Butch Lacy er født i Richmond Virginia, USA, men har siden 1982 været bosat i Danmark.

Butch Lacy har som pianist spillet og indspillet CD'er sammen med en række af de store navne indenfor jazzen: Chet Baker, Lee Konitz, Red Rodney, Gary Bartz, Bobby Shew, Putte Wickman and Bob Rockwell, The Budapest Jazz Orchestra, og Klüvers Big Band.

Butch Lacy har komponeret musik indenfor næsten alle tænkelige genrer. Han indledte sit kompositoriske virke med at skrive musik til radio og TV og har siden komponeret værker til Danmarks Radios BigBand, Radiounderholdningsorkestret, Danmarks Radios Kammerkor, Klüvers BigBand, ensemblet Mad Cow Sings m.fl. Flere af hans værker er skrevet for orkester blandet af rytmiske og klassiske musikere og af amatører, professionelle og studerende. Det største værk var for 900 musikere omfattende 40 orkestre fra de nordiske lande. Til Århus Domkirkes 800 års jubilæum i 2001 komponerede han et værk for Klüvers BigBand og Den Jyske Operas Kor.

Sideløbende med sine egne musikalske aktiviteter har Butch Lacy et omfattende virke som underviser og inspirator. Han har undervist i klaver, sammenspil, orkesterledelse, komposition/arrangement i San Diego, USA, og ved Rytmisk Musikkonservatorium i København fra 1986 til 1994, hvorfra han blev docent i 1987. 1994-2002 var han ansat som docent ved Vestjysk Musikkonservatorium, hvor han bl.a. igangsatte arbejdet med "The Very Big Band" - et orkester bestående af såvel "klassiske" som "rytmiske" studerende. I 2002 gik turen videre til Aarhus, hvor han siden da har fungeret som timelærer.

Siden 2002 har Butch Lacy arbejdet med opbygningen af "The Music Center" ved meditationscentret Munach i Grenå. "The Music Center" arrangerer kurser for musikere og performere med fokus på anvendelsen af meditation som middel til frigørelse af kreativ energi i forbindelse med skabelse af musik og performance.

Favorite realizations and memories directly concerning life and music, 2013, age 66, include the following;

Music seeks the musician! Damn, I wish I’d known that earlier in my life!
Being around, playing and interacting with the greatest musicians is a fabulous form of education!
Don’t confuse schooling with education! (Mark Twain)

I remember Sarah Vaughn calling me in my hotel room after we had performed in Reston, Virginia, (just outside Washington D.C.), and saying I needed to come up to her room. So, I did. Man oh man, the cook at the hotel was a fan of hers and figured she would have an entourage of people with her after the concert. So, he had laid out a table in her room that was at least 3 meters long, with every seafood delicacy imaginable from the nearby Chesapeake Bay and there was no entourage! Just Sarah and me! Damn we had fun!

I remember my first daughter, Piper, being born in October, 1974! Breathtaking!

I remember standing and pissing in a New York club when the actor, Paul Newman, came in and stood beside me. Wow! So, I asked him, “Mr. Newman, how many eggs did you actually eat in “Cool Hand Luke”? He replied, “Not one!” Now that’s music!

I remember the baritone saxophonist, Pepper Adams playing “Bye, Bye Blackbird” in G flat while we played it in F. The audience never, ever, noticed anything at all!

I remember the late, incredible, trumpeter, Woody Shaw, blowing my frigging mind when I played with him for a week in 1968. He was completely amazing! One night he said to me, “Why in the hell am I here playing with an engineering student?” So, obviously, I quit engineering immediately.

I remember starting the non-profit organization, The Arts for Health in San Diego in 1976. Together with a clinical psychologist, a movement therapist and a music therapist, a professional dance company and a group of studio musicians, we went out to all kinds of institutions making programs for all kinds of folks!

It was a real success! But The Arts for Health couldn’t survive, which was the same fate for many similar organizations at the time.

I remember walking with my French horn in a meadow at the base of Half Dome, Yosemite National Park, in the month of December in 1977. There were no people around at all! I was going to check out the sound of the horn amidst the towering summits above the valley. There was lots of tall grass from the summer so I was looking down to follow my footsteps. Then, I looked up. It was close to sunset, and I had walked right up to a group of about 12 of wild deer. They were startled and froze, checking me out.

