In 2024, the Moscow Jazz Orchestra conducted by Igor Butman celebrates its 25th anniversary. Over the years, the band has established itself as one of the world’s leading orchestras and the main catalyst for the development of jazz art in Russia. For a quarter of a century, musicians have regularly represented our country at the most prestigious festivals in Europe, Asia and America. On December 3, 2024, the Orchestra’s new album, dedicated to the anniversary of the band, will be released on all music venues.
“We prepared this record with great love for academic music. It was important for us to preserve its greatness and bring jazz rhythms to it. And Nikolai Levinovsky coped with this task perfectly. Nikolai Yakovlevich is a legend of Russian jazz and one of my mentors, who turns 80 this year.On this occasion, on December 18, a concert presentation of our new album and a celebration of its Anniversary will take place at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall,” said Igor Butman.
Maestro Igor Butman, founder and artistic director of the Moscow Jazz Orchestra, likes to create crossover projects: his band’s repertoire includes a number of solo programs with Russian classical music, as well as joint programs with Yuri Bashmet and the Moscow Soloists Chamber Ensemble, the Novaya Rossiya Symphony Orchestra, Ildar Abdrazakov and Hibla Gerzmava. Therefore, it is not surprising that on the Orchestra’s first album in the last 7 years, classical music is reunited with jazz, continuing the bright crossover line that began with the recording of the album “Scheherazada’s Tales”.
The band’s new opus consists of two parts: two jazz suites by composer and arranger Nikolai Levinovsky, based on works by Russian classics Modest Mussorgsky and Alexander Borodin. The first, “Images of Mussorgsky”, was created by Levinsky based on the cycle “Pictures from the Exhibition” of the great Russian classic and is a witty reinterpretation of pieces familiar from childhood in a jazz key. In the second jazz suite, Rus, Nikolai Yakovlevich weaves a grandiose symphonic jazz canvas from the themes of the opera Prince Igor and Symphony No. 2 (Bogatyrsky), striking in its scope, paradoxical harmonic finds and freshness of ideas.