Education
Howard University; Columbia University.
Howard University; Columbia University.
He worked for a number of well-known jazz record labels from the 1960s to the 1990s including Blue Note Records, Columbia Records and United Artists Records. He signed and launched the careers of a number of now famous artists including Wynton Marsalis, Harry Connick Junior. and Nnenna Freelon. Butler was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, and studied at Howard University before going on to earn a master"s degree in music education from Columbia University.
In the early 1960s he began working as an A&R executive for United Artists Records, where a few years later he was instrumental in establishing its Solid State Records jazz subsidiary.
Butler died of complications from Alzheimer"s disease in Castro Valley, California, at the age of 76.