Taurey Butler is talented jazz pianist whose talent has taken him around the world, from New York to Singapore, Dubai and South Africa amongst many international destinations. Since relocating to Montreal in 2007, Taurey has earned a prominent position in Montreal’s jazz scene. His reputation is such that in addition to performing in jazz clubs and the prestigious Montreal International Jazz Festival, Taurey has also been a guest performer with the Orchestre Métropolitain under the direction of Maestro Yannick Nézet-Seguin.
Taurey was the only child of Tyrone and Joyce Butler, growing up in East Orange, New Jersey, a city of about 35,000 people. “My mom was a senior executive assistant for the local School Board. Encouraged by my mom, I started taking classical piano lessons when I was seven”; Taurey noted during our conversation. “As I got into my early teens I began to lose interest in classical music.”
“My dad worked in the produce department of a local supermarket by day and by night he played drums in a Rhythm ’n’ Blues band. The band practiced in our basement, and I’d sneak down there and figure out how to play the keyboard player’s electric piano. I’d also fool around on my dad’s drums. Because of East Orange’s proximity to Manhattan, we could receive all the New York radio stations and all the cool music they played.”
“In high school I was in the school band. Barry Centanni was the music teacher and looked after the band. Barry was a working musician who performed for Broadway shows. He knew that I was losing interest in classical music. Barry gave me a recording of Oscar Peterson, and I was amazed at what he could play. I didn’t know that you could make a piano sound like that!”
“While I was in the school band, Barry let me try some of the other instruments. I played saxophones, trumpet, flute, euphonium (a miniature tuba) and some others. However, by then I was so advanced on piano that I couldn’t play the other instruments with the same facility as the piano. With the piano – I could play what was in my head – but I didn’t have the dexterity on the other instruments to play what I could imagine.”
Taurey accompanies Juno Award winning Renee Lee at home and abroad
“Barry Centanni gave me a complete Broadway score for an orchestra. As an exercise, he asked me to condense it for a smaller group and for shorter duration. I was only 14 or 15, but I was able to do it. Barry was really impressed that I had the music theory knowledge and music sense to do this project. Barry had given me the key to unlock whatever musical talent that I had. I gained confidence in my ability.”
“I graduated from high school and enrolled in Dartmouth College. I took Electrical Engineering and Japanese. I was fascinated by Japanese culture and characters. I was always good at basic math, but not so good when it became theoretical. With so much sound equipment and small appliances being manufactured in Japan, I thought that a Japanese-speaking electrician would make me marketable for employment.”
However, music wasn’t finished with Taurey yet!
“In college I played in a band that performed at the local bar frequented by students, The Lone Pine Taverne. I took stand-up bass lessons in college and believe it or not – I played drums in an alternative rock band!”
“My Dartmouth College degrees took me five years to complete because I had the two programs going.”
“In the summers I could study music in a program sponsored by the Carnegie Mellon Institute. My piano playing enabled me to be accepted into the program. I got to meet some working musicians. Eddy Pazant played alto sax, and he played at a club called Swing ’46. He also introduced me to The Cotton Club in Manhattan and some of the musicians who performed there.” In a chance encounter, a musician named Brooks Giles introduced Taurey to jazz bassist Eldee Young, of the Young Holt jazz trio.
“I met Eddy’s brother, (who had backed up the vocal group The Manhattans), guitarist Hui Cox, and drummer Bernardo ‘Chicho’ Ramirez. They played at a salsa club, and I learned a lot about Latin jazz. They had back-up singers like Gloria Estefan and Mark Anthony.
During those summer months, Taurey would play a Saturday afternoon show, another show at night, and then yet another show that only started at 11pm. “It was a club called Cokie’s and you were allowed in after the doorman opened a small slit in the door – just like in the movies. It was a unique place, and I learned a lot about late-night life. I worked there until the wee hours of Saturday night into Sunday morning – and them had to get back to East Orange for a 6am Sunday church service. That was followed by an early afternoon service. I didn’t have any trouble going to sleep on Sunday nights!”
