 "Photo: Dave Biblis/The Penn")
Many people who came to the concert were already familiar with Chris Botti’s work. They were quite aware of his caliber of musicianship.
It was mostly a non-student crowd, though a few avid students could be found speckling the audience. Several people came from surrounding areas to attend the performance. Some even followed Botti’s concerts from venue to venue.
“I know I’ve seen him on TV,” said Beth Tocci, one of the concert-going women. When asked how long it had been since she first heard of him, she said, “He’s been around.”
The crowd gave Botti a very warm ovation at his entrance. He and his talented ensemble performed “Ave Maria” in a display of technical prowess. The audience applauded his sustained long note at the end of the piece, and marveled when, after their applause he was still holding the same note.
The ensemble consisted of piano, bass, drums, keyboard, electric guitar and trumpet, with a guest violinist and vocalist. The piano player had lightning-fast hands; the guitarist was all over the stage; and the bass player and drummer laid down grooves that kept the attention of everyone present.
Andy Ezrin, on the electric piano, kept the ambience and mood with ethereal tones from the keyboard.
“We recently as a band celebrated our five-year world tour,” Botti said.
Ezrin, the pianist, has been nominated for eight Grammys; he won two. He received the 2010 Guggenheim award and has been awarded various other prizes.
Botti played “Caruso,” a song from his latest album, “Chris Botti in Boston.”
He also mentioned that the government recently passed a bill which made Miles Davis’ album “Kinda Blue” a national treasure, because of the importance that album has on music and musicians of this type of music.
“Flamenco Sketches,” the following piece, was characterized by restraint and lack of chord structure during the piece. It was a modal piece with no melody.
“It is purely improvised,” Botti said. “There are only five chords.”
Botti next introduced Mark Whitfield (guitar) and Carlos Enrique (bass), who was “one of Winton Marsalis’ favorite bass players,” according to Botti.
When Botti addressed the audience before playing “Emmanuel” he admitted, “I thought, I’d love to somehow alter the song to feature myself and a violinist.” He was joined by violinist Caroline Campbell.
Later the band was joined by Lisa Fisher for the song, “I Can Hardly Wait to Hold You.” Botti and Fisher had an exciting trumpet-voice duet.
“Sting asked me to take my band and be the opening act,” Botti said. “I needed a drummer that would piss Sting off.”
Introducing Billy Kilson, the drummer, Botti added that Sting “said to me what he always says. ‘That’s the best drummer I’ve ever seen.’”
Botti invited the young musicians down to the front of the stage, saying, “You’ll never see another drum solo like
this!” Botti maintained a good sense of humor throughout the show.
Near the end of the night, Botti spotted a youngster in the crowd near the right front side of the stage. Botti asked him a few questions, joking with him for the sake of the audience, but the child didn’t get the jokes.
“Tommy, what’s up?” Botti asked. “You thought you were on the way to a Jonas Brothers concert?” After telling him to plug his ears for some “grown-up” talk, Botti told the crowd, “I dropped out of college!”
He had been a student at Indiana Unversity, Bloomington, and
was offered a paying gig playing his trumpet. “My parents believed in me enough to let me jump off the cliff,” Botti said.
He left college and went to perform with Frank Sinatra for two weeks. It was Botti’s first professional gig.
The encore song was a saloon song in a jazz/country-Western love song sort of way, “One for my baby, one more for the road.”
Botti had the crowd snapping their fingers along with the music. When asked what music students should know about the music he performed, Botti said, “I got here by practicing boring scales.”
More information about Chris Botti and his upcoming concerts can be found at his Web site, chrisbotti.com.
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