Chris Botti at Blue Note Pleases Jazz Diehards and Dilettantes Alike

Chris BottiThe Blue NoteThrough January 4Note to single guys: If you’re looking for a jazz show that will impress a date, you can’t go wrong with Chris Botti. Of all the major instrumentalists playing today, the trumpeter and bandleader is the one who has the largest audience beyond the realm of your usual hardcore jazz fans, and has a fan base that reaches far beyond those of us who go to the clubs and concert halls regularly. In his shows at the Blue Note, where he has been in residence for the last 21 Decembers, Mr. Botti reminds me of a master chef who is not only concerned with the way everything tastes, but what foodies refer to as “plating” — the way the food is laid out on the dish.For him, the presentation is as important as the music itself. There is a pop sheen to the whole affair — something that makes the music highly palatable for more general audiences — but there are moments when he gets as intense and abstract as any major postmodern jazzman. Some aspects of his music are there just for the dilettantes, but he is a serious enough player to hold the attention of us diehards as well.Mr. Botti is a jazz musician who first became famous for playing in a rock band, one led by the pop icon Sting. Fittingly, he moves in many directions and lets his audiences have it both ways on multiple levels. There are familiar melodies and there are deep improvisations; there is classical music, and there are pop tunes; there are Great American Songbook standards, and there are contemporary melodies.Mr. Botti is a highly mainstream eclectic, or is it the other way around? He also has a fondness for more serious-minded film music, especially the themes of the quintessential Italian composer Ennio Morricone, which is many things at once even all by itself. He confounds us by beginning with yet another genre: world music. Here at the Blue Note, where he is doing two shows a night for 28 days, you’d expect him or any jazzman to charge out of the starting gate with a fast, snappy upbeat number. Instead, Mr. Botti begins with “Sevdah,” from his 2009 album “Impressions,” a very slow and highly romantic piece which I am informed is named for a Turkish-Arab word meaning a deep amorous longing.Mr. Botti also signals his intentions in that when he plays a classical-styled piece, be it world music or movie music, he plays with an open bell. With the more jazz-oriented pieces, he plays with a very tight harmon metal mute.When he called the second piece, “Someday My Prince Will Come,” his starting point was the 1961 album by Miles Davis, rather than Snow White, with or without her seven dwarfs. Originally written as a waltz, Mr. Botti’s quartet interpretation shifted time signatures and tempos at multiple points. This was the primary jazz feature for him and his rhythm section, with the very young Julius Rodriguez on keyboards, bassist Barry Stephenson, and drummer Lee Pearson. The quartet was joined by veteran guitarist Gilad Hekselman for another jazz standard, “Bewitched”; Mr. Botti’s harmon-muted dance around Rodgers & Hart’s melody had the feeling of sonic choreography.Violinist Anastasiia Mazurok and guitarist-singer Jonathan Splithoff served as emissaries from the worlds of classical music and pop-rock, respectively. Ms. Mazurok played expressive solos of Morricone themes from “Cinema Paradisio” and “Once Upon a Time in America” (“Deborah’s Theme”). Mr. Splithoff played and sang on a rockish “In the Wee Small Hours,” in memory of Sinatra but as a stand-in for Sting, then Sting’s own “Moon Over Bourbon Street,” and Leon Russell’s “A Song for You.” Veronica Swift and Chris Botti at the Blue Note. Photo by Tom BuckleyBut the guest star most of us were there to see was Veronica Swift, the almost frighteningly talented young jazz singer who was introduced at the tail end of a warm anecdote about Mr. Botti’s tour and collaboration with Barbra Streisand. She entered with a dramatic rendition of “You’ll Never Know,” and then lunged into a mostly-scatted “Love For Sale.”Trust me, I know what I’m talking about: in my long so-called career, I have heard Ella Fitzgerald, Mel Tormé, Sarah Vaughan, Anita O’Day, and Jon Hendricks all live many times, and Ms. Swift is one of the most prodigiously gifted vocal improvisers I’ve ever encountered. Switching gears yet again, she shifted to the funkier and bluesier Sinatra standard, “That’s Life,” with audience participation.Since no one can follow Veronica Swift, Mr. Botti ended the show with everyone, the full cast in a ballad treatment of Cold Play’s “Fix You,” after first alerting the house to be as affectionate as they wanted since no kiss cam was installed. Mr. Botti is playing for another marathon month, and these are demanding 100-minute mini-concerts wherein the star plays on every tune. Kiss cam or no, he’s a perfect choice for date night. The only risk you’ll run is that your date will find Mr. Botti more charming, better-looking, and certainly more talented than you. Well, that’s life — that’s what all the people say.

Chris Botti at Blue Note Pleases Jazz Diehards and Dilettantes Alike

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