Chris Botti
Blue Note131 West 3rd Street, New York 10012
Chris Botti brings his 22nd Annual Holiday Residency to Blue Note for this late December set. The trumpeter has made the club a December home since 2005, and this four-week run stretches from mid-December into early January, including Christmas and New Year’s Eve. The series has a history of impromptu musical guests, though none are announced for this performance. It is a return engagement with real local continuity: Botti has described coming back to the Blue Note each year as “like coming home.”
Botti is a world-renowned trumpeter whose annual Blue Note appearances have become a fixture of New York’s holiday season. The Wall Street Journal called him “a December institution in the Big Apple at the Blue Note,” a line that captures the long-standing relationship between artist and room. Past residency guests have included Sting and John Mayer, who appeared in 2011, while audiences over the years have included Mary J. Blige and Paul Haggis. This is a chance to hear Botti in the setting that has hosted his December performances for more than two decades.
Blue Note Jazz Club is a dedicated listening room in the heart of Manhattan's jazz district, where the music is the focus and the space is designed to let the sound fill the room. The club features a stage with a small audience area, and the atmosphere is one of quiet concentration on the music. Shows typically begin at 8:00 PM with a second set at 10:30 PM, and the audience sits on chairs close to the stage. The club has a bar, and drinks are available. The experience is primarily about listening to live jazz, with occasional gospel and soul performances, and the audience often stays to talk and enjoy the music after the sets.