A gift for music comforted Mike Butera’s hazardous childhood; when his musical career turned dangerous, the gift of faith was his salvation.

Butera is a household name in Californian jazz. Barely out of his teens, the saxophonist toured with Harry James and was featured in recordings with superstars. He is now an ordained pastor at Calvary Chapel in East Sacramento. His flock ranges from professionals to paupers. For many of them, the road to Calvary has been rugged. No less so for gravel-voiced Pastor Mike.

“Don’t call me reverend,” said the 62-year-old. “I don’t need to be revered; I’m just a sinner who was saved by grace.” One of few ministering “jazzers” of his acquaintance, Butera still plays professionally. “I know an upright bass player who’s a pastor,” he considers. “There aren’t too many of us.

“To me, jazz is a perfect vehicle for my faith. It’s like jazz God’s vastness. It’s universal and it encompasses all kinds of music. No one will ever get to the end of it. You have infinite expression but there are principles. Like walking with God, once you apply rules, you have freedom and fun.” Butero’s Dec. 20th service will illustrate his theory. The pastor will present original jazz interpretations of Biblical Psalms during pre-Christmas worship.

The virtuoso’s youth was discordant. “I had a rough, rebellious childhood; my solace was being gifted at music,” he said. “I turned pro at 15. I joined a rock band that was heavily into drugs and alcohol.” Still at McClatchy High School, he embraced the music culture at its most destructive. “Most days began with a bottle of wine and pills before classes,” he said. “It was the only way I could talk to girls.”

At college, with a music scholarship, he gigged at jazz bars. His first pro-recording was with Dave Kahne (now producer for Paul McCartney and Tony Bennett). Butera toured with the likes of John Denver, Donna Summer, and Lou Rawls. “The culture included alcohol and pot smoking,” he recalled. “Every night, it was back to some guy’s room to drink and get high. I nearly died one night: I found myself on the floor with a drug frenzied guy’s gun to my neck. After that, I began to search for wholeness. I believed there was a ‘God’ but I didn’t know who he was.”

Big band legend Harry James discovered the prodigal prodigy. At 22, Butera became the youngest player in James’ stellar ensemble. “After a few years touring as a hot shot in the best band (with associated booze and excess) my life seemed empty,” he said. “I was married and raising my wife Julie’s two children as my own but we were fighting like cats and dogs. Success didn’t fill what was missing in me. I wondered if God would tell me what to do.

“I took a Gideon Bible from a New York hotel and sneaked looks on the tour bus. I was skeptical. For five months, I searched its pages. I found more than 300 prophecies that were fulfilled by the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus. That was enough to show me the words were from God.” Hal Lindsey’s bestseller “The late, Great Planet Earth” sealed Butera’s faith.

“I learned God loved me right where I was at,” he explained. “With all my faults and failures, heaven was given to me. I got on my knees and received Jesus. I woke up next day and felt different. I guess I was born again. I left Harry James and came home. I quit drinking. My wife and I began to learn what marriage was all about.”

Butera joined Sacramento’s Moon recording studio as producer/arranger. “One day I hired a Christian background singer who told me to go to church,” he said. “But my experiences of church seemed so phony; what I felt was so real. She introduced me to Calvary Chapel in Oak Park. I was embraced the door by a tattooed guy, just out of prison. There were 25 people in the funky little church. They gave us blankets for the cold. The Pastor, John Cowan, was in Levis. He read from the Bible and explained it, simply. I knew I was home. My wife and children loved it.”

Though the church hosted a band, Butera stayed in the pews. “I needed to learn,” he explained. “Worship is not a performance, its participation. The audience is God. I served by setting up the PA and cleaning restrooms. On gigs I kept my Bible on my music stand. One night at the top of the Holiday Inn, a guy talked to me. He knew I was expressing love of God through music. He asked if he could receive Jesus. Later I learned he’d intended to commit suicide that night. I was experiencing ministry.”

Muso buddies dubbed him: “The Preacher.”

“I have a big burden for musicians,” he confided. “They are family and to me, some are lost. Many artists can’t accept traditional belief. Some feel Christians are stupid automatons. I have to live with that. It’s taken years of consistency to show I’m for real.”

At a 1980 concert in Land Park, “The Preacher” met Pastor Leo Govinetti. “He was on boogie woogie piano, singing Christian lyrics,” said Butera. “I sat in with my horn and we smoked. We began 23 years of musical evangelism, calling ourselves The Agape [God’s love] Brothers. We were on T.V. We played all over USA. We worked for free or for whatever anyone could pay.”

Govinetti was pastor at Gridley’s Calvary Chapel. At the time Calvary Chapels—which began as 1970s ministries for hippies and surfers—were a new Christian movement. There are now 2000 congregations in the world. Govinetti beheld believers meeting for Bible study at Butera’s house and decreed: “Mike, you were meant to be a pastor.”

Novice Butera studied five years under Calvary founder Pastor Chuck Smith. Ordained in 1990, the new pastor gathered his flock in a Land Park bowling alley. Now almost 200 strong, they occupy Folsom Boulevard digs. Church outreach includes Ugandan and Rwandan orphanages; water purification for Columbian natives; and aid for the local homeless. “I’ve followed the road of hard knocks,” their leader summarized. “You learn by experience, and from just lovin’ on people.” Jazz is never far from his altar. The church hosted monthly big band concerts in 2015 and will continue with 2016 jazz events.

“I feel an inward energy when I pick up the horn,” explains Pastor Mike. “I am worshipping with all my heart; trying to express every phrase perfectly because God is hearing. I’m giving back what I have received: love.”

Learn about Pastor Mike Butera’s River City Calvary Chapel (7322 Folsom Boulevard) at www.rivercitycc.com. His music can be heard at www.jazzmondays.com.