WGBH Station; WGBH Forum Network; Henry Butler: Inclusive By Design Concert (Part 1)

Far be it for me to in any sense in any way do anything other than to thank my good friend John Wasi and Charlie Washburn for this opportunity. I do need to say that there is in fact contrary to what you would like to believe. Nothing historic about tonight's performance there is nothing new about it and in fact there is nothing special about it it's brilliant. You're going to have the time of your life. But how many of you have been to a concert in your lives. Raise your hands right of course and maybe in the last few years you've been to a concert say you went to the Zeppelin concert or something you looked at your cell phone and you know you didn't turn it off right. And you texted a friend and he said they're playing Stairway to Heaven. You know we have a name for that. Captioning. OK. Maybe the next day you called up a friend and you said all it was the lights were incredible. They had this this totally awesome awesome front band OK. We have a name for this audio description. OK maybe you were

watching the concert OK and you noticed that in fact it was the Clapton concert you noticed a little sort of strange kind of body language the body would you know I don't know I don't know I don't know if he's in a good mood tonight. Maybe he didn't sleep well last night or maybe something with the groupies I don't know. You know what do we call that. Sign language OK body language a set of symbols delivering a multiple channel an alternative channel of the concert in a different language. Well. Close your eyes during a concert but you see we call it visual art. The collars the forms the dreamy re combinations of shapes and colors and memories and experiences. Visual art and say you're looking at a painting at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and you suddenly hear the sounds of what that painting evokes we have a name for that music.

So it's. Night we're doing nothing new. We're doing nothing special but people with disabilities are leading the re-unification of the performing arts into what we know it to be a multi channel multi-platform experience involving all the senses at all times and we have the most incredible creative team to deliver the concert of your life tonight. First of all it's just a call I want you. Thank you for detailed introductions and bios of all of the creative presenters are in your program and I urge you to take a look at those the captioning for us tonight. Janet Hardy ladies and gentlemen thank you. Thank you audio description comes from and I will give the floor over to her for a moment. Seeley Hughes thank you. Very much. It was approximately 30 by 50 feet with the four 40 foot ceiling. The ceiling is covered with Styrofoam squares of various

sizes inset among recessed lighting and standard theater lights. Two walls of the studio have four foot by 10 foot wooden panels of a blonde color inserted in sections that alternate with gray acoustic panels and circling the room at a height of about 30 feet. Are rectangular stainless steel wall fixtures three small windows on the right wall cut through to the lobby. The recording room window juts into the room on the left wall with a large clock and digital timer above it. The floor is two foot by four foot sections of plywood with two red patterned rugs and front of the piano. The performers are ranged along the front wall facing the audience in the center of the wall has a floor to ceiling gray acoustic screen with a bright blue WGBH logo projected on it and front of the screen is a black grand piano with an open lid. A piano bench is on the left side of the piano.

Two microphone space the piano and one microphone bends in toward the bench. To the left of the bench is a raised platform where the SL interpreter stands. To the left a 10 foot by 12 foot black canvas stands with a black cloth covering the floor in front of the canvas is a three foot flat wooden box on wheels that holds the artist's tools. Acrylic and fabric paints one for wooden slats with red handles. A window washing squeegee on a pole. Various artist brushes attached to long round wooden sticks. A paint scraper and small corner and paint markers to the left of the canvas. The caption are sets and a monitor for real time captioning. On the far right of the performance area the describer sits in a straight backed chair and the MC sits in a wheelchair on her right behind them in the right corner. Another monitor to

display his captioning underneath the sign says recording that Ward Henry is wearing black sunglasses a red and black stripes jacket a black open collared shirt and red pants. Artist Nancy wears a blackish suit that is awash with paint smears and splashes and glitter and speckles. She wears a black Japanese slippers and her head is wrapped in a large black strip of cloth while her hair sits atop her head and a five inch poofy bone. The team of interpreters is a good prize of two females Joanne Allie and one male miking. They wear dark clothing. Mikey and Ellie work as a team and Joe works alone. Allie sits in the audience at a music stand the describer takes notes and reads from a black notebook description of tonight's performance will be provided at several times during the evening instead of the usual practice when description is offered via headsets

exclusively for people who are blind or have low vision. Thank you Celia. All right let's recognize the rest of the creative team formally here are ESL interpreters are Mikey cryonic. And. Allie here Mont. Blanc OK. Jeanette OK ample well. Thank you thank. Our visual artist for this evening. We have as an incredible treat Nancy Ostrofsky whose global vision you will see in real time realized on that campus. Yes. Thank you. And. Finally thank our musician tonight but the word barely describes him. His life is the definition of the word vision in my book. Ladies and gentlemen award winning recording artist Henry Butler.

Thank onco. Oh. Yeah. Good for you. Good to be with you. It's good to be with all of you tonight and I hope that you will enjoy. At least something that we do here. We're going to start off with a piece entitled sudah will be done with

troubles of the world. What the triggers are Was that we're. Rebels of Abo who was the troubles our of. Our

rebels was the. The the. God. Where you are.

