Chris Botti
Blue Note131 West 3rd Street, New York 10012
Chris Botti brings his 22nd Annual Holiday Residency to Blue Note for a January 2 performance, part of a four-week run that has made the Manhattan club his December and early-January home since 2005. The listing bills Botti alone, with no lineup confirmed for this date, though the residency has a history of unannounced musical guests: Sting and John Mayer have both appeared in past years. This is a continuation of the trumpeter’s longstanding seasonal engagement at the club, which The Wall Street Journal called “a December institution in the Big Apple at the Blue Note.”
Botti is a Portland, Oregon-born, GRAMMY-winning trumpeter whose work has moved “from jazz renown to pop stardom,” according to Blue Note Records. He is known as the largest-selling American instrumental artist and has collaborated with an unusually broad group of musicians, including Sting, Paul Simon, Barbra Streisand, Lady Gaga, Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, Joni Mitchell, Andrea Bocelli, Herbie Hancock and Yo-Yo Ma. A Paris Move review hears “inspiring jazz” in his playing, highlighting a “soft touch” and “well-calibrated” nuances. His Blue Note residency offers the chance to hear that controlled, melodic trumpet sound in the room he has returned to each holiday season 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.