Fall in “Love Again” with Chris Botti

by Kimberly Katz
feedback@buzznews.net

Chris Botti is an exceptionally talented trumpet player, composer and charismatic performer who has a very unique career that allows him to stand virtually alone in the realm of contemporary Jazz.

Perhaps best known for his collaborations with Sting and the Brand New Day Tour, Botti’s latest album “To Love again” is a great collection of delicious and always romantic pop jazz standards featuring nine superstar guest vocalists, including Sting, Michael Buble’, Paula Cole, and even Steven Tyler. I also really love and personally recommend his 2003 album “A Thousand Kisses Deep”. It is every bit as evocative as its stunning title!

Fans will want to spend a few bucks extra and purchase the dual disc of “To Love Again” so that they can check out the exclusive behind the scenes footage, interviews, studio performances and more. Chris Botti will be performing on Sunday, January 28th at the Chicago theatre. Don’t miss it! For more info on Chris Botti, check out his website at www.Chrisbotti.com.

Kimberly Katz - Hi Chris, it’s Kim Katz from Buzz.

Chris Botti - Hi, Kim, How are you?

Kim - I’m good, how are you doin’?

Chris - I’m great. Where are you calling from?

Kim - Chicago. It just started snowing but we’ve had a real mild winter, it won’t be bad when you come in.

Chris - I love Chicago; it’s one of my favorite cities in the world. I don’t care if it’s twenty below there, I always enjoy being there.

Kim - Aw, that is great, thank you!

Kim – So you’re on tour right now…

Chris – Well, we’re always on tour. We were on tour 11 months last year and then we took the first six days off this year. We went all the way until New Years. Hopefully, we’ll cap last year. That’s always the goal.

Kim – What is it that you enjoy about touring and what are the things that are challenging for you?

Chris – Um…let’s see. The things that are challenging are just getting up early.

Kim – Are you more of a night owl?

Chris – Well, it’s not that, it’s just that by the time we actually finish – you know, we do our performance and then we go meet everyone afterwards, which usually takes about an hour or something like that – so we’re not even done until midnight or 1am - out of the building, and then sometimes we have a 6am flight so we travel overnight. But all that pales in comparison to the ability and, you know, the opportunity to go around the world and play with this incredible band and just kind of have my music accepted, you know what I mean? It’s just such a different kind of thing for pop stars but for jazz musicians to have this kind of opportunity is pretty rare. I’m aware of the opportunity and grateful. I let all that other stuff kind of, not be that much of a big deal.

Kim – Yeah and you’re still young. Do you do anything to stay in shape particularly when you’re on tour? Anything for your breathing or anything like that?

Chris – I do a very rigorous form of yoga called Ashtanga yoga, which you guys have a great yoga studio there in Chicago which I’ll be going to every morning while I’m there. One of the best yoga teachers in the country is in Chicago at Yoga View.

Kim – You know I spoke with Dominic Miller (Sting’s longtime guitarist) about a year ago and he does the same form of yoga, doesn’t he?

Chris – We all do – Sting, me, Dominic. But you know everyone does the same sort of – it’s the same thing everyday. The routine of it is very appealing to me.

Kim – Yeah, it’s awesome. It combines not just the physical, but the spiritual, the emotional. It gets you in shape mentally as well as physically, I think.

Chris – Yeah, I mean Ashtanga yoga is so brutal on the physical thing that it kind of beats you into submission (laughs) then you become emotional through that or something…spiritual.

Kim – Right, right.

Chris – But it’s not as much about contemplating your future or your past or your life as much as it is…I don’t know…

Kim – Being in the now?

Chris – Well, it’s not always…it’s so tough on the body that, man, everyday I’m on stage I’m grateful that I did it – that I started it eight or nine years ago. Because it’s so great for the trumpet playing and it just kind of washes away the fatigue from of road. But every morning that I start to do it, I hate it (laughs).

Kim – I know! But then when you’re done, you feel great.

Chris – Right, of course.

Kim – You don’t smoke do you?

Chris – No.

Kim – Well, anyway, I’m glad you don’t smoke – that’s cool. You’ve got to breathe a lot. You mentioned how unique it is that you are in this position, and somebody said that you are like the sexiest trumpet player since Chet Baker. Does that make you feel good?

