As part of its rich, unique culture, New Orleans has probably produced more great homegrown pianists than any other American city. Henry Butler, who played two scintillating sets at the Dakota jazz club Sunday night, is one of them.

Butler, 56, combines the classical and jazz elements he absorbed at Louisiana School for the Blind and Southern University with the gospel, blues and R&B sounds he heard growing up in New Orleans. He totes a seemingly bottomless bag of devices, mixing and matching rhythms and melodies with abandon.

In keeping with the solo-piano tradition of his hometown, Butler deals steady, bass-line thunder with his left hand while spinning out dizzyingly ornate arpeggios and glissandos with his right. Few if any pianists can cover so much genre-blending stylistic turf in just one set of tunes as Butler did Sunday night.

Butler is no purist; his recent CDs have included various electronic keyboard sounds and some rock guitar here and there. Alt-rock star Dave Pirner, leader of the Minneapolis band Soul Asylum, produced a few tracks on Butler's most recent CD. But, on Sunday night, it was a treat to hear Butler solo at the grand piano, which, in his hands, becomes an orchestra.

Butler opened the set by reaching way back in time, revisiting composer Scott Joplin's seminal ragtime piece "The Entertainer," and then W.C. Handy's "St. Louis Blues." Butler drastically reworked the latter, teasing the audience with bits of the familiar melody broken up by the kind of complicated fretboard runs favored by modern jazz pianists.

Seamlessly mixing funk and filigree, Butler is a master at making it up as he goes along; if he ever plays a piece the same way twice, those occasions must be few and far between.

One of Butler's most intriguing makeovers was his rendition of Professor Longhair's bouncy "Baby, Let Me Hold Your Hand," redone as a minor-key lament, with some vocal moans from Butler.

He also honored another great New Orleans pianist/songwriter, Allen Toussaint," turning Toussaint's three-minute pop/R & B hit "Workin' In A Coal Mine" into an extended jazz vehicle.

Butler showed his European classical influences with two original compositions based on Eastern European melodies, "Improvisations on an Afghanistan Theme," and, later, "Improvisations on a Bulgarian Theme."

Then it was back to New Orleans again, with an elaborate transformation of Longhair's signature tune from the 1950s, "Tipitina."

After losing his home to Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters, Butler lives in Colorado for the time being. But he can still transport an audience to the heart of the Crescent City faster than a nonstop 747.