Leonid Agutin

Moscow-born vocalist, pianist, and guitarist Leonid Agutin merges elements of pop and jazz while adding a distinctly Latin flavor. Issued from the mid ’90s onwards, his canon of smooth, intricate, and accessible sounds led him to become one of the most decorated artists at the Russian Grammys. He gained recognition further afield in 2005 when Cosmopolitan Life, an English-language collaboration with U.S. jazz guitarist Ali Di Meola, was issued. By 2008, his national government named him a Merited Artist of the Russian Federation and, a decade later, his homeland reputation was further cemented by the airing on prime-time TV of a live, three-hour celebratory concert in the year of his 50th birthday. In 2020, he marked the 15th anniversary of Cosmopolitan Life by releasing La Vida Cosmopolita, a Spanish-language album featuring contributions from musicians of eight different nations.
Agutin was born in 1968 to Jewish parents who encouraged his interest in music. While his mother had a career in education, his father, Nikolai, played in the rock act Golubiye Gitary and went on to manage groups such as Poyuschiye Serdtsa and Veseliye Rebyata. Agutin was therefore well placed to study piano at the Moscow Jazz School, and eventually went on to serve in the army on the border between Russia and Finland. Genres such as hard rock briefly took his interest, but his first love was jazz, which was evident in 1991 when he started to perform live. During the following two years, he won music contests in both Yalta and Jurmala before graduating from the Moscow State Institute of Culture.
Agutin’s first Russian Grammys came in 1994 courtesy of his debut album, Barefoot Boy, and he enjoyed similar success at the ceremony following the release of 1995′s Dekameron. Between 1996 and 1998, he appeared in a series of three music-based TV films produced by Channel One Russia. As an established national star, from the end of the ’90s into the early part of the new century, Agutin settled into a pattern of releasing a new Russian-language studio album every two years.
Recorded in Miami, 2005′s Cosmopolitan Life was an attempt to break into international markets. While it brought huge success in Germany, the push to conquer Italy, Eastern Europe, and the U.S in the same way was less fruitful. Nevertheless, Cosmopolitan Live, a 2008 documentary film about Agutin and Di Meola — featuring footage of their performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival — compounded his popularity in Germany.
After taking time out to raise his daughter, Agutin returned in 2012 with Time of the Last Romantics, and from that year onwards appeared regularly as a judge on the Russian TV version of The Voice. He continued to record during this period, and 2018′s Cover Version included a percussion-heavy take on the Beatles’ “Come Together.” The following year, Agutin assisted his second daughter, Lisa, in recording an album at Miami’s Criteria Hit Factory before beginning sessions for 2020′s La Vida Cosmopolita. ~ James Wilkinson