Igor Butman

“I love Igor Butman’s playing and I love him person- ally. He has a great feeling for the music and for people and he’s a phenomenal musician.”

Wynton Marsalis

An Olympic Ambassador and a top advocate of Russian art in the world, Butman leads the Moscow Jazz Orchestra and the Igor Butman Quintet. Their intensive schedule includes frequent US tours and performances at the biggest international jazz festivals all over the world.

Igor Butman released more than 10 albums both as a leader and co-leader, including “Magic Land” (Sony Classical) with Chick Corea, Jack DeJohnette, John Patitucci, Stefon Harris and Randy Brecker, which went gold in Russia and became a bestseller in the USA and Germany. In 2016, Criss Cross Jazz released a brand new album “Reflections” by Igor Butman-Conrad Herwig Sextet featuring Alex Sipiagin, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Dave Kikoski and Kenny Davis.

As a producer, Igor runs eleven high-scale international jazz festivals — including Triumph of Jazz in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Aquajazz / Sochi Jazz Festival in Sochi, and World Jazz Festival in Riga, Latvia, which is held annually since July, 2014. The saxophonist owns Igor Butman Jazz Club in Moscow, which in the last ten years is included annually in the top 150 best jazz clubs of the world by Downbeat magazine. In 2013, Igor Butman and Wynton Marsalis received The American-Russian Cultural Cooperation Foundation’s (ARCCF) Award Wynton Marsalis in recognition of their distinguished contributions to American-Russian cultural relations. In 2016, Igor Butman was elected the President of the Author’s Council at the Russian Authors’ Society (Russian equivalent of ASCAP, SACEM or GEMA).