Thank

you. Thank you. Talk about contrast. This next piece was written by W. S. Hamby and was published I think somewhere around 1912. And it said die and see Louis Blues. I am.

I am. I am. I am. I am. I am.

Both.

I am. I am. I am. I am. Theory

here. They could be used to reward. You know the new words. You want good and you think it works. We call this. Try tono commission. Firstly we came up with was dry lateral commission. But we thought. Take the politics out of the. Joint mission. I am.

I am. I am. I am. I am. I am.

I am.

I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am I am. I am.

I am. I am. I am I am. I am.

I am. I am. I am. Thank you.

Now we're going to turn it over to the silly news going to audio description within the NCAA born in North Africa and living in Asia was influenced for her painting to music. Reflects it throughout this so I will be nodding and smiling and at last standing erect with her face uplifted. She begins with the next song by placing her paint in her hand and gently placing her hand on the canvas. Tenderly creating a reddish brown circle on the canvas. She then moves her hands in her fingers to leave traces of color on various On one side and the other of the canvas with multiple colors on the wooden slat she done striped the canvas across the center line with swatches of blue

turquoise yellow green and others embodying. The rhythm. She dances on tiptoe as she works with the car and leaving her impressions. Mikey taking his cues from Alley glances over Henry's shoulder his body sways from side to side moving his head and beat with pursed lips. He points to the painter. He finger spells he touches a space places his hand over hand while the flow of the music from the audience and my cue moves as the roving camera crosses his path in the first song Henry's mouth gently touches his microphone as his left foot pounds out the rhythm of his right foot works the pedals the piano strings are reflected in the raised piano cover. Use.

Cuteness. What next piece is a piece that you read for us along here. And write your own. Sure.

Him in a hole. I am. Always you just. Made it to me.

Mr. Turner do. You know me. Beyond.

To. Eat. Meat. To eat. So he. He. He. Now. I am now to Florida. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Holding that piece. Yeah. You know I mean yeah well. Yeah. Well we actually hold held some hands with the piano. So the little Professor Longhair baby let me hold Joanne up. This next piece. It's a piece I wrote. Oh gosh back in you 7 1987 when I was six hundred and eighty four years old. Yes. And this piece was supposed supposed to give the guy he was after this girl a little bit of play but not much. You know we call it soft

platonic system. Soft place this point so soft. I am.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you thank you. The next piece is a piece of Kris Jenner. Anyway this piece is entitled song you God. I. Saw you got. Married you work got old. I am. Home.

Sure I don't. Want to say I. Just. Saw you. Will say. Same.

Thing. Sir.

Thank you thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Guys. Thank. You. Very much. You. Know there's no excuse.

This is one of my newer uses. And I rooted for maybe couple of months ago. After observing a little bit of the culture environment of Denver Colorado. Been living there for you since Katrina. Just about since Katrina. And I think it got a little bit of a handle on what Colorado and specially Denver is about. So in this piece you're going to hear a little bit of the country flavor a little bit Twining. And you'll hear some other things perhaps but

this piece is indicted lady better. I am.

Thank you.

Thank you thank you. And this is you know the intro. Baby let me hold your hand. And then with pain right now slowly rises to her head and to the left of the canvas and the body of a woman begins to take shape. Using the wooden slat reds blues yellows purples are added to both sides borders. The woman's face is outlined with yellow. Her right arm extended with the pointing finger and the bent leg. During softly Thomas isn't Nancy's sense on her knees and then uses her hand to apply faint blue streaks. Her hands are slowly becoming covered with paint. The current dash develops into a series of connected lines and dots across the center line

underneath using paint squeezed from a bottle a red figure sits on a piano and the blue winged figure takes off. Joao for something you've got sometimes mouths the words bouncing in time to the music. Her fingers lightly playing through the air during the instrumental. She touches her go as it pulls her hand off and a large circle she struck is front to back on the platform swaying her hips as she moves point to generate mouthing some of the words. She smiles frowns over her eyes wide her entire body moves and unison with the beat. Henry's honors are closed and his lips are pursed his heel gently taps the floor while his fingers skip across the Keys. Sometimes his jaw works when the music is forte.

She she got it right again. Yeah that's twice in a row. Yeah she's good. Oh yeah you're good and I think that we're all that you know I have to say why aren't all concerts like this. Robinson. I mean but for Nancy I would not have noticed that there is a naked woman dressed in flames on top of you know every kind of fly I would have missed that completely not it wasn't precisely I would have missed the reflection of the strings in the piano and I think I got a really good idea because of Joe of what that something is she guy would talk about half the show. Yeah. I am.

I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. Only. Going to do right now. Sponsor me. Whatever. See. I want to do it. When I see you know right. From me nothing. Try to get this right.

MR.

So you see here we get up and we go. I am. I am. Yeah. I am. Yeah. Ya. Ya.

