IGOR BUTMAN
Igor Butman, saxophone virtuoso and bandleader, is Russia’s number one jazz personality today. Born in 1961 in Leningrad (now st.petersburg), Igor Butman started playing the clarinet at the age of 11. In 1976 he entered the Rimsky-korsakov College of Music, where during his second year he dropped the classical clarinet for the jazz saxophone.
In the mid-eighties Igor started playing in renowned soviet jazz bands: Oleg Lundstrem’s Big Band, and “Allegro”, and soon after that got wide recognition in the UssR. Igor became known as the best tenor saxophon-ist, placing first in the soviet Critics’ polls and recording some albums for “Melodiya” label.
After Igor Butman immigrated to the UsA in 1987, he went on to major in performance and Composition at Berklee College of Music. While he was still in the UssR, Igor was in-vited to tour with Dave Brubeck, Chick Corea, pat Metheny, Gary Burton, Louis Bellson, and Grover Washington Jr. so, by the time Igor arrived in the United states he al-ready had friends among the Us’
most respected Jazz artists.
Being a student at Berklee he led his own group with Rachel Z. at Boston’s “The Regattabar”, and was a featured soloist with Billy Taylor Quartet, Walter Davis Jr. Quartet and Monty Alexander Quintet. Having graduated from Berklee Butman moved to New York, and started working with Lionel Hampton Orchestra and Michael Moriarty’s Quintet.
In 1993, Butman’s first solo album “Falling Out” with mostly his own compositions was released. The album featured no less than eddie Gomez on bass, Lyle Mays on piano, Marvin “smitty” smith on drums, and ceived good reviews in the most re-spectable jazz magazines.
In 1994, Igor Butman recorded the album called “equinost“ (Intersound) with “partners in Time”, joined by Igor’s professor Gary Burton, and moved back to Russia, where he set up his own quartet. During the follow-ing years he became “a jazz bridge between Moscow and New York”, tour-ing throughout Russia with eddie Gomez, Lenny White, John Abercrombie and other musicians.
Next Igor’s solo album “Nostal-gie” was recorded at RpM studio in New York and released in Russia in 1997. Ira Gitler commented on the album: “Butman showed the fire and depth of his world-class impro-visational talent”. Butman’s video clip “Nostalgie” reached the second place on the Canadian TV channel Bravo!Canada.
In 1998, а great trumpet player Wyn-ton Marsalis invited Butman to be a guest soloist with Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. Next year Igor got together his renowned Igor Butman Big Band involving best jazz musi-cians from all over Russia and soon after that invited Marsalis in return to play with his band. In september, 2003 Jazz at Lincoln Center opened its 2003-04 season with a special collaboration between Lincoln Cen-ter Jazz Orchestra and Igor Butman Big Band.
Butman’s marvelous combination of soul, sound and technique was highly praise by the former Ameri-can president Bill Clinton, one time tenor man, at a state dinner host-ed by the head of Russian Fhost-edera- Federa-tion Vladimir putin at the Moscow kremlin. Clinton stated that Igor Butman is “may be the greatest liv-ing jazz saxophone player, who hap-pens to be a Russian.”
One of the Butman’s accomplishments as a producer is “The Triumph of Jazz”, a tremendous festival which takes place annually in the biggest con-cert halls of Russia. every time the great program thrills audiences with the participants of the fest, among them: TAke 6, elvin Jones, Gary Bur-ton, Gino Vanelli, Toots Thielemans, Larry Corryell, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Joey DeFrancesco etc.
In June 2003 Igor’s solo album “prophecy” was released by Universal Music Russia. The album’s presentation took place at Birdland jazz club in New York. “prophecy” received an enthusiastic welcome by both Russian and Us press. In 2003-04, Igor Butman performed as a special guest with Ray Charles, George Benson and Al Jarreau bands.
