Hi everyone My request is simple...... ANY and all details you have on Lester Butler.
I am keen to know what amplification he used and whether his live set-up was mono or stereo. Also, his harp preference and any unique harp techniques, typical phrases, and if the refined poppy might have influenced and inspired this individual.
My wife and I used to have an annual crawfish and abalone feed at our house in Long Beach, CA. It would usually happen with little or no notice when I would get off from a long hitch offshore. I'd get to the beach and book my flight from New Orleans back to SoCal. At the same time, I'd set up a live shipment of crawfish and start the party wheels in motion. Once I got home, we would get everything ready and announced and set the date. I'd then call the supplier in NOLA and pull the trigger.
I had met Butler in a club earlier. I was at a little goofy club to see Mitch Kashmar and Butler came in with a couple of other guys. We ended up both knowing people at another table and the whole bunch of us interacted all night. At that time, I had no idea he was a harp player. About a week later, I saw him in a car with another guy I knew when we were all down at the beach around sunrise to check the surf. We recognized each other and chatted small talk about surf and the recent Kashmar/Pontiax gig. At some point, Butler made a comment about the microphone that Mitch had used. That was when we both found out that we could talk harp. Good memories.
So, I would see him around, usually in the Long Beach music scene. In the late 80's/early 90's, Long Beach was far more "blues friendly" than the punk/rockabilly intensity of the San Fernando Valley/Los Angeles focus at the time. But, a lot of those like Los Lobos, Blasters, the Alvin Brothers and various participants from each would frequent the Long Beach area and crop up in various incarnations and combinations. Even though I wasn't a "real" musician, I was fortunate enough to be acquainted with some of the Southern California music types back then and was able to be pretty well connected which was great for access and getting in places.
So, I think about 1988, Butler shows up with some other people at our party. By this time, I had seen him play at different places around SoCal and knew he could work it. So, sometime during the evening, he & myself and a couple other guys were standing next to my records and cassettes and talking music and about all my photographs and books. I think we were all talking about making copies of different things for each other trade back and forth. That's it. In spite of always copying stuff and trading between all kinds of people to build up my music collection, I don't think we ever did connect again other than the odd ackowledgement at a club or bar. When he died several years later I heard about it some time after it happened. I do know that my impression of Lester Butler was that he was very interested in a lot of the books on my bookshelf that were about diving, spearfishing, surfing and the ocean in general. That's about all I got from the guy. The YouTube stuff that is out there really doesn't do his stage energy level justice from my perspective. The first time my wife saw Ricci live at a casino bar in Lake Tahoe a few years back, she made the comment that he reminded her a lot of Butler in how intense he was with the harp and his way of being on stage.
Sorry, I couldn't tell you anything about his gear or what harps he used. I really don't think it mattered. His style wasn't really a tone/gear thing. To me, it was more a presence and intensity thing.
Lester was a bad man. He just had the attitude and the swagger. He was an original character also. The red devils album is so good because it is not so stinkin slick and perfect. its real and raw. i wish more guys today had the sound he had. So much today is watered down, check out his '13' album too. It is not straight up blues, but it has some great vocals and harp on it.
Butler died of an overdose of heroin and cocaine on May 10, 1998, in Los Angeles at the age of 38. Two of his friends were convicted in his death with involuntary manslaughter,.. They tell me it was a horrible thing they done,.. An he is still remembered over in the UK & Netherlands by all >?
I have nothing to add other then my opinion, I totally dig Lester's playing and singing! I first heard the Red Devils thanks to Tuckster on the car ride to SPAH this year. His sound is really cool, I guess the only reason it took me 2 years to hear of him is because he was only recorded on one currently published album.
So I was looking around and still don't know, how were his friends charged with involuntary manslaughter?
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~Ryan
"I play the harmonica. The only way I can play is if I get my car going really fast, and stick it out the window." - Stephen Wright
Pennsylvania - H.A.R.P. (Harmonica Association 'Round Philly)
Mr Butler was really, really popular in The Netherlands. The Red Devils drew a lot of young people back to blues oriented music. And he inspired young fellows to pick up the harmonica, not the least of those being Pieter 'Big Pete' van der Pluym. He's currently fronting the band MOCT. Butler played his last gig here, by the way.