Thank you. Thank. You very. Angry. And. This is a bit of a reunion for me and Henry Butler. Yes the first time we were together we were Tropp around by the Brooklyn Bridge and you were carrying not a piano. You had a camera. That's right. We're doing a radio piece back in the early 90s. So you dated the late 80s early 90s. Can you remember exactly when it's getting on to be you know 20 years. Yeah. Back when you were six hundred eighty seven. Probably. And I was only 300 years old or something like that. But we were exploring in a radio documentary. The idea of what it's like to be a blind photographer and of course

radio seeming to be the least intuitive medium to explore that in fact was the best. Media you know except for that I agree because I've never heard a better description of what it's like to pull the trigger on a camera then listening to that radio piece as you describe it. What is it like what goes on in your mind when you when you had to shutter. Well all I think all I'm interested in doing going to capturing an image and the images based on the what I get from the person who's giving me the description give me an audio description of the piece that I think I should capture. And I have to say that you were great at it but you were wonderful and and also and I don't know if you remember this but it was your idea for you to be my eyes as I sort of push you around as when you were moving about you know taking the

pictures. Now that's right I mean we became just like single object you are holding the chair. I became this sort of Cain descriptor unit. Yes and I was I was sort of experiencing what Henry was experiencing me experience. And this was back before digital photography when you can see the pictures right away. That's right. We were instantaneously producing the pictures. That's right it was wonderful. But yeah because I got into this Joe Richmond the really talented producer who I've worked with a little bit this is the first really extensive documentary that we did together. I was thinking oh ok wall are I so blind photographer OK sure I do. But the moment really it meant something to me when when I was looking at you were shots and you capture this picture of a seagull sort of flying through with this beautiful shot of the bridge and all of the architecture the cabling and everything of the bridge

and I mentioned this a you got to see go Henry you got the seal and you tell me that again tell me that again it's like I just told the story again of you capturing the seagull with all the cabling in the background. And I remember you just took a breath and went yeah. That's Todd right. Thought to myself that his photo. Capturing a moment for for all for quite a while I used to think that I was getting a lot of these great shots accidentally and it just kept happening just kept happening and I thought well hey that's really more to do it than just getting a picture as there is more to it. And actually I got into it because I really was trying to find a different way to develop my into faculties I thought well I had already embarked on a way of studying the development of not only intuition but

inner self and all that. But I figured that. I also saw it with my musical. Development that there had to be other ways for me to try to do this. And I thought I was going to walk out of visual arts exhibit at the time at the time I was dating a woman who was really a closet artist. You know she didn't want to get involved in what all the exhibitions you know spending all of money on that but she liked helping me to you know get my pictures together. So. I found that it was such a great way to to help me with intuition. I think at that point in time not only was I doing you know photography but I started playing all improvised

concerts and I thought wow sort of like what it sounds like when you hear somebody Jared's concert. You really have a lot of fun with that. Well you know there's a certain amount of you know chauvinism that comes with this notion of being normal and somehow the accidental quality of photography you know becomes for the traditional art of photography a kind of like well I chose to do that and it was an accident somehow that diminishes the form in some way. So when you say you know I was getting these shots by accident there's there's an accidental quality to all photography you just underscore it and give it reverence in a way that I don't think I could have understood without meeting her quite frankly. Well I I. For talk free like any other art unit is an art form where you can

stumble upon things not only and then if you do it as you so call stumble on things a certain amount of times you know the feeling and you know how to get back to that place. You know how to make that thing happen again and again and then. So I was doing analog photography for a while and I met her the letter who said all had go digital and that's that. And and what I started doing digital I realized how much easier it was because you could see the pictures right away. And even if I did see I'm the person who was helping me I could see the shop that I have that I've just taken and it

was almost like heaven and Instamatic camera again. You're bringing back the good old days. Yeah. There you go. Already Here is more music in a second but I got a couple of really goofy Conan O'Brian questions for you. Great. OK. DD Are you the kind of photographer that has a bunch of you know Cillian lenses. What's the best lens for a blind photographer. I think they're all about the same. Yeah well sure but they would be. But but I mean you know I think it's one of those deals where you will yourself to overcome the obstacles and you will yourself to make it happen regardless. And but in saying that I have stuck with camera over the years because I find that all of ledges that I used to use with my analog camera I could use with my digital. And I

think a lot of the people that's what they do they stick with either Nikon or camera. Can you check with Canon for an endorsement maybe. You know I really haven't yet. Be hard to design the slogan. Well I got the slogan Yeah what's a slogan. I got a slogan if a blind person can do it. Anybody can go to Canada. Yeah. One last thing I learned thanks to a Janet. That thing you do in one of the songs like I can't remember the title of it now. Not only that now. It's actually still in a r o w h o y. I did not know that until tonight. Oh what song is that I wrote you something you were doing when you were going to scat in there at the end. Oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah well I suppose you know I woke up oh alright honey take it away. The knowledge that I brought up. With.