Chris Botti on the Leno Tonight Show

[Larry Smithee]

Anybody else catch Botti this past Monday on the Leno Show? My personal opinion on his performance is that he has a nice sound, but following that thought...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!
Larry Smithee

[pair of kings]

After hearing so much about him I sure was expecting more than that, though what he played was fine and appropriate to the tune and all. I was curious if the 'biz' folks coached him to move around that way. He's way too cool for me. Also anyone know what horn he is playing? - the bell is what got my attention; seemed to have an interesting flare. Someone told me they saw him in person and that he played right in some woman's ear and it was soooo soft.

[_bugleboy]

I liked his playing. I thought his intonation was right in the pocket and his choice of notes was good. Didn't think the singer was anything special and I thought the sound engineers did a questionable job on the band mix. Was it just me or was there distortion, especially when the back up singers came in. But the trumpet was mixed well.

This is probably what Wynton would call instrumental music (if we don't count the singer). That's the term he used to describe Kenny G. I think I like Chris Botti's instrumental music better than Kenny G's.

[herchian]

My Wife recently saw Botti on a TV show and bought me the CD, and I saw him last night on Leno. There are other songs on the CD that I think are much better. He plays a song called Light the Stars that was my favorite. I like his sound, I think its similar to some Woody Shaw that I have heard. He plays a 1949 Martin Committee.

[tom turner]

Hi,

I thought Charly's comments were right on the mark about the performance. If this was a baseball game, and I was the umpire, I'd call him "safe"--though he didn't try to hit a home run! His playing on this night was nothing special as far as his abilities are concerned, but I still liked what he did. I wish he'd left the singer at home though.

Naw, Chris Botti doesn't try to out-flash everyone with a bunch of shrill, fast stuff . . . he lets his wonderful tone do the talking. I've recently purchased some of his stuff and am very impressed with his tone and style. I've always tried to play with an "urgent," strong (loud) style on pop music and his style is SOOOOOOO different from mine that its scary.

Actually, he's beginning to really influence me and I'm starting to try to be smooth and soft too. Chris sounds like he never plays beyond mf and that he never "forces" the sound. At mf and below the trumpet takes on a much fuller and richer palette of colors than you have when playing loud. Chris uses the full palette and sounds so beautiful on his recordings.

Chris uses little or no vibrato or bravado, letting his wonderful tone do the impressing. If "tone" were a "hamburger" and "vibrato" was "cheese," I've been making double patty "cheeseburgers." Chris' "hamburger" is so fine that he doesn't need to add "cheese" when he plays!

I'm going on a diet and try to "slim down" by reducing the "cheese" and trying to perfect the "meat" in my sound. Thanks Chris!

Sincerely,

Tom Turner

PS: The horn? Its a 1949 Martin Committee and the mic is an SD Systems wireless.

[ This Message was edited by: tom turner on 2002-04-09 11:54 ]

[Larry Smithee]

I feel about Botti's work as I once did about Herb Alpert's playing. Chris B is our 21st century Herb Alpert. At least it's good to have a trumpet feature on an otherwise dullard show like Leno's, even if it was far from a memorable event.
Larry Smithee

[adamcz]

I saw that too, and I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. I have never before seen a trumpet player who looks like a Backstreet Boy play some sorry blues licks while dancing! He may be earning more money then the 1,000 or so other guys who can play the horn better than him right now, but sooner or later the boy-band look is going to go out of style, and when his image fails him, he won't be able to fall back on his playing.

[jgadvert]

Chris Botti uses a Martin Commitee with a Bach 3C. Got the info from his website.
Not surprising he has a fine sound with that set up. Although I'm surprised/fascinated he uses an inexpensive mpc(another deserved plug for the bach 3C)

Lot of things I like about the guy(style, marketing etc...). Like Herb Alpert, he will get alot of bashing because he:

1)doesnt play alot of high notes
2) Not your favorite music-zzzzzzzz
3) Maybe you don't like his stage presence formula etc....

When that type of subjective stuff comes from someone who is doing better(better means making more money, selling more records)
I'll listen.

Of course everone is free to express their opinion on the TH and shouldnt be bashed for it.

In my local market, I am achieving much success doing many of the same things Chris
is doing and surpassing my competitors who undoubtbley have better playing skills(for now!)

God Bless America. Cause those who understand pleasing mass audiences is more important than impressing a few musicians will reap great rewards. There will always be a market for good looking entertainers
(whether they have great skills or not)

[ This Message was edited by: jgadvert on 2002-04-09 13:42 ]

[_bugleboy]

Chris Botti will have to hit the top 40 before anyone should even consider comparing him to Herb Alpert. Players like Herb Alpert and Al Hirt are phenoms that defy categorization. Think of what they did. In an era of vocal music and guitars, they hit the charts with record after record and became super stars in pop music. To my knowledge Maynard only hit one time with Rocky, and Doc and Mendez never did. Trumpet players don't hit the top 40 as soloists. He'll probably have to sing to do that. I understand that he does that too. Anyone know about that?

Does the top 40 define greatness? Not necessarily. But it definitely defines success!!! Chris hasn't reached that level of success