Saxophone in hand, Igor Butman enthralled the audience at NCPA, Mumbai on the 6^th October. Jazz Addicts in association with NCPA brought to the audience a larger than life evening presenting Igor Butman Quartet featuring Oleg Akkuratov live. After mesmerizing audience with the 18 member band (Igor Butman Big Band) last year, Butman this year staged an astounding visually impaired pianist Oleg Akkuratov. It was a musical treat to remember.

Butman who visits India for the fourth year in succession, kicked off the show with the popular track, I remember April.  The auditorium echoed with claps when the band played Igor’s composition, Nostalgia. Bill Clinton calls Igor ‘the greatest living jazz saxophone player, who happens to be a Russian’ and so was the agreement of the audience from the resonating sound of claps and cheers at yet another houseful show. 

The highlight of the show was Oleg Akkuratov singing and playing piano flawlessly to leave the audience astonished. Besides a few Russian film and animated theme songs, a classical piece from Chopin, he also played classics like Take Five, He added to the cheer with a slice of Bollywood when he did a teaser of Shah Rukh Khan’s hit scatting the song Tujhe dekha to ye jana sanam. His scatting on a few other tracks was amazing. He literally had the crowd in raptures. Soon after he broke into another hot favorite from Bollywood, this time going back to the 50s with Mera joota hai Japani. He was later joined on stage by a student of NAB Bhagwan who joined Oleg in performing the Hindi classic.He was truly The Entertainer in the Igor Butman Quartet. He also gave a fab performance of Georgia on My Mind. It’s no wonder then that he has been compared to the blind musician Ray Charles. We have another in the making.

“The audience is amazing! I love India and hope to come again and again”, quipped Oleg.

“Coming to India gets better every year and it is amazing that Jazz Addicts have been promoting a Jazz culture in the country, year on year.” Pradip Bhatia, Co-Founder, Jazz Addicts said, “Igor with his music has been raising the bar every year and the audience awaits his presence. We envisage taking this to another level next year, taking the show to newer cities and capturing wider audiences.”