I froze too! Then a voice said, “You came to play the horn”. “Yeah”, I thought. Ever so slowly I got the horn out and up to my lips and played a concert C, as beautifully as I possibly could. Then I played the C again and slurred up to a G. THE DEER LAID DOWN! Man, the tears flooded down my face! I continued, as beautifully as possible. The deer just laid there for a minute or so and then one got up, then they all got up and went their way. That’s probably my most fantastic experience of music and life next to the births of my two daughters!

I remember daughter number two being born in Frederiksberg Hospital in March, 1985. Lil came into the world with Strauss, incense and a very strong mama! No pain killers at all! Breathtaking!

I remember conducting my composition, “Nordic Tones for 9000 Nordic Fingers”! Yep! 900 musicians from the 8 Nordic lands in Kolding around 1994. That was a party!

I remember hanging out with Thorkild Bjørnvig around a composition he composed the text for and I composed the music. The piece is named “Gaia”. Thorkild was a fantastic fellow!

I remember hanging out quite often with Eigil Knuth, the Grønlands explorer, sculptor and musician. What a fantastic fellow! Eigil found my mother’s name, Ruth Neergaard, in the Adels Årbog, 1946, Amerikanske Gren! Yep, my mom was Danish nobility! She had no idea! Eigil took me to a restaurant at the harbor in Copenhagen where he and Karen Blixen had said goodbye when he left for his first tour to Greenland. As we were leaving, the staff of the restaurant came out and blew conch shells in his honor! That’s music!

Oh yeah, I remember the spirits in Carnegie Hall! It’s full of them! They are very supportive, too!
There’s no difference, separation or escape from music and life, life and music!
Thank you dear Lord!

Se komplet værkliste på komponistens hjemmeside: https://www.butchlacy.com/list-of-works

Butch Lacy solo – but not alone, STUCD 02102
 
Som pianist:
Lee Konitz, “Leewise”, Storyville, STCD 4181
Chet Baker, ”When Sunny Gets Blue”, Steeple Chase, SCCD 31221
Gary Bartz, “Monsoon”, Steeple Chase, SCCD 31234
Red Rodney, “Red Gaint”, Steeple Chase, SCCD 31233
Bob Rockwell Quartet, “No Rush”, Steeple Chase, SCCD 31219
Bob Rockwell Quartet, “On the Natch”, Steeple Chase, SCCD31229
Putte Wickman, “Wickman in Wonderland”, EMI
Putte Wickman, “In Silhouette”, Phont
Putte Wickman, “Four Leaf Clover”, 1985
Art Pepper, “ The 1975 Garden State Jam Sessions”, Lone Hill Jazz, LHJ 10205
Bo Jacobsen, “Free Spirit”, Embla Music & Experience, EME, 1301
Suzanne Brøgger, “Sløret to suiter”, Exlibris Musik, EXL 30131
 
Kompositioner for big band:
Kluver’s Big Band, “Jasmine-Plays Butch Lacy”, Right Tone, Rightcd, 015
Budapest Jazz Orchestra, “A Noiseful Joy-Butch Lacy & Budapest Jazz Orchestra”, BJO Records
 
Kompositioner for solister og ensembler:
Mad Cows Sing, “Mad Cows Sing”, STUCD 19817
Duo Concertante, “Jørgen Jersild / Herman D. Koppel / Butch Lacy /  Palle Mikkelborg / Vagn Holmboe”, EMI, 7496792
Jens Juul . Horn, “In the Forest”, Classico, CLASSCD, 320
 
Kompositioner for kor:
Schola Cantorum Coralina La Habana, Cuba, “The 8th World Symposium on Choral Music, Copenhagen, Thursday, 24.7.2008 Opera House”, DR.P2/AVA, LC00027
(on this CD, my piece, “Wo-de-o” is listed as #7 but it is actually, #6 ! )
 
Arrangementer for solister og orkester, big band, horn, strygere eller kor:
Sinne Eeg, “The Beauty of Sadness”, for orchestra, (RUO), SINNE Music, SINNE,003
Poul Dissing, “Svantes lykkelige dag”, DR Big Band, Dansk Stereo, COPECD 115
Etta Cameron, ”Have a Little Faith in Me”, Lady be Good, DR Big Band
Caroline Henderson, “Made in Europe”, orchestra arrangements, Stunt Records
Caroline Henderson, “ 8 “, horn arrangements, Stunt Records
Caroline Henderson, “Keeper of the Flame”, choir and horn arrangements, Stunt Records
Caroline Henderson, “ Jazz, Love and Henderson”, horn and string arrangements, Stunt Records