Frank Butler (musician)

Frank Butler (February 18, 1928–July 24, 1984) was an American jazz drummer. Butler was born in Kansas City, Missouri, but later moved west and was associated in large part with the West Coast school. He never became well known but was highly regarded by fellow musicians and performed with jazz notables like Duke Ellington, Dave Brubeck, John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Art Pepper in the 1950s and 1960s. In the mid-to-late 1950s, he was a member of the Curtis Counce Quintet. Sidelined for many years by an addiction to heroin, he did not record an album under his own name until the 1970s.^[1]

Butler died in Ventura, California at the age of 56.

Discography

Co-led with Curtis Amy

• Groovin' Blue (Pacific Jazz, 1961)

With the Curtis Counce Quintet

• You Get More Bounce with Curtis Counce, originally released as Counceltation (Contemporary, 1956)
• Landslide (Contemporary, 1956)
• Sonority (Contemporary, 1958)
• Exploring the Future (Dooto, 1958)
• Carl's Blues (Contemporary, 1960 - recorded 1957)
• The Complete Studio Recordings: The Master Takes (Gambit, 2006)

With Miles Davis

• Seven Steps to Heaven (Columbia, 1963)

With Hampton Hawes

• For Real (Contemporary, 1957)

With Elmo Hope

• The Elmo Hope Quintet featuring Harold Land (Pacific Jazz, 1957)
• Elmo Hope Trio (Hifijazz, 1959)

With Harold Land

• Harold in the Land of Jazz (Contemporary, 1958)
• The Fox (Hifijazz, 1959)

With Art Pepper

• Smack Up (Contemporary, 1960)
• Intensity (Contemporary, 1960)

With Ben Webster

• Ben Webster at the Renaissance (Contemporary, 1960)

With Phineas Newborn & Leroy Vinnegar

• The Newborn Touch (Contemporary, 1964)

Notes

References

• Feather, Leonard (1960). The Encyclopedia of Jazz. Horizon Press. 

External links

• Chadbourne, Eugene. Biography of Frank Butler at AllMusic
• Chell, Samuel (June 11, 2007). "Curtis Counce/Jack Sheldon/Harold Land/Carl Perkins/Frank Butler Quintet: Complete Studio Recordings". all about jazz.