Besides being taught by the musician Gennady Goldstein, he took informal lessons from nightly broadcasts of jazz from 11:15 pm to midnight on Voice of America.

While still in the U.S.S.R., Butman was invited to play with touring American musicians, including Dave Brubeck, Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Gary Burton, Louis Bellson and Grover Washington Jr. Butman appeared as Grover's special guest in concerts at Chautauqua, New York, the Berklee Center in Boston and at Great Woods Center in Mansfield, Massachusetts.

He is featured on Grover Washington Jr.'s Columbia release Then and Now (1988) soloing on "Stolen Moments", "Stella By Starlight" and Butman's own composition "French Connections".

In 1993, he released his solo album Falling Out mostly with his own composition, which featured Eddie Gomez on bass, Lyle Mays on piano and Marvin "Smitty" Smith on drums.

When Wynton Marsalis performed in Russia in 1998, he invited Butman to be a guest soloist with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.

One of the Butman’s accomplishments as a producer is "The Triumph of Jazz", a festival which takes place annually in the biggest concert halls of Russia.

The latest festival took place at Svetlanovsky Hall of Moscow International Performing Arts Center and featured Ahmad Jamal Trio, Christian Scott Quintet, Igor Butman Big Band, Andrey Kondakov and Brazil All Stars.

At the club Butman appeared every Monday with his Big Band and presented the first time in Russia such outstanding musicians as Ray Brown, Wynton Marsalis.

In 2006 Butman started recording his album "Magic Land" based on music from Soviet cartoons and movies featuring Chick Corea on piano, John Patitucci on bass, Randy Brecker on trumpet, Stefon Harris on vibraphone, and Jack DeJohnette on drums.

In April 2009 National Federation of Phonogram Producers awarded Igor Butman with a golden disk for selling more than 15 thousand copies of "Magic Land" in Russia!

Peter Bernstein, Sean Jones, James Burton and Kathy Jenkins), and "Vive L’Amour" by saxophonist Nick Vintskevich and his band (feat.

On October 27, 2011 Butman’s 50th anniversary concert featuring Wynton Marsalis, Natalie Cole, Billy Cobham and Christian McBride took place at 6000-seated Kremlin Palace in Moscow, the biggest venue of the country, and became one of the most important events in the history of Russian jazz, according to mass media.

In 2016, with the support of Chelyabinsk region Governor Boris Dubrovsky, he founded Russia's only jazz Festival of musical humor.

[6] While a naturalized US citizen, Butman's membership in the Supreme Council of the "United Russia"[7] ruling party has faced controversy in the media over Aleksei Navalny's publications.

[8] Aleksei Navalny, is a well known blogger in Russia and a prominent critic of government corruption at the highest levels, even including Vladimir Putin.

As of 9/22/2015 it has 511 signatories and contains the following contents:[14] In the days when the fate of our countrymen in Crimea is being decided, Russian cultural figures cannot remain indifferent cold-hearted observers.