The Nightcreatures
Free Event
Henry Botham is a professional pianist based in Manchester, UK. He specialises in Harlem Stride Piano, New Orleans music and playing vintage and analogue keyboards, organs and electric pianos.
When he graduated from Salford University with a first class degree in music he had already been working for several years with his first band the HB3, a jazz trio that performed gigs around the Manchester jazz circuit. At around this time he also toured and recorded with RSL, where he developed his love of vintage and analogue instruments that led to the formation of No Good Beatniks, an originals project with a stellar line up of UK jazz talent.
In an unusual departure from the work he had been doing Henry then turned his focus on learning 1920’s Harlem Stride piano by studying the great pianists Fats Waller, James P. Johnson, Willie ‘The Lion’ Smith, Luckey Roberts and Dick Wellstood. He found that there weren’t many gigs going around for stride pianists in modern day Manchester so he formed 52 Skidoo. They have since gone on to become one of the leading 1920/30’s bands in the UK and beyond.
Having developed a taste for vintage piano and ‘old time music’ he discovered New Orleans piano, which draws from a wide range of influences including Blues, Jazz, Funk, R&B, Rhumba, Ragtime and even Classical music and Rock, all epitomized by the recognised master of the genre, James Booker. Through studying his recordings, as well as those by Dr John, Professor Longhair and Jelly Roll Morton, plus visiting New Orleans to meet and study with Tom McDermott, Josh Paxton and Jon Cleary, Henry has emerged with an intricate knowledge of this little known approach to piano. He puts this to good use as pianist for New Orleans R&B band The Nightcreatures.