By Vestnik Kavkaza
From 1 to 4 August, as part of the Sochi 2014 Cultural Olympiad, famous jazz musician Igor Butman is holding the fourth international festival "AquaJazz. Sochi Jazz Festival "- a fab holiday with outstanding jazz musicians from Russia and the United States.
“When I lived in the Soviet Union, I did not dare to want to get to Sochi, because it was a highly cultured resort, and it was difficult to get there,” Butman says. “But having good communication with Oleg Lundstrem’s orchestra, I got to Sochi in 1983. And there we really performed a lot - in the winter theater, in the summer theater and in the "Riviera". I remember those shows. Then there was our performance with the "Allegro" band in Sochi, we were there for a week or two, drove along the coast, the tickets were always sold out, we always gave great concerts. Of course, my dream was to hold a jazz festival in Sochi.”
In Sochi, a very good jazz festival is held, which is called the "Black Sea Festival", but it is held every two years. “I attended this festival for the first time in 1993 when I visited and lived in America, but I felt that something on a much bigger scale could be done with the involvement of stars. Of course, we needed finance, but first of all we needed the will. This is the fourth consecutive year that we have held “AquaJazz” in Sochi. But this festival, I think, will be the most powerful. First, we did only two days, and now it will be four days. There will be free concerts, there will be concerts in the winter theater, and there will be a gala concert in the "Festival" concert hall,” Igor Butman states.
Last year, after the festival, he met with the mayor of the city of Sochi who perceived the idea of the festival with great enthusiasm. “He looked, and he liked the fact that, in general, the abandoned Green Theater in Riviera Park, when there is a festival, is packed from 17:00 to 23:00. Seeing the enthusiasm and good music, the positive attitude, he said that he would like to support this festival. He supported it not so much financially, but with many administrative resources, and he has also suggested that he would write letters to the leaders of different regions requesting orchestras at the expense of these regions. And it was a very interesting idea. I spoke with some governors, and they said that if there is such a letter, they would be happy to send famous groups of their regions to the festival in Sochi. That is, this is a festival at the federal level, which hosts the best bands of the country. The main thing is that Sochi lives jazz for four days. I really want this. I know that there will be a lot of jazz fans from all over the country.”
