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View all search resultsChris Botti: The charming trumpeter
All that jazz: Grammy-winning trumpeter Chris Botti (right) performs with British music legend Sting at the Java Jazz Festival in Jakarta
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span class="caption">All that jazz: Grammy-winning trumpeter Chris Botti (right) performs with British music legend Sting at the Java Jazz Festival in Jakarta.
Grammy-winning trumpeter Chris Botti talks about his return to Jakarta, his strong musical connection with Sting and the end of the athletic dream that started his musical journey.
Before becoming an award-winning musician and the world's best-selling instrumentalist, Botti had a childhood dream of becoming an athlete, but it was a short-lived dream.
'By the time I got in sixth grade, I realized I wasn't going to be an athlete. Some kids pulled on longer, but I knew my body wasn't developing. I was a small kid,' Botti told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of the Java Jazz Festival.
'So I thought, what should I do to make my life something that I would be proud of? [The answer was I] want to play the trumpet. It's kind of cool.'
Born in Portland, Oregon in 1962, Botti was taught to play piano from an early age by his mother, a concert pianist and part-time piano teacher. A few years later, he chose the trumpet as his main instrument after listening to Miles Davis' 'My Funny Valentine'.
'It is a little mini step. I didn't really think about a career like this, but by the time I was 12, I knew then that I wanted to play music through the rest of my life.'
Since the release of his 2004 critically acclaimed album, When I Fall in Love, Botti soared to global success. His contemporary jazz numbers become the soundtracks at cafes and dinner parties. With his elegant and romantic approach to jazz and his good looks, Botti became one of the kind of jazz musicians who appeared in diverse events ' from a Victoria's Secret Fashion Show to the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony.
In 2013, he won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Album with Impressions, a ballad collection pairing him with high-wattage duet partners, such as Andrea Bocelli, David Foster and Herbie Hancock.
During his two-week Asia Tour with British music legend Sting, Botti made a stop at the Java Jazz Festival in Jakarta, presenting two memorable shows on March 5 and 6.
'It's an honor to be asked to come back two years consecutively. We usually play at big jazz festivals every three years. But for them to ask us back the next year, it is a really fun thing,' he said before his show.
'And then, for us to come here all this way and bring Sting along is awesome.'
The two-night show, billed as 'Chris Botti featuring Sting', drew a large audience. Some visitors came to the show mainly to see the former Police frontman belting out his hits from the 1980s and 1990s.
Despite the audience's anticipation for Sting, Botti and his band managed to serenade the packed hall with his solo jazz arrangements and reinterpretations of pop classics until Sting appeared in the second half of the show.
Having collaborated for a decade, Botti and Sting pulled off a harmonious double act. Botti's soaring trumpet sound and Sting's trademark vocals united beautifully when performing the latter's hits, including 'Every Breath You Take' and 'Roxanne'.
Surprisingly, the solid show was planned by Botti and Sting casually over a dinner.
'We go out and have a glass of wine and have a dinner and then I say, 'What you wanna do?' And he goes, 'Well, how about this?' And I say, 'Sounds great!' And we write it down. That's it!'
'We rehearsed for about four days, an hour and a half a day. My band was really good.'
For Botti, Sting is more than just a singer and his friend. He credited Sting with having changed the course of his career.
It was all started in 1999, when Sting became a guest vocalist on Botti's album, Slowing Down the World. Then Sting invited Botti to join his 'Brand New Day' tour.
'I think probably by the summer of 2000 ' after being in the band and being out there like every day for six months, it switched into more like a real friendship,' Botti said,
'We got along so well and saw similarities in music we like and artists we have respect for. He's brought the sound of my trumpet to the world and he's been amazing to me.'
Since then, the pair has collaborated on many projects, including the Grammy-nominated Chris Botti in Boston, in which Botti reinterpreted Sting's song, 'Seven Days'.
Before his meeting with Sting, Botti had been taught by and worked together with numerous notable musicians throughout his career.
The highly regarded jazz educator David Baker, the great trumpet teacher Bill Adam, jazz trumpeter Woody Shaw and jazz saxophonist George Coleman taught Botti during his study at Indiana University.
Upon graduation, Botti moved to New York in the middle of the 1990s and collaborated and recorded with Aretha Franklin, Natalie Cole, Bette Midler and Joni Mitchell, among others.
Now, Botti has achieved something beyond his expectations when he first picked up a trumpet. At the age of 53, he has 12 albums and compilations, a Grammy trophy and a reputation as the world's highest selling jazz instrumentalist under his belt.
'What happened to me is like winning the lottery, you know. It's one in a million,' he humbly said about his startling achievements.
As a 'lottery winner', he said he was in no position to give suggestions to instrumentalists aspiring to achieve such success as his. However, he was willing to share some guidelines that may give them a greater chance to win the same lottery.
The aspiring instrumentalists, he said, need to have the will to struggle through hours of dedication to make their sounds unique.
'Because ultimately that's what you're trying to do. You are trying to take a trumpet or a saxophone or whatever and have a musical imprint, like a thumbprint,' he said.
'So when people hear my trumpet, whether they're in the supermarket or on a television program, they know that's Chris Botti, right?'
Speaking on his possible return to the next Java Jazz, Botti said he was open to collaboration with Indonesian musicians.
'I'd love to,' Botti said. 'I heard this fantastic singer with David [Foster], Lea [Simanjuntak]. She's terrific, beautiful. I thought she was out of this world.'
' Photos by JP/Seto Wardhana
