Chris Botti

Vol. 1

Blue Note

If you were expecting trumpeter Chris Botti to change his game with his new signing to Blue Note, then your expectations will only slightly be met. If, on the other hand, you adore his mellow, pristine tone and flawless execution, you can be assured that it all remains intact with, as the title, Vol. 1, suggests is the first of several likely in this same vein. If you’ve seen a Botti show, this one is not as wide-ranging as those affairs, for the most part staying in the realm of jazz ballads, with a heavy emphasis on tunes associated with his major influence, Miles Davis, those being of the muted trumpet style. Botti, does however consider this a rebirth of sorts. He comments, “I turned 60 in 2022, at a time that seemed like a restart for so many things in the world. I wanted to strip away all the orchestral arrangements and special guests and focus more on my playing, the playing of my band, and these jazz classics that we always love playing on stage.”

Several of Botti’s frequent collaborators are aboard – pianist Taylor Eigsti, saxophonist Chad Lefkowitz-Brown, bassist Zach Moses, and keyboardist Julian You’ve likely never heard drummer Vinnie Colaiuta in a more mellow setting and there are noteworthy contributions from such bona fides as guitarist Gilad Hekselman and violinist Joshua Bell to name a few, To Botti’s credit every track in the ten a slightly different lineup. Producer David Foster bears a ridiculously enviable resume having helmed albums for Michael Jackson, Barbra Streisand, Diana Krall, Madonna, Herbie Hancock, Aretha Franklin, Dolly Parton, and countless others.

Botti points to these reference points in terms of selecting material for the album – obviously Kind of Blue along with John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman and Pat Metheny’s duo album with Charlie Haden, Missouri Sky – all sublime, elegant, romantic, and poignantly melodic. As to melodies, there are few in music any more melodic or indelible than the Irish tune “Danny Boy,” the opener to which Foster plays the piano intro. The tune features just Botti’s trumpet, Eigsti also on piano, and subtle (versus) orchestral strings from Patick Warren, who does so on five of the ten tracks. This sets the tone for the album which, as it unfolds, Botti delivers such a masterclass in tone, both with open and muted trumpet, it’s hard to believe that his lower register tones are not emanating from a flugelhorn.

We mentioned Miles. In this set, we hear “Blue and Green” (from Kind of Blue), “Someday My Prince Will Come,” and “My Funny Valentine,” the latter two both from Miles’ albums of the same title. Suffice it to say, Botti has Miles’ balladic side down pat. Highlights include Hekselman’s spiraling, cascading lines in the Rodgers and Hart standard, “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered” and classical violinist exchanging lines brilliantly with Botti as well as soloing in Botti’s darker than Miles’ version of “My Funny Valentine.” Uruguayan-born guitarist Leonardo Amuendo also adds a fresh touch, soloing on Henry Mancini’s “Two for the Road” and transforming “Time On My Hands” into a bossa nova. The only vocal on the album is from show regular John Splithoff, who sings on his original, the romantic “Paris.”  There’s a Coldplay tune here as well, “Fix You,” taken so tenderly that it might be unrecognizable even to the band’s most ardent fans.

Botti does what Botti does, masterfully. We should all know that by now, new label aside.

• Jim Hynes

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