In 2006 Igor Butman started recording his album “Magic Land” based on music from soviet cartoons and movies featuring Chick Corea on piano, John patitucci on bass, Randy Brecker on trumpet, stefon Harris on vibraphone, and Jack DeJohnette on drums. Released interna-tionally in December 2007 by sony BMG, “Magic Land” not only became a gold record (!) in Russia, it became the best selling album of Russian jazz ever! Jazz press reacted accordingly: for intance, Downbeat magazine gave 4 1/2 stars to the album!
In June 2009 Igor launched his own label called Butman Music. The company has already released six albums, including “Moscow@3am” by Igor Butman Big Band (feat. Wynton Mar-salis) and “The shadow of Your smile” by “Russian Chris Botti”, trumpeter Vadim eilenkrig (feat. Hiram Bullock, Dave Garfield, Chris parker, Will Lee and Randy Brecker). Igor’s latest album “Igor Butman & friends” feat. Michael Brecker, Bill evans, kevin Mahogany and Carla Cook is due to come in 2011!
The best jazz orchestra of Russia. A ten and a half splendid jazz musicians. It’s all about Igor Butman Big Band, which was founded 10 years ago by a renowned saxophone player Igor Butman and arranger Vitaly Dolgov. since 1999 Big Band has frequently toured Russia, europe, and the UsA, appear-ing at the world’s most prestigious jazz venues, includappear-ing Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, “Birdland” and others.
A special collaboration between Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra led by Wyn-ton Marsalis and Igor Butman Big Band which opened 2003-04 season at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York in september 2003 caused a sensation in the whole jazz world! New music by both bandleaders and arrangements of Russian folk songs concerts were premiered by two big bands. The New York Times called the performance of Igor Butman Big Band “a show of great competence and fluency.”
The first Big Band’s album “eternal Triangle” featuring Randy Brecker was recorded in Mos-cow in August 2003 and engineered by the best American jazz sound engineer James Farber in November 2003 in New York. “eternal Triangle” set a very high level of performance and quality of sound for all Russian jazz. The proof for this is that many Us jazz radio stations rotated the music from “eternal Triangle” even before the album was released!
Internationally renowned jazzmen were excited by performing with Igor Butman Big Band, among them are Dee Dee Bridgewater, “New York Voices”,
kevin Mahogany, George Benson, Gino Vanelli, Wynton Marsalis, Larry Cor-ryell, Billy Cobham, Bill evans. Joe Lovano, Gary Burton, Toots Thielemans.
Igor Butman Big Band and a famous Russian pop star Larisa Dolina (pictured above) created a jazz extravaganza “Carnival of Jazz”, and toured Russia, Ukraine, Israel and the UsA with this program. In 2003 a double album “Carnival of Jazz” recorded live at “Rossiya” concert hall was released. The premiere of a new program “Carnival of Jazz 2. No comments” was held in July, 2008 at Jazz at Lincoln Center within JVC jazz festival and caused a stir among jazz lovers: Rose Theatre hardly seated all comers!
Igor Butman, the leader of the Big Band, enjoys pushing the boundaries of jazz mainstream and create crossover projects. Big Band often performs with American pianist and composer Igor Raykhelson, “Grammy” winning altoist Yuri Bashmet and his chamber ensemble “Mos-cow soloists”. A big Us tour with these remarkable musicians took place in the most cele-brated venues of the country (including seattle symphony Hall, Wilshire Theatre, severance Hall, strathmore Hall, Boston symphony Orchestra Hall etc.) in February and March 2009 and gathered non less than 20000 listeners!
In June 2009 Igor Butman Big Band’s second album “Moscow@3am” was released by a new jazz label Butman Music! On this CD the Band featuring a very special guest Wynton Marsalis plays music by an outstanding composer and pianist Nick Levinovsky! some tracks from the CD are already played by WBGO!
In 2011 Butman Music will release IBBB’s brand new live album “The Tales of sheherezade” featuring sean Jones, peter Bernstein, James Burton and kathy Jenkins.
