VYTAUTAS LABUTIS
Genres: Eclectic Fusion, Third Stream, Post-Fusion Contemporary, Avant-Garde Jazz • Lithuania

Vytautas Labutis (b. 1960, Vilnius) is one of the finest and most celebrated figures of Lithuanian jazz. He is a flexible musician, playing both free improvisations and composed structures; he performs with equal force in small groups and large bands, and has a command of diverse styles. The distinctive improviser and multi-instrumentalist plays saxophones, clarinets, keyboards, often more than one instrument at once, and expands the instrumental expression by instrumentally treated vocal. He is one of the busiest Lithuanian jazz musicians, an outstanding band leader, often becoming the 'spiritus movens' of many jazz events in Lithuania. He made his debut on jazz stage in 1982 with the legendary Petras Vyšniauskas Quartet (1982-88), and has also played in the big band of his mentor Vladimir Chekasin and, since 1987, in his quartet. In 1988 he teamed up into a trio with the members of the former Vyšniauskas Quartet after it disbanded. read more...