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How Henry Butler’s Piano Rekindled a Fiery NOLA Tradition

• Rick DiamondWhen the New Orleans pianist Henry Butler reached New York in 2009, the strapping dude with sunglasses and a felt hat looked way younger than 61. Riding a wave of concerts and recordings, Butler, in fact, was a migrant to the city of cities.Sightless since birth, Butler grew up in a New Orleans housing project, a hungry mind propelled by Braille to studies at a school for the blind, and on to Southern University in Baton Rouge under the auspices of jazz maestro Alvin Batiste. Batiste