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Igor Bril

Igor Bril was born in 1944 in Moscow, Russia.

Recognition came to him at a fairly young age after he and two of his fellow jazzmen, double-bass player Alexei Isplatovsky and drummer Vladimir Zhurvasky made a stunning showing at the 2nd Moscow Jazz Festival.

Bril's brilliant virtuosity and rich improvisation fantasy, his subtle and witty arrangements of jazz classics, and his own jazz compositions ranked him among Russia's top jazz performers. In different times his partners were saxophonists Alexander Oseichuk, Alexei Kozlov and Igor Butman, guitarist Alexei Kuznetsov, trumpeter German Lukyanov and other jazz celebrities.

Bril's twin sons, Dmitry and Alexander, are both sax players. "A jazzmen and improvisator with academic training, playing the grand piano according to the "supreme laws" of pianistic art, feeling the instrument's soul…", critics write about Igor Bril.

He graduated from Moscow's Gnessins Musical Institute, now the Russian Academy of Music, where he studied under the well-known professor Teodor Gutman who "made the correct diagnosis" of his student's jazzmania. "When I went on a concert tour without saying a word to my professor, he told me afterwards: "Igor, why keep on studying academic music when you are so obviously jazz-bitten?" I feel that "sting" all my life, although back then I couldn't imagine myself without academic music, and still can't. All my compositions have a jazz footing with the admixture of what was put into me with the help of academic training."

Igor Bril's concert routes stretch from Europe to Asia and from the United States to Indonesia. It's easier to name the few countries where hasn't performed. He played with saxophonists Joe Henderson and Michael Brecker, vibraphonist Bobbie Hatcherson, pianists Dave Brubeck and Thelonious Monk, and other legendary jazzmen.

Jazz stylistics is one of the most intricate themes in modern music. Bril used to play an electric grand piano for some time but after all returned to an acoustic instrument. His jazz is the European-style mainstream with elements of "new age", also known as "light jazz". Yet he believes it's important to create one's own jazz rather than follow classical jazz standards, performing arrangements of the "ever green" mainstream tunes.

Igor Bril, who is dubbed the "god father" of professional jazz education in Russia, has been teaching the art of jazz improvisation for about 3 decades. A professor of the Russian Academy of Music, he is the author of the "Practical Course of Jazz Improvisation", a popular textbook that survived numerous editions.

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Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

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Unknown label
2009

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