Butman Igor Mikhailovich biography. Igor Butman

Igor Butman's eldest son, 22-year-old Daniil, got married. The wedding ceremony took place in a church in Oxford. Daniel's chosen one was a girl named Valeria.

Igor Butman does not talk much about his children, sons Daniil and Mark. About the eldest, Daniil, for example, all that is known is that the young man lives in the UK and studies at Oxford at the Faculty of Chemistry.

Daniil Butman with his fiancee Valeria

Wedding of the eldest son of Daniel and Valeria! Only students of the University of Oxford have the privilege of celebrating a wedding within the walls of their alma mater. The wedding of his son and his wife takes place entirely on the territory of Exeter College, from which he practically graduated. The wedding and painting took place in the temple on the college grounds, and the gala dinner took place in the student dining room, -

Oksana signed the photo.

Daniil and Valeria on their wedding day

Newlyweds with parents: on the left - Igor and Oksana (dress, Victoria Andreyanova) Butman

The children organized the wedding themselves; we, the parents, did not take part in it at all. The youngest son Mark made gifts from Lego for the newlyweds - a calendar with the wedding date of June 30 and a wedding set. Since he had to take out the rings, he suggested putting Lego rings in the box as well. Knowing that the British have a wonderful sense of humor, I agreed. For his wedding jewelry, the son chose a ring made of tungsten, which is used in incandescent filaments in lighting fixtures. What a true chemist! - said Oksana Butman.

Childhood and family of Igor Butman

He also graduated from Berklee College of Music, located in Boston, qualifying as a composer and saxophonist.

The first groups of Igor Butman

In those years, jazz was not welcomed by Russians. official authorities. Once, after a brilliant performance, the American actress Pearl Bailey kissed him in delight, Butman was invited “on the carpet” to the KGB, as a person who had lost his Komsomol honor. But, according to the unspoken assessment of music critics, already in 1985 Butman was considered the best musician in Russia in the jazz mainstream.

He performed as a guest soloist in orchestras, organized tours, invited leading American performers to Russia - New York vibraphonist Joe Locke, pianist and successful solo artist Joe Calderazzo, incomparable bassist Eddie Gomez (the result was the Jazz 4x4 CD with Butman and Andrey Kondakov, Falling Out together with Butman).

In 1993 he began releasing his albums. In 1997-1998 organized independent jazz festivals in the capital. Prepared and performed “Duet for voice and saxophone. Joseph Brodsky" with Mikhail Kozakov. In 1998 he created the Four Brothers group, which included his brother Oleg and brothers Mikhail and Andrey Ivanov, and in 1999 - his own Big Band.

World fame of jazzman - Butman

Hosted television programs Good Morning America, Jazzophrenia, The Today Show. Repeatedly received the annual professional award of the association of journalists of the capital "Jazz" Ear. In 2000 he played for the leaders of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and the USA Bill Clinton, in 2002 - for the Chairman of the People's Republic of China Jiang Zemin. He wrote and performed a musical composition for the play with Big Ben "We play Strindberg blues."

In 2003, as recognition from the American public, Butman's band was invited and performed with a jazz orchestra led by Marsalis, receiving high praise in the press. In 2005, he was awarded the title “Person of the Year – 5765” by the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia.

In 2006, at the invitation of Ilya Averbukh, he participated in the television project “Stars on Ice” together with Maria Petrova. In 2009 - in “Ice Age” with the Bulgarian figure skater Albena Denkova. Since 2012, Igor Butman has headed the Moscow Jazz Orchestra. He also leads the quartet, which is the rhythm section of the Big Band. The members of the quartet are pianist, jazzman and composer Nikolai Levinovsky, double bassist and one of the most sought-after accompanists Vitaly Solomonov, and versatile percussionist Edaurd Zizak.

Family and personal hobbies of Igor Butman

Butman's first wife, Eileen, is American. They also met at one of Igor’s concert performances in 1980. The girl at that time was a student and studied Russian in St. Petersburg. From this marriage Butman has a son, Mark.