Eldee Young was looking for a piano player for bookings he had in Singapore and other Southeast Asian cities, including Bangkok and Hong Kong. “I sent him a cassette tape of my playing and he hired me for dates staring in 2000. The first I saw of Eldee and drummer George Gray was during an airport layover in Japan as we made our way to Singapore.”
Taurey spent seven years touring the world with bassist Eldee Young
“I learned everything I needed to know about being a professional musician and about being a better person from Eldee Young.”
“We played at a hotel club where the performances were in the afternoon and early evening. We also were hired to perform in Hong Kong, Dubai, Bangkok and other international places. I toured with Eldee from 2000 until 2007 when he passed away. We were playing in Bangkok at a hotel club called The Living Room. I got the call Late Sunday evening. We were off until Tuesday afternoon, and that gave us time to find a local bass player so that we could fulfill the contract.”
A chance encounter in Bangkok would eventually lead Taurey to Montreal.
“I started to talk with a patron at the bar, and mentioned that our leader had passed. The person I was speaking with was Billy Georgette, a fixture in the Montreal jazz and club scene. He was an associate of George Durst, owner of the Houe of Jazz on Aylmer Street in downtown Montreal. Billy put me in touch with Malcolm Berlin, George’s son-in-law and manager of the House of Jazz. He offered me three nights a week. A steady income is important for a musician, and this was it. Of course, I had heard about the Montreal International Jazz festival and knew that Montrealers enjoyed live jazz.”
“I met drummer Wali Mohammed and bassist Eric Lagacé. It was through Eric that I met Jim West, Founder and owner of Justin Time Records. Jim took me on and I recorded my first album for him. Jim also has an artist management company, and through him I’ve met and worked with Ranee Lee.”
Jim has organized international appearances for Ranee with Taurey as her band leader and accompanist. “I’ve performed with Ranee in Haiti, South Africa and right here in Montreal.”
There is part of Taurey Butler that has never lost his boyish enthusiasm for life and each new day. Several years ago, he developed a Christmas program around the music of Charlie Brown’s Christmas. The program was an instant hit at Bourgie Hall in downtown Montreal. After selling out quickly, the hall management added a second show for the following year; and then a third show in the third year. It’s become a Christmas ‘tradition’ for many Montrealers, and so popular that Charlie Brown’s Christmas has become a popular pre-Christmas concert in several cities throughout Quebec. In addition to the familiar melodies, Taurey puts on spellbinding performance of his muscular piano playing.
In the spring and summer of 2025, Taurey performed in concerts to celebrate Oscar Peterson’s 100th Birthday. Taurey’s musical challenge was to faithfully reproduce the high-speed playing of a musical legend. He performed the role of Oscar Peterson at the legendary Massey Hall. “It was a humbling experience to play Oscar’s compositions in such a historic hall.”
Taurey’s talent and piano mastery caught the attention of Maestro Yannick Nezet-Seguin and the folks at the Orchestre Métropolitain for a pre-Christmas program. “They we so welcoming to me. It was big thrill to perform with two hundred musicians and choristers. I was like a kid in a candy store. We’ve been doing it every other year. This past year, he took me to Philadelphia to perform the same program with the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra. It was a double thrill for me because my mom and some other relatives came to see me play.”
During the pandemic, Taurey used the time to write and record his second album, titled One of The Others. One of the selections is Charlie Chaplin’s Smile. “It was a dark time world-wide, and I thought that composition could help us to try to stay positive.”
Taurey Butler is revered by his fellow musicians and audiences. “I get my most fulfillment by helping others.”
Taurey Butler performs regularly at the Upstairs Jazz bar and Grill on Mackay Street. Wherever he performs, audiences appreciate the combination of his powerful mastery of the piano, and the warmth he exudes to his fellow musicians and audiences.