Chris – Well, that quote goes way back to my very first year that I had a record out, and I released a film soundtrack, and the guy who quoted that is a gentleman who is a film critic in New York – a very famous film critic by the name of Rex Reed. What people don’t know is they see the quote “the sexiest trumpet player since Chet Baker”, but what they probably – a lot of people don’t know – is that Rex Reed used to write the liner notes on the inside of Chet Baker’s records and knew Chet Baker very, very well. I never met Rex Reed. All he did was come to a premier of a film that I did and then he wrote that quote based on my music. If I ever meet him, I’ll thank him for that nice quote. But, I mean, he’s coming from a place of knowledge - it’s not as much pop culture as one might think, you know.

Kim – Right, but I was going to say it’s funny, I didn’t realize that came from a man. But do you think you have more female fans than other soloists? In the genre?

Chris – You know the music that we play is apparently on record at least quite romantic, and everything and that primarily lends itself to couples, a lot of couples come to my shows and families and stuff like that. Is it predominantly female? Maybe, if you actually took a percentage, it might be seventy percent, sixty-five percent. But you know word has gotten out that the musicianship is on such a high level that I think that there are a lot of musicians at the shows, a lot of young people who play instruments and so it’s not solely a pop culture kind of phenomenon crossover situation here.

Kim- Right, right, (laughs) um- you are sexy though.

Chris - (laughs) Well, that’s very nice of you.

Kim- You toured with Sting for two and a half years?

Chris- Yes.

Kim - That was when I got turned on to your music. Was that a huge breakthrough for you or was it something prior to that?

Chris - My association with Sting is really the reason why I have a career. I mean, on a big time level. It really set the table for everything for me to really kind of unlock that crossover, that and being on the Oprah Winfrey show for five minutes changed my life.

Kim - Right.

Chris - But the combination of Sting opening those doors, I mean I would never have been introduced to Oprah had I not opened for Sting on his tour. Those entire things, kind if interestingly enough, all my big breakthroughs, lead back to my association with Sting. I mean I got People magazine - a very pop culture funny kind of thing happened to me - with the fifty most beautiful people thing. All I would do is - I went to a Music Cares thing that was paying homage to Sting. I just walked down the red carpet and talked to people at People magazine, I had no clue about anything, the next day…next week they called up and said, “Hey we voted you in the fifty most beautiful.” Everything that I can really place, the things that have been really, really great, if you trace backwards like a step or two, it all leads back to my association with him and him showing me the world and allowing me to have a platform for my music within his. I mean still to this day, we played Atlanta last night and you know thirty people came up and said we saw you at the Sting Tuscany show, we saw you when you played with Sting here. You know nonstop that association is always something that I’m going to be incredibly indebted to.

Kim - How did you guys originally hook up? Did he just like call you?

Chris - No, we hooked up through his rainforest benefit that he does every year. Somebody recommended that we do a duet together - kind of a Jobim treatment of Roxanne - at Carnegie hall - a thrill of course. A lot of things in common and a lot of mutual friends and his love of jazz and all that stuff…and a year and a half later he asked me to join his band.

Kim - I see so you did one thing, an isolated event with him, and he remembered it and he called on you a year and a half later.

Chris – Well, we had a couple of meetings in that year and a half. I went out on a limb and asked him to sing on my album “Slow Down the World”, which he did and said, “If you return the favor and perform the solos on my album,” which became “Brand New Day” and I did. And slightly after that when the tour was ready to start for “Brand New Day”, I was in London working on another film and Sting and I met for coffee and basically, using the template of his relationship with Branford in the eighties, Sting said, “I’d like to use that kind of situation except with the tone of the trumpet and I think you’re the guy.” I couldn’t be more thrilled.

Kim - I have to give you a big compliment here. My father was a doctor but played tenor sax with a big band in college so I always loved the saxophone but I was not turned on to the sound of a trumpet until I heard you play. Let’s say I didn’t realize the infinite possibilities of a trumpet (laughs) as an instrument until I heard you play. When you play the instrument it’s like a human voice, It’s like, of course it’s your voice coming through, it’s your breath control, but it’s like hearing a singer, a soloist. Do you know what I mean?

Chris - That’s very nice of you. Thank you very much.

