Chris Botti Biography
Trumpeter Chris Botti has become one of the biggest stars in contemporary jazz, thanks to a warm, sweet tone and understated, intimate phrasing that have held considerable long-term appeal for a wide audience beyond the jazz community.
Botti achieved his initial career success in the pop world, but his jazz roots run deep. The Oregon native, whose mother was a classically trained pianist and part-time piano teacher, spent two years of his childhood living in Italy. He began playing trumpet at the age of ten, and was already working professionally while still in high school. After studying in Indiana University’s prestigious music program, Botti moved to New York, where he worked with saxophonist George Coleman and trumpet legend Woody Shaw. He soon became a busy session player, appearing on albums by an array of pop, rock and R&B artists, including Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight and Thomas Dolby. In 1990, Botti began a five-year stint in Paul Simon’s live band.
Botti began releasing solo albums in 1995. In 2001, he joined Sting’s touring band, and the following year served as leader of the house band on the daytime TV talk show The Caroline Rhea Show. People Magazine confirmed Botti’s growing celebrity status by naming him one of the 50 Most Beautiful People of 2004. For several years, Botti also hosted a weekly smooth jazz radio show, Chill with Chris Botti.
Botti’s first Columbia release, 2001’s Night Sessions, augmented his moody, introspective playing with subtle multi-cultural touches; the album also found Sting contributing a new song, on which Shawn Colvin provided a guest vocal. The subsequent A Thousand Kisses Deep found Botti interpreting songs by Burt Bacharach and Leonard Cohen, along with his own compositions, while When I Fall in Love (featuring a guest vocal by Sting) dropped the electronic elements of Botti’s recent efforts for a more organic, elegant sound. When I Fall in Love became Botti’s first Top 40 album.
Botti hit the Top 20 with 2005’s To Love Again: The Duets, a set of standards featuring lush orchestral backing and such guest vocalists as Sting, Michael Bublé, Paula Cole and Gladys Knight. With the success of To Love Again, Botti hosted an all-star concert at Los Angeles’ Wilshire Theatre, which became Chris Botti: Live with Orchestra and Special Guests, which was broadcast on PBS and released as a DVD. Another orchestral effort, Italia, followed in 2007.
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