Igor Butman now Russia’s top jazz personality is not only the leader of the Igor Butman Big Band. He also leads the Igor Butman Quar-tet, unity of four Russia’s topmost jazz soloists. Working together since 1999, the band has evolved into Russia’s best touring hardcore jazz unit.
The rhythm section is the strongest in Russian straight-ahead jazz, and consists of pianist Anton Baronin, double bass player Vitaly sol-omonov and drummer edward Zizak.
At the time when edward Zizak joined Igor, he was already an ex-perienced and reliable player who has worked for one of the Russia’s most popular big bands, the Mks Big Band led by Anatoly kroll. The work for the Igor Butman Quartet allowed Zizak to find new expres-sive means and make new steps in jazz drumming mastery.
During the 1990s, Vitaly solomonov gained a strong reputation in Russian jazz community as the most reliable and versatile acoustic bass player. He started working with Igor Butman in the mid-90s.
The pianist, Anton Baronin, joined the quartet in 2000. He inherits the famed Russian school of classical piano (Moscow Tchaikovsky
Igor Butman Quartet
Conservatory) which he combines with great improvisational skills and fine abilities for interaction inside the band.
In 2000, Igor Butman Quartet performed at the Moscow kremlin in front of the U.s. president Bill Clinton and Russian president Vladi-mir putin.
since 1999 the quartet has performed at the festivals in Germany, Italy, France, Bulgaria and Turkey, and toured Israel, Belgium and Finland, as well as the U.s.A.
Igor Butman Quartet also toured Russia and other countries with such special guest soloists as Joe Locke and Randy Brecker. They also appeared at several festivals in europe as Randy Brecker Quintet.
Musicians’ and press quotes about Igor Butman
“… may be the greatest living jazz saxophone player, who happens to be a Russian.”
Bill Clinton
“Widely regarded as one of the best tenor saxophonists in the world, Igor Butman’s talent and finesse … gar-nered the respect of his peers and the adoration of countless fans.”
emily Jo Cureton, Daily News
“I love Igor Butman’s playing and I love him personally. He has a great feeling for the music and for people and he’s a phenomenal musician. Igor Butman is my main man!”
Wynton Marsalis
“The most celebrated jazzman of the former UssR, Mr. Butman is gener-ally regarded as the Russian Wynton Marsalis.”
Will Friedwald, The New York sun
“Igor is amazing, he is fantastic!” Chick Corea
“Butman is an amazing saxophonist... There’s a sense he can play anything with secure pitch, rhythmic ingenuity and that extra gear in re-serve, but the sense of joy in his sound wins...” By Michael Jackson, Downbeat
“…Butman is a forceful and inventive player…”
Jack Bowers, www.allaboutjazz.com “Butman plays the tenor saxophone with a fiery spirit. He emblazons a trail that burns, pushes boundaries and moulds shape with each note.” Jerry D’souza, www.allaboutjazz.com
“I like Igor’s tone, sound, energy… Igor plays very strong and very beautiful. I like the way he plays ballads – very beautiful sound and feelings.” Jack DeJohnette
“Mr. Butman is a steamroller of a saxophonist, with a broad tone and a hard-charging rhythmic instinct.” Nate Chinen, The New York Times. “He is an adaptable, highly skilled practitioner… As an improviser, Mr. Butman is as much of a crowd-pleaser as Mr. Marsalis…”
Ben Ratliff, The New York Times “First impressions are of a youthful enthusiast, but scratch the surface, and there is a steely professionalism in the execution…”
Mike Hobart, Financial Times
“I haven’t met Igor before that recording and I feel very natural like we’ve been on road. He has got an intensity and he is a very powerful player as well.” John patitucci
“… the highly regarded leader of the Russian straight-ahead style…” Larry Appelbaum, JazzTimes
“A post bop performer with great stage presence, horn control and emotion... there is a deep resonance to his up tempo playing and a mature softness to his balladry.”