Kim - Sure, it’s a pleasure, it’s hypnotic, it’s mesmerizing, it is very romantic, but it’s obviously highly skilled. And you know, I’m a musician as well, and it’s great to hear someone who has obviously got all the skills but you never get a sense of, “Hey, look at me. Look at what I can do. The instrument is playing me.” But in your case it’s always as if your soul, your inner singer…your performer, or an actor, is coming through the instrument and it’s absolutely unlike anything I’ve ever heard on the trumpet in my life.

Chris - You should be my agent. Thank you!

Kim - I should, I should,( laughs). Was there extra drama when you were touring with Sting that you don’t have when you are touring on your own? I mean was there crazy drama going on all the time with security, and transportation and stuff?

Chris - Oh no, the Sting tour was like a Four Seasons vacation. Every situation I have gotten into, after being in the Sting organization, I have asked myself, how would the Sting organization handle this? So he, unlike any artist I have ever seen in my entire life, runs his touring like a family. Very, very close-knit. He doesn’t have any security on the road, it’s just the six of us in the band and an accountant and a road manager. He keeps it lean and mean and very close, and from that he doesn’t bloat his tour out. Like you know those classic things with hangers on and PR people and truckers and drug dealers, or whatever, like on other tours and the artist just implodes! And Sting just threw his discipline in everything he does to be able to like strip it down to the essentials. Even though he’s very affluent and successful and internationally recognized, he keeps it almost like a little Jazz band you know? That is the one thing, a couple of things that I took from him, certainly that and allowing his musicians to shine and not feeling threatened by it - you know his discipline and waking up every day. He does his yoga practice and absolutely takes care of his musicians on the road and then gives them the freedom to stretch out. It’s very unusual. I have never seen another artist have that kind of focus and passion on his touring life.

Kim – It’s funny you said that about letting the artist do what they want. Everybody he’s got is top notch - and he gives you all free reign, which is very smart because he surrounds himself with brilliant people and lets them go, you know. But I did occasionally get the feeling he may a teensy bit jealous of you, occasionally, your playing was so much like a soloist, and you also resemble each other a tiny bit, it was like having another solo singer on stage with him – and yet I could tell he was proud of you.

Chris - He was the one who would push me for that.

Kim - Yes.

Chris - You know we had those competitions onstage and it was all sort of propelled by Sting. And you know he would say, “Don’t come on stage and stand behind me.” He would say, “Get out on the stage and go to the front!” That was stuff we talked about backstage that evolved over time, by six months into that tour we had become very, very good friends. I consider him to be one of best friends in the world. Sting is very, very- he knows what’s’ going on with his emotions and if he wants people to think he looks jealous, it’s because he wants everyone to think that. The competition is back and forth.

Kim- And he’s smart, because when he does that, it’s like being in a race. Everyone comes up to their top level. They are not holding back or trying to blend into the background, or put their head down like, “Hail, hail the king. I can’t do my own thing for fear of a dirty look.” It’s smart because it lets all of you go nuts.

Chris - He’s just so not like that. He’s just a very unusual person.

Kim – Oh, that’s so great - that you are getting the chance. It’s obviously a destiny, soul bond sort of thing you have with him because you’re a great talent and it’s just another feather in his cap that he helped promote you. You know what I’m saying? So it’s all good, for everyone.

Chris - Yeah!

Kim - You said that your mom was the one who really got you into music. Did you or she have any inklings or intuitions of how successful you would become eventually?

Chris - I was very, very headstrong. I don’t know if I really figured out –“Oh, I want to tour and have a band and play all over the world.” But I knew at a super early age, by the time I was 11, 12 13…I knew that I was going to, you know, really go for it.

Kim - Professionally you mean? You set on your career?

Chris - I knew I wanted play the trumpet for the rest of my life. The rest of the time I tried to convince my mom that this wasn’t just some passing fancy. I just wanted to be a trumpet player and I just kept on it, like in a crazy kind of dedication – a dedicated way - from the hours a day that I practiced, from the way that I communicated that passion. The trumpet is like no other instrument; you can’t really take a day off. You know, (laughs) there’s a lot of things you can’t enjoy about life because you’re playing trumpet.

Kim - Do you have to rehearse and do warm ups every day you perform?

Chris - Oh my god - not warm up – I practice everyday for sure.

