By Gillian Schutte
Among the many great performances at the 2025 Cape Town International Jazz Festival, the Igor Butman Quartet carved out a space entirely their own — a realm defined by dazzling virtuosity and the profound art of musical conversation. This performance stood among the most outstanding of the festival.
For Igor Butman, Russia’s world-renowned tenor saxophonist, playing at this iconic gathering fulfilled a long-held dream. Speaking ahead of his set, he described the opportunity to perform at the CTICC as a “dream come true.” That sense of awe and gratitude infused the evening — a set that transcended technical brilliance and became a living testament to music’s universal spirit.
At 63, Butman performed with stamina and expressive breadth that defied expectation. His saxophone tone shifted seamlessly between mischievous play, aching nostalgia, and jubilant celebration — sometimes all within a single phrase. So many dizzying ingredients, so many energetic yet tendered bursts, that one was left wondering whether Butman was not receiving his oxygen and life force from some otherworldly source.
He was joined by a trio of fellow maestros: Oleg Akkuratov (piano and vocals), Nikolay Zatolochny (double bass), and Eduard Zizak (drums). Together they fashioned a music of dialogue — listening, teasing, provoking, and elevating one another’s ideas with intuitive mastery.
The set opened with Falling Out, a spirited, mock-argument between piano and saxophone — a musical skirmish that established the night’s ethos of lively, unfolding conversation. Soon after, the quartet paid tribute to Russian popular memory with a high-energy interpretation of a beloved childhood animation theme. The piece was underpinned with intricate complexity, a fast-paced, almost march-like beat merging with soaring, high-energy saxophone runs. Butman’s phrasing captured both innocence and sophisticated wit, while Akkuratov’s piano painted vivid flashes of nostalgia.
Zizak’s drumming provided the kinetic heart of the evening — explosive yet precise, elastic yet controlled. His dynamic sensitivity gave the quartet’s music urgency without ever overpowering its inner lyricism.
A soulful rendering of Mississippi Dreams revealed the group’s lyrical tenderness. Akkuratov’s velvet-fingered piano wove meditative, resonant lines across the soundscape, while Zatolochny’s bass shaped the harmonic ground with understated authority. Blind from birth, Akkuratov’s playing rose from a profound internal vision, sculpting emotion into every phrase.
Midway through the performance, Akkuratov took the microphone to sing a slow Russian ballad. His voice, both fragile and resilient, carried the melody with understated sincerity. As the piece unfolded, the quartet’s improvisational energy gradually transformed the texture: the ballad, initially tender and solemn, was underpinned by a reconstructive swing feel, infused with a rising pulse of high-energy rhythms and intricate interplay. This reconstruction allowed the piece to breathe and evolve, lifting it from its melancholic origins into a vibrant, shifting exploration.
Later, a slow, saxophone-led piece, an original titled Nostalgia, unfolded with aching beauty. Butman’s long, shimmering lines suspended time itself, floating over Akkuratov’s delicate piano voicings and Zatolochny’s lyrical bass murmurs. Nostalgia was followed by I Love You Baby, another vivid showcase intercepted with magnificent solos, allowing each musician to stretch, provoke, and reflect in turn.
In a moving gesture of connection to the Cape Town audience, Akkuratov also sang Malaika, the beloved Swahili love song. His careful pronunciation and heartfelt delivery created a rare moment of unguarded communion, a bridge between continents built through pure feeling.
The climactic moment arrived with Buratino — the Russian adaptation of Pinocchio. The quartet hurled themselves into a whirlwind of sound, Butman’s saxophone darting and spiralling with gleeful abandon, Zizak’s drumming erupting in controlled, volcanic bursts. The piece was frenetic, intricate, exhilarating — a masterclass in creative abandon harnessed by sharp intellect.
Throughout the evening, Zatolochny’s bass grounded the ensemble’s most daring flights with melodic strength and rhythmic surety, his playing the invisible architecture supporting the music’s ever-changing forms.
The Igor Butman Quartet achieved a luminous artistry rarely encountered: transforming a concert into a living act of conversation — playful, profound, and intellectually exhilarating. Their performance stood as a radiant affirmation of jazz’s highest purpose: to create living spaces where memory, imagination, culture, and spirit converge.
Among the many voices and visions at the 2025 Cape Town International Jazz Festival, the Igor Butman Quartet lit up a space with world-class artistry that will not be easily forgotten.
By Gillian Schutte