Chris Botti @ Newport Jazz

Oregon born Chris Botti sauntered into the press tent in a long sleeve black t-shirt and jeans. He sat down with a gentleman from the AP as I was in the corner blogging. Chris has played with some of the most influential musicians of yesterday and today from Sting, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Andrea Bocelli to Jill Scott and Steven Tyler … the man has done it all. During his interview he was intelligent, funny and spoke graciously about all the musicians he continues to work with. I couldn’t resist the urge to buddy up with him for a quick pic …

He took the stage with style and grace and made sure, between songs, to pay tribute to the musicians and composers who affected his career… most notably Miles Davis. Here’s a shot from his rendition of Flamenco Sketches.

After his Miles tribute he asked the audience if they were familiar with Lenord Cohen… and, of course, Jeff Buckley. The music nerds, myself included, let out a holler because we knew we were gonna get a little Hallelujah action. While his rendition was short compared to Buckley’s seven minute rendition, Chris handled the song with a delicate touch, as if it might break if he didn’t take his time and work his way into the melody… it was beautiful.

After Hallelujah Chris noticed his drummer had sauntered off stage and was nowhere to be found! In a moment when a lot of musicians might have freaked out Chris made a joke of the situation – noting that his drummer, while phenomenally talented, was one of the slowest moving individuals on the planet. As he went into another Lenord Cohen cover the audience strained to see if the drummer was going to return in time. Roughly 30 seconds into the song the crowd lit into applause as the drummer returned to the stage … and yes … he was, in fact, an incredibly slow moving individual – but he came in just in time. Hats off to Chris Botti and his crew for a phenomenal set and creating a vibe that truly paid respect to the history of jazz!