You'd
never know it by listening to him, but every time Chris Botti picks
up his instrument, he's wrestling with it.
The jazz trumpeter coaxes soothing, true sounds out of his instrument, and they woo and lull you.
But it ain't easy.
"The trumpet is a brutal instrument," Botti said in a phone interview last week. "And it will make a fool out of you whenever and wherever possible. ... It's like being a Tour de France rider, or a ballet dancer, or a world-class cellist. To ... make the trumpet sound soft and beautiful takes just years and years and years and years of practice, because the instrument's not set up to do that.
"It's set up to be a blatty, loud, brash instrument. So when you - excuse my language - when you fuck up on the trumpet, it's really noticeable. You can't sludge your way out of it, especially the kind of stuff that I do, where it's kind of exposed."
Botti will showcase that "exposed" music - straightforward, muted tunes that live or die on his trumpet's tone and nuance - in a May 20 performance at the Adler Theatre. Botti, who has played in the bands of Paul Simon and Sting and started his solo career in the "smooth jazz" genre, has in recent recordings shifted to a classic, Gil Evans-inspired sound using the London Session Orchestra.
His two most recent releases, When I Fall in Love (from 2004) and To Love Again: The Duets (from 2005), eschewed the synthesizers and drum loops of his earlier efforts. The latter record featured vocal contributions from luminaries such as Steven Tyler, Michael Bublé, Gladys Knight, and Sting, and won Botti a Grammy.
The shift to an orchestral style, Botti said, was partly a matter of money. Big-band records, he said, "they're so expensive to make. ... You can't just jump into that sort of record right off the bat."
Once
he had a record label that was willing to commit the resources, he
said, it was a natural shift from smooth jazz.
"For me, I just wanted to do an album that focused on my trumpet playing, rather than trying to chase the fanciest new beat," he said. Pairing the trumpet with an orchestra is "more natural," he said. "It's more flattering to put the trumpet in that environment. And ultimately, I want to make my trumpet sound the most flattering and emotional it can be. Sometimes, when you put a lot of machines around it or ... electronic sounds, it decreases the amount of accessibility into the instrument itself."
Botti's first attraction to the trumpet was through Doc Severinsen, but the relationship was cemented by his initial exposure to Miles Davis in his early teens. "That experience of hearing that haunting, melancholy sound resonated with me so strong," Botti said. "Then I knew that I wanted to live in New York and play the trumpet."
Botti has become a champion of instrumental music, which is often difficult for people to grasp, he said.
"You want the trumpet to be the centerpiece of the music," he said. But popular culture emphasizes voice, so it sometimes takes time for audiences to understand the trumpet as a primary instrument.
"To the general public, they can put on a record from whoever, a Josh Groban, or a Joss Stone. It's obvious to them," the 44-year-old said. "For an instrumental artist to cross over and sell and attract that many people, it's much more of a stretch. They've got to actually understand that the trumpet is the lyrical part, that it's not just this murky, jazz math equation that they don't understand."
The use of guest vocalists, particularly on To Love Again, might seem like pandering, but it's also a canny strategy to ease listeners away from their expectations and what they're familiar with. Botti is demystifying the trumpet and jazz for a wide audience, and making it easy to come to.
As difficult as the trumpet is to play, Botti looks at his instrument as a blessing. "In hindsight, one of my greatest strengths in my life was picking an instrument that nobody really plays," he said. "There aren't many trumpet players out there because the instrument's so tough.
"It
separates me from a lot of competition."
That's not to say Botti's not good with his instrument, though. He's earned favorable comparisons to minimalist masters Davis and Chet Baker.
His next recording, which will be released in late August, will take him in another new direction, as he'll be bringing his restrained style to Italian music. "It's sort of some classic Italian melodies and some jazzier things that Italian-American things have done, and it's still got my romantic jazz trip on everything," Botti said.
That might not sound like a big seller in conception, but Botti has a lot going for him. He toured with Sting for 26 months, which exposed him to a huge audience. "He gave me a platform in the middle of his music for my music." Botti said. "That audience has really stayed with me."
In a climate of disposable pop stars in which jazz doesn't have much commercial appeal, Botti's audience kept him on the road for 11 months last year. "I guess I don't really personally have a lot to complain about," he said.
Chris Botti will perform at 7 p.m. on Sunday, May 20, at the Adler Theatre in downtown Davenport. Tickets are $37.50 and $47.50 and available by phone at (563) 326-1111 and online at (http://www.ticketmaster.com).
To listen to the River Cities' Reader interview with Botti, go to (http://www.qcspan.com).
For more information on Botti, visit (http://www.chrisbotti.com).
