Bloggerhythms

Bett Butler and her husband Joël Dilley have been featured in Bloggerhythms a few times in the past, separately and as a team. Dilley is a bass player and composer who works in multiple genres including jazz, funk, R&B and Latin music. Butler, the more mainstream artist of the two, is a singer-songwriting pianist with a soulful voice who also works in many styles but appears to favor mainstream jazz. I became familiar with Butler first. She recorded two albums of original jazz tunes followed by an album of covers from the Great American Songbook that features only her voice and Dilley's piano. Butler's last original solo work is the finest record in her catalog so far, a 2016 Christmas release, Songs For The Christmas Child . It is not a record for children.    In 2020, Dilley wrote and composed a soundtrack to the politically influenced film,  Wall In The Desert , with Butler assisting the multi-instrumentalist by reciting the fam...

Several reviews of albums released by jazz bassist  Joël Dilley  and his singing, piano playing wife, Bett Butler , have appeared on this blog. Each one has released several records on their own and they've also worked together. Their most recent joint effort is the 2016 Christmas album,  Winter Lullaby: Songs for the Christmas Child and it serves as the final entry for November's Women's Music Month and as the introduction to the holiday season. Butler wrote five of the twelve songs and plays piano. Her vocals include some jazz, pop and serious religious music. Dilley is the producer and arranger. He also added both acoustic and electric basses, and played keyboards.  This is not an album aimed at children but Butler said she subtitled it  Songs For The Christmas Child "with the thought in mind that the season – with its pleasures of giving and receiving – has the power to bring out the child in all of us." Butler also explains her inspiration behind a few of ...

Released this past March,  Wall in the Desert is a solo project by jazz bassist Joël Dilley. The San Antonio native played all of the instruments and arranged, recorded, mixed, and produced it himself. It's quite an accomplishment. The approximately thirty minute soundtrack is part of a documentary of the same name about the notorious and extremely controversial wall along America's Southwestern border. I have only seen the trailer, not the entire film, so I can only make an educated guess about its message but the music is good enough to stand on its own. According to an April 2020 press release from Dragon Lady Records , "all proceeds from digital sales and streaming will benefit the Interfaith Welcome Coalition, a faith-based collaborative movement meeting the changing needs of asylum seekers and immigrants at risk." Wall in the Desert  is a different kind of listening experience. If you're looking for hooks, riffs, and memorable melodies you won't find th...