Kim - And like for your hands, do you have to exercise them, are you worried about arthritis from all the repetitive motion?

Chris – Your fingers and all that, they don’t mean much, it’s all in your mouth, your wind column and your back, but the actual fingers, kind of, don’t mean that much.

Kim - Oh, that’s fascinating. You and Katie Couric are a really interesting couple. How did you guys meet?

Chris - Well, we’re no longer a couple, but you know that, right?

Kim - No I didn’t, I’m sorry. I did as much research as I could (laughs). No, I thought you were still dating, I’m sorry.

Chris - We did date for about six months and we’re incredibly good friends now, but the reality is, if you can imagine, someone in Katie’s position - she travels a fair bit and has Saturdays and Sundays off, and I’m gone every weekend of the year. But you know - the fact is that we’re really close friends and speak all the time.

Kim – Oh, that’s nice! That’s cool!

Chris - Just had her fiftieth birthday last week and she’s just the greatest person and so we remain very, very good friends.

Kim - Oh, that’s nice! She seems like a doll.

Kim - Do you choose the track list for your new albums?

Chris - Yes, I choose all the music. I chose all the duets on this album; except for the duet I did with Sting…he chose that one.

Kim - When you’re choosing them are you like, well, I’m just hungry to play this or this has some meaning in my life now, I’d like to play this - I’d like to interpret this? Or is it just sort of more random?

Chris - Every single song is just like you said, for some reason or another it works great on the trumpet, you know, I want to play it for a particular thing in my life - every song is different. They each have a kind of flavor behind them hopefully and that’s how that works.

Kim - I didn’t realize how MUCH you are touring. Do you have a home somewhere? Do you consider New York your home or L.A.?

Chris - I just got my first apartment in seven and a half years. When I went on the road with Sting in 1999, I put all my stuff in storage and I’ve been living out of one suitcase since.

Kim- NO WAY! Since ’99? Holy-

Chris - Since 1999. Yeah and this year, two and a half weeks ago, I just bought Sting’s old apartment. Isn’t that weird?

Kim - You mean you purchased his apartment?

Chris – Yeah. Well, he lived in an apartment in Soho New York from ‘85 to 1992 and it serendipitously came up on the market and he and I went and looked at the open house, and he’s just like, you gotta buy this. He wrote some of his biggest songs right in the room I am standing in right now like “Fragile” and “Englishman in New York”.

Kim - Oh my god! Talk about synchronicity!

Chris - Yeah, yeah no kidding (laughs).

Kim - Oh great, so now you do have a pad you can call home, at least for that one week out of the year!

Chris - I finally have a place I can call home, yeah.

Kim - That’s so cool. Well, that’s an interesting story that you ended up living where he lived and where a lot of these songs were composed.

Chris - It’s a very, very…What are the odds of all the apartments in New York that that would happen? I don’t know what the odds are.

Kim - Destiny! In Yiddish it’s called “beshert”. It was “meant to be”.

Chris - Yeah.

Kim - have you ever considered acting? You are very dramatic and you have a lot of skills, you know like Sting. A lot of people are talented in one area and then they are talented in another.

Chris - You know, it’s a lot of waiting around. I liked the spontaneity of being on a TV show - when it’s spontaneous. I love that like when I was on Caroline Rhea everyday. I’ve also been on movie sets occasionally and man there is just so much sitting around.

Kim - It IS a drag - people don’t realize.

Chris - The rush you get from playing in front of people and rockin’ out with the band - I mean, if I became an actor I would never be Jack Nicholson, you know what I’m saying? But there aren’t a lot of people who can play the trumpet like me and so that’s what you’ve got to keep your focus on - what you do best and do that.

Kim - Yeah, I agree and you are absolutely right. I mean as far as pleasure, the pleasure you get from sixty minutes onstage is sixty minutes of sheer pleasure whereas an actor maybe gets two minutes of pleasure out of a ten hour working day. You know what I mean?

Chris - Right, right.

Kim – So you are really getting the best deal there. Well, I am going to be reviewing your show on the 28th here in Chicago and I will be sure to say hi afterwards. It’s been a long time since I’ve heard you play and I am really looking forward to it.

Chris - Thanks a lot, I’ll be looking forward to it.