@ Ryan,. Les didn't overdose -- he was overdosed while unconscious and unable to help/defend himself. Check the court records.
While Les was at the house of Bill B. Friday night May 8 he was injected by a woman named April Ortega. She gave him too much and it caused him to immediately pass out. She and Bill got scared and threw him in an ice-bath but it didnt help. Next her boyfriend Glenn Demidow arrived and they decided to inject Les with cocaine instead of getting him medical attention. Nothing happened. So they injected him again with more cocaine. Nothing happened. So they injected him AGAIN with even more cocaine. What a surprise -- he wasn't reviving!!
They still didn't get him medical help. April and Glenn then drove him to his gig and left him in his van (unconscious) while they went in and listened to Lester's band (without Lester) telling people that HE had passed out and was sleeping it off. Lester still hours later wasn't able to wake himself (would you with 5 doses of deadly drugs in your system?) They still didn't get him medical help but instead took him to their apartment at 2am, they went to sleep, then the next night after he had died in their care dropped his dead body back at Bill B.s house.
They were literally at the house 2 minutes just to dump the body and then drive away in Lester's van. Lester's body was put in a guest bed to look as if he had died in his sleep. Luckily a friend, J., stopped in and instantly saw that Lester was in bad shape and immediately took him to County USC where he was pronounced dead-on-arrival. April and Glenn are serving 2 and 3 yr sentences -- Bill B. is free without being charged with aiding in covering up a murder! Lester was pronounced dead Sunday May 10 -- Mother's Day.
After receiving toxicology reports from the Coroner, the detectives picked April up as she walked out of a drug center w/Bill B. weeks after Lester's murder. Glenn fled but finally turned himself in to his lawyer weeks after April's arrest (nice boyfriend, huh?)
Bill was not arrested -- guess its ok to cover up a murder and harbor a dead body as long as you're not the one actually injecting the drugs. April and Glenn were charged with 2nd degree murder. After months and months of court dates, the D.A. offered April and Glenn a plea bargain down to Involuntary Manslaughter, against Lester's family's pleads. Of course they plead guilty and accepted the plea bargain for sentences of 2 and 3 yrs only.
Had they been convicted in front of a jury of 2nd degree murder, they would have been in jail 10 - 15 years. Its ironic that they admitted to overdosing him with 5 lethal mixtures of heroin and cocaine causing his death but they only have to serve 2 - 3 yrs -- that's our criminal justice system -- not much of a deterrent. April and Glenn should have been prosecuted for administering the drugs to an unwilling and unconscious victim, kidnapping him, murdering him, and stealing his van when all was over. What a tragic loss of a truly talented individual!
--sign me: anonymous
Note from visitor: June 22, 1999 I just read the obit on your website about Lester Butler. He did not O.D. but was in fact murdered. The two responsible for his death are currently in prison. It would mean a lot to me and the rest of Lester's family if you would change O.D. to murdered.
Thank you.
Virginia Tura, Lester's Sister
This came off the web an is just about how it was explained to me ,..Just type how did Lester Butler die? To read more
rharley, thank you for that. I did try looking but for some reason "how did lester butler die" didn't occur to me as a search term, haha. Also, the facts surrounding this case is all sorts of F'd up, pardon my harsh letters. It's worse then what I had assumed might have been an accident.
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~Ryan
"I play the harmonica. The only way I can play is if I get my car going really fast, and stick it out the window." - Stephen Wright
Pennsylvania - H.A.R.P. (Harmonica Association 'Round Philly)
@ Ryan,...No - No,.. F'd up is the right term To use for sure ,..when My Bro's Over the Pond told me the story I could not believe what they were tellin me,.. They all (Bands) give him the Respect do a fine musician,.over in the UK,..he was right up there with the best,.. There was an old Motown song called Smilin Faces,...Talked about friends may be worst enemy ,..smile in your face ,.but don't turn ya back <> these were the friends that did that to Lester,.. Unimaginable that someone could do this & more !! HAGO ---------- Simply Unique Kustom Mic's By Rharley
Last Edited by on Sep 27, 2010 4:17 PM