Igor loves to play hockey with friends - this game comes second in his list of passions, of course, after jazz. At one time he was a member of the youth team of the SKA Leningrad hockey club. He also likes tennis and football. In interviews he has repeatedly admitted that he considers himself to be a true lover of Japanese, Thai and Chinese cuisine. He prefers to spend his holidays in Italy. At home he mostly does nothing - watches TV, sleeps and eats. And he is not interested in and is not keen on matters from the men’s category. He jokes that he doesn’t drive nails - he’s just sure that he’ll have to break them later.

Since 2008, the successful musician has been a member of the United Russia political party. He wants to benefit his native country. In 2012, he was a proxy approved by the Central Election Commission of Vladimir Putin as a candidate for the presidency of the Russian Federation. In 2014, he signed the Appeal of cultural figures of the Russian Federation in support of Vladimir Putin’s policies on Ukraine and Crimea. He is involved in charity work, organizes festivals, and is always open to cooperation and new ideas.

Igor Butman was born on October 27, 1961 in Leningrad. The current unusually prolific composer and saxophonist developed an interest in music at a young age. The first instrument he mastered was the piano, although his interest was initially focused on drums. When the boy was 11 years old, his teacher at a music school recommended that he start learning to play the clarinet. This hobby did not last long and was replaced by a passion for the alto saxophone, which taught him.

Towards the beginning of the eighties, Igor Butman became a member of the band of multi-instrumentalist David Goloshchekin. Later he played in Oleg Lundstrem's orchestra until he joined Nikolai Levinovsky's Allegro ensemble. During this period, Butman played the tenor saxophone, and this became a defining moment for his subsequent career as a musician. Other well-known groups with which the saxophonist collaborated were “Pop Mechanics” by Sergei Kuryokhin, the groups “Kino” and “Aquarium”.

In the years when Butman was just beginning to collaborate with foreign musicians, he independently mastered English language. Having overcome the language barrier, he was able to communicate with American performers. One of his first collaborations was with vibraphonist Gary Burton, with whom he performed during his joint tour with Chick Corea in 1982.

Then Burton tried to help the young saxophonist get a grant to study at Berklee School Of Music. Despite the fact that at that moment it turned out to be impossible, Butman’s personal aspirations were enough to begin his own path at a prestigious music school in 1987. The talented performer studied with Billy Pierce, Andrew McGee and Joe Viola. He also led his own band and played in Rebecca Parris's band.

Find out what, besides jazz, Igor Butman is interested in -

After receiving a degree from Berkeley as a concert saxophonist and composer, Igor Mikhailovich Butman went to New York. There he played with Billy Taylor and Grover Washington. In 1988, the album Then and Now was released, which included Butman's composition French Connection, written by him in academic years. During his stay overseas, the saxophonist collaborated with pianist Dave Brubeck, vibraphonist Lionel Hampton and guitarist Pat Metheny. During the same period, he formed a band to tour his native country. It included John Abercrombie, Cindy Blackman, Joe Locke and Adam Nussbaum.

In 1998, Igor Butman became a co-owner of Le Club, a popular Moscow jazz club, where he played with his own band. Throughout the '90s, he frequently appeared at numerous jazz festivals in the United States and Canada. He played at a reception organized in honor of the arrival of American President Bill Clinton and his official meeting with Vladimir Putin.

That same year, Butman played with the orchestra at the Jazz Lincoln Center in Washington. Later, Marsalis came with a concert at Le Club. And in 2002, the saxophonist became the founder of a landmark event in the world of Russian jazz music - the first Triumph of Jazz festival in Moscow.

Igor Mikhailovich Butman is a universal musician who feels comfortable in different genres. Thus, he has many concerts and recordings with the Yuri Bashmet Orchestra. The saxophonist's strong internal energy is positively reflected in all his projects. As a gifted improviser, performer and artistic director of several festivals, Butman has great merit in establishing and strengthening international cultural ties between countries and continents.

Photo from the artist’s official website

People's Artist of the Russian Federation (10/28/2011).

Igor Butman has heard the word “jazz,” like the names of the great jazzmen Ben Goodman, Charlie Parker, and Gennady Goldstein, since childhood. Mikhail Solomonovich was always a very musical person: he played the piano and drums, sang, and participated in amateur performances. He was friends with the composer Boris Potemkin, the author of the popular hit “Our neighbor plays the clarinet and trumpet” and, by the way, was the first performer of this song. Mikhail Solomonovich could connect his fate with the stage: he was invited to the Raikin Theater, but he did not dare to change his profession.

Igor Butman’s maternal grandfather was a professional musician in the family. He served as a violinist in the Mariinsky Theater orchestra, then was the regent of the church choir.

At the age of 11, Igor Butman began playing the clarinet at a children's music school. In 1976, he entered the Mussorgsky Music School to study saxophone with the wonderful musician and brilliant teacher Gennady Golshtein. While still a student, Butman began playing in David Goloshchekin's ensemble, took part in concerts and recordings of Sergei Kuryokhin's Popular Mechanics, as well as the groups Kino and Aquarium.

Igor Butman received his first recognition from jazz critics in 1981, when he was named “Discovery of the Year” in the newspaper “Soviet Youth”. For the next two years, he worked in a jazz orchestra led by Oleg Lundstrem - the best big band in the USSR.

In 1984, the musician changed his alto saxophone to tenor and was invited by Nikolai Levinovsky to the Allegro ensemble, in which he played until his departure to the USA in 1987. By that time, he was already considered the best tenor saxophonist in the country, combining perfect mastery of modern expressive means jazz and a rare sense of melody. The lyrics of Butman's tenor are a soft romantic ballad, when it seems that you are no longer hearing a saxophone, but an excited human voice. It was the ballad quality and cantilena “vocality” of his instrument that attracted the attention of leading jazz critics. According to their polls, it ranked first in the charts.

When Igor Butman arrived in the USA at the age of 26, he switched to tenor saxophone. He already had his own fan club, formed from the most famous and respected American jazzmen. Even before leaving for America, he took part in the touring programs of famous American musicians: Dave Brubeck, Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Gary Burton, Louis Bellson, Grover Washington...

In September 1987, Igor Butman entered the leading jazz music school educational institution USA - The Berklee College of Music (Boston), from which he graduated with two majors: concert saxophonist and composer (with a bachelor's degree in music). Grover Washington liked the composition "French Connection", which he wrote while studying, and he included it on his album "Then & Now" (Colombia, 1987). Igor Butman participated in the recording of this album, and later performed with Grover Washington's ensemble at many jazz festivals (Chautauqua in New York, The Berklee Center in Boston, Great Woods Center in Mansfield in Massachusetts and others), as well as in the most prestigious jazz festivals. New York club "Blue Note".

At the De Cordova festival, Igor Butman played as part of the Dave Brubeck Quartet. The Boston Globe wrote at the time: "The high point of the concert came when Brubeck invited a young Russian saxophonist to the stage. Butman's beautiful, flowing tenor added a new dimension to the classic 'Turkish Rondo in Blue.'

Soon Igor Butman was invited to join his quintet by the famous actor and musician Michael Moriarty. The result of this collaboration was the release of the album "Live at Fat Tuesday" on DRG Records (1992).

Igor Butman's career in the United States developed rapidly. He became one of the few who managed to establish himself in the USA as an independent musician. Igor Butman performed with his group at the leading jazz club in Boston, played with Pat Metheny, Joe Lovano, Archie Shepp, Rachel Zee, and also as a special guest soloist with the Billy Taylor Quartet, Walter Davis Quartet and the Monty Alexander Quintet. The musician took part in the television programs "The Today Show" CBS, "Good Morning America" ​​ABC.

In 1989, Igor Butman moved to New York. In 1993-1994 he toured with the jazz orchestra of the famous vibraphonist Lionel Hampton. In 1993, the New York company Impromptu released Igor Butman's solo album "Falling Out" with the participation of pianist Lyle Mays, double bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Marvin "Smitty" Smith.

During the 8 years of his life in the USA, Igor Butman became one of the elite of American jazz performers. A rare combination of enormous musical talent and amazing energy allowed him to become a real “international star”.

In 1992, the musician performed for the first time after his departure to the USA in Moscow at an international jazz festival. English company B&W released a CD of this performance. In November 1994, concerts were held at the Moscow Variety Theater by Igor Butman and the American musicians he invited: Eddie Gomez, Joe Locke, Cindy Blackman, Andrew Ezrin. And in May of the following year, Igor Butman was honored to speak in the Faceted Chamber of the Kremlin in front of the presidents of two powers - the USA and Russia - Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin.

In 1996, in New York, Igor Butman produced and participated in the recording of the album “Blues for Four” by St. Petersburg pianist Andrei Kondakov with the participation of double bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Lenny White. In April of the following year, this quartet toured the cities of Russia, which resulted in the release of the album “Jazz for Four” by the Soyuz company. This was followed by the release of Igor Butman’s new solo album “Nostalgia” (1997), recorded at RPM Studio in New York and released by Soyuz, which immediately became the leader among sales of jazz CDs.

In 1997-1998, Igor Butman was the producer and organizer of Independent Jazz Festivals in Moscow, in which Russian and American musicians took part.

At the end of 1997, the musician invited the world jazz star - guitarist John Abercrombie, pianist Andy Laverne, bassist Steve La Spina, and drummer Dani Gottlieb - to his tour of the cities of Russia, Georgia and Kazakhstan. “Igor Butman single-handedly managed to do what neither the old creative unions nor the new associations and jazz clubs were capable of,” wrote the Kommersant-Daily newspaper. “Namely: to establish a regular creative exchange between Moscow and New York jazz circles ". Thanks to Igor Butman, performances in Russia by Washington-based singer Sunny Sumter, the group of the legendary trumpeter Randy Brecker, the quartet of saxophonist Greg Abbate, guitarist Paul Bollenback, double bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen and his ensemble and other jazz stars. The Moscow Association of Jazz Journalists named Igor Butman the winner of the Jazz'Ear Award for 1997 in the Person of the Year category.

In 1998, Boheme Music released the album "Four Brothers" with the participation of Igor Butman, his brother Oleg Butman (drums) and the winners of the International Jazz Competition in Belgium, the Ivanov brothers - Mikhail (piano) and Andrey (double bass). In the autumn of the same year, on the island of Elba (Italy), the premiere of the work “Jazz Suite for viola, saxophone, piano and orchestra” by composer Igor Raikhelson, which is a combination of classical and jazz music and written for two wonderful musicians - violist Yuri Bashmet, took place with great success and saxophonist Igor Butman, each of whom is a virtuoso of his instrument and a prominent representative of his musical genre. Igor Butman has performed repeatedly with Yuri Bashmet and his Moscow Soloists orchestra in Russia, Italy, and France. Together they made a video clip to Rachmaninov's music "Vocalise".

In March 1999, Igor Butman organized his own jazz orchestra ("Igor Butman Big Band"), in which the best musicians not only from Moscow, but also from Russia play. The arranger and conductor of the orchestra is Vitaly Dolgov. In 1999, Igor Butman was again awarded the “Jazz’Ear” prize, this time in the “Collective of the Year” nomination. Igor Butman's big band regularly performs at the Moscow jazz club "Le Club" and tours extensively throughout Russia and abroad.

In June 2000, Igor Butman was again invited to the Kremlin, where he played for Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Bill Clinton, who called the musician “the greatest living jazz saxophonist.”

