South African crossover star headlines Jazzlights

Jonathan Butler had a fire a couple weeks ago in his Los Angeles home. He's trying to answer a reporter's questions and an insurance adjuster's questions at the same time.

But that bit of misfortune has not fazed the singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer. This is a man who rose from poverty and apartheid in South Africa, became a child star, won a "Sarie Award" (South Africa's version of a Grammy) and went on to be an international crossover artist whose music has touched multiple generations.

The stardom he enjoys now was indeed just a dream when he first broke into the music world during his formative years, becoming the first black South African artist to be played on white radio at the time.

"We grew up in severe poverty ... living in shacks," he says. "My motivation was helping my mother help feed us. And so earning a living, when I first got paid for singing, it was like, 'Wow, this is what God has set aside for me to do.' There was nothing more beautiful for me than to see my mother's face when I came home and gave her my wages, my brown-paper-bag wages, my little wages packet. That made her smile and that's all that mattered to me. [I] was like, 'This makes my mother happy. We can eat this weekend; we'll have food this weekend."'

He had no sense of the significance of his breakthrough accomplishment at the time. "I was a 12-year-old kid growing up. ... That type of success, gosh, it's only heard of in America. ... It's heard of in England and places like that, but not South Africa."

It's little wonder that Butler -- whose Grammy-nominated hit "Lies" introduced him to the international scene in 1987 -- named his 2014 album Living My Dream.

Butler will headline Jazzlights in the Park, an event revived from its earlier 1990s incarnation, when it was sponsored by a former jazz radio station.

Now a fundraiser for Boys and Girls Club of Central Arkansas, Jazzlights takes place from 1-9 p.m. Saturday on the lawn of the Clinton Presidential Center.

Jazzlights will not be just about music. It promises to be a "full-scale festival," complete with food truck park, craft beer garden and the "Big Tamale" National Tamale Cook-Off.

Performers in addition to Butler will be Amasa Hines, Rodney Block, TwiceSax, That Arkansas Weather, TP & the Feel, Ted Ludwig Trio, and Bonnie Montgomery & Friends.

Butler, 53, also performed at the earlier Jazzlights in 1998.

"Tell everybody I'm looking forward to seeing everyone and doing my best," he says.

Although Butler is associated with jazz -- he received a Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Song for the instrumental "Going Home" -- his music has crossover appeal not only as far as audience demographics, but genres. He also received Grammy nominations for Best R&B Song for "Lies," an R&B-pop vocal hybrid, and has also established himself as a gospel artist. His most noted gospel hit is "Falling in Love With Jesus," which he performed on Kirk Whalum's The Gospel According to Jazz -- Chapter 2. Living My Dream's cuts -- vocals and instrumentals -- reflect Afro-Caribbean and R&B as well as jazz influences.

So does he have a favorite musical form?

"I don't love any particular genre; I love music," he says. There's no 'genre' in my vocabulary. It's all music. I love all kinds of food; I have all kinds of friends. I have friends from all over the planet. And I love everything. Music is one of those things that I'm not locked into one particular thing, no."

These days Butler has come full circle, having reconciled with his home country. He not only goes to South Africa to perform, he leads a party of 35 guests on a safari there each year.

"South Africa is what the platform [was] for me; it's where it all began for me," he says. "The journey began there. And for some reason, I keep going back there. It's amazing that I now go back a lot and that is so important for me now. I realize how important my roots are and how deep that plays into who I am as an artist, as a human being, and my story. ... I have [a] responsibility to spread the word of South Africa across the world and let people know there are gifted, amazing ... people there."

Weekend on 05/14/2015