Let Love Be Your Right-hand Man) and Pam Hall and Orville Wood (Book of Life).

From a musical family

Those songs were released in the late 1970s when Butler was an in-demand session musician, arranger and producer. The Butler also contains, Crying In Soweto, Butler's moving tribute to the South Africa township which was a hotbed of activity during the years of apartheid in that country.

Harold Butler is from a musical family. His older brother, Leslie, was also a noted keyboardist who played at the prolific Federal Studio in the 1960s and 1970s.

Leslie's younger brother followed in his footsteps, recording and touring with Bunny Wailer, Dennis Brown, Jimmy Cliff, Culture and Judy Mowatt. Harold Butler played on some of the seminal reggae albums of the 1970s and early 1980s, including Culture's Two Sevens Clash and Mowatt's Black Woman.

His career has been stalled since the late 1980s by mental illness.

In recent years, Butler has recorded and performed with guitarist Maurice Gordon at jazz events, including Jazz In The Garden, and at the Red Bones Blues Café.