In February 2002, on the stage of the Rossiya Concert Hall, Igor Butman presented a grandiose gala concert “The Triumph of Jazz” with the participation of his big band and world jazz stars Joe Lovano, Randy Brecker, Billy Cobham, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Kevin Mahogany, Gary Burton , Toots Tielemans, Elvin Jones.

In the spring of 2002, Larisa Dolina, together with Igor Butman's big band, created the concert program "Carnival of Jazz", which was sold out in Moscow at the Rossiya concert hall, as well as in cities in the USA, Israel, Latvia, Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.

Igor Butman became the first Russian jazz musician at Universal Music Russia. The presentation of the new solo album "Prophecy" ("Prophecy"), recorded in America during the tour of the Igor Butman quartet and released on Universal Music Russia, took place at the Birdland jazz clubs in New York and at Le Club in Moscow in June 2003.

The joint performances of the big band Igor Butman and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra conducted by Wynton Marsalis, which took place on September 18 and 20, 2003 at the opening of the new jazz season at Lincoln Center in New York, became an incredible sensation. For the first time in the history of Russian jazz, a concert of such a high level and scale took place. The New York Times wrote in its review that Igor Butman's big band showed "excellent competence and fluency." The first album of Igor Butman's big band, "The Eternal Triangle", which included original compositions written by Igor Butman and arranged by Vitaly Dolgov, also received high praise.

In 2003-2004, Igor Butman performed with such world stars as Ray Charles, George Benson, Al Jero.

In June 2004, Igor Butman became a laureate of the State Prize Russian Federation in the field of literature and art.

In 2005, Bill Clinton included the composition “Nostalgie” performed by Igor Butman on the CD he created, “The Bill Clinton Collection: Selections from the Clinton Music Room,” putting him on a par with legendary musicians Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Nina Simone.

At the invitation of director and actor Mikhail Kozakov, Igor Butman plays with him in the “Piece for Voice and Saxophone “Joseph Brodsky””. I. Butman wrote the music for the play “Playing Strindberg Blues,” in which he participates with his quartet.

Igor Butman is the artistic director of the jazz club "Le Club", which the American magazine "Down Beat" included among the 100 best jazz clubs in the world. On the club stage, he represented such musicians as Ray Brown, Wynton Marsalis, Kenny Garrett, Randy Brecker, Al Di Miola, Take 6 and others. Hosts the "Jazophrenia" program on the "Culture" channel.

The musician's discography, in addition to the already mentioned albums, includes the CDs "Equinost" (1994, USA), "Ballads from the Black Sea" (1993, USA), "Live in Moscow" (1993, UK) and many others.

Birthday October 27, 1961

Russian saxophonist, jazzman, art director of the famous Moscow jazz club “Igor Butman Club”

Biography

Born in 1961 in Leningrad into the family of Mikhail Solomonovich Butman and Mariula Nikolaevna Livanova. He graduated from music school and music college, faculty of pop art. At school he became interested in the saxophone and after graduation he played in the Leningrad jazz club “Kvadrat”, organized by Nathan Leites and Nathan Kopp. Two years later, the young musician was invited to work by the outstanding jazzman David Goloshchekin. In the early 1980s, Butman collaborated with Sergei Kuryokhin, participating in the recording of albums by the groups “Aquarium” and “Kino”.

Then Igor Butman moves to Moscow, where he plays in Oleg Lundstrem's orchestra. After some time he returns to Leningrad again, but not for long; a year later he gets the opportunity to live in Moscow and works in Nikolai Levinovsky’s orchestra. In 1987 he left for the USA, where he received citizenship.

Family

• Brother, Oleg Butman, plays drums.
• Mother - Mariula Nikolaevna Butman (nee Livanova; born 1939).
• Father - civil engineer Mikhail Solomonovich Butman (1937-2007).
• Son - Daniil Igorevich Butman (born 1996).