Igor Butman Quartet

World famous saxophonist, bandleader and producer Igor Butman is considered one of world’s most well known and respected jazz musicians. Butman  has released over 15 albums both as a leader and co-leader, including the “Magic Land” (Sony Classic) with Chick Corea, Jack DeJohnette, John Patitucci, Stefon Harris and Randy Brecker and “Only Now” (Butman Music) feat. Antonio Sanchez, Matt Brewer, Eddie Gomez, Evgeny Pobozhiy and Oleg Akkuratov.  Butman, a firm proponent of cross-border and cross genre-collaboration, has performed with a long roster of jazz greats including Dave Brubeck, Chick Corea, Lionel Hampton, Grover Washington Jr and Wynton Marsalis, among others.

Igor produces 12 high-scale international jazz festivals in Russia and owns Igor Butman Jazz Clubs in Moscow and St Petersburg. In 2018, Butman served as co-artistic director with Herbie Hancock at International Jazz Day in St. Petersburg. This level of cultural interplay is nothing new to Butman who, alongside Wynton Marsalis, was awarded The American-Russian Cultural Cooperation Foundation’s (ARCCF) Award and Institute of Sustainable Dialogue Award in recognition of their distinguished contributions to American-Russian cultural relations through musical collaboration. 

In 2024 Igor Butman’s acclaimed Moscow Jazz Orchestra, a 17-piece powerhouse ensemble described by DownBeat Magazine as “an outfit of virtuosos,” celebrated its 25^th anniversary with a huge tour and a new album “Images. Mussorgsky and Borodin”.

The Igor Butman Quartet is a congregation of Russia’s topmost jazz soloists and soloists of Moscow Jazz Orchestra: extraordinary pianist and vocalist Oleg Akkuratov, runner-up of the Sarah Vaughn International Jazz Vocal Competition, bass player Nikolay Zatolochniy and drummer Eduard Zizak.  The Quartet, founded in 1999, has an intense history of international touring which started in 2003 with a sensational double bill performance with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.  Over the course of the past 25 years, the Quartet created programs with numerous jazz superstars including George Benson, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Patti Austin, Kurt Elling and many more.

Jazz classics, hard bop masterpieces and even Russian classical music – the Igor Butman Quartet shines with all colors of straight ahead jazz and mastery of the major league of today’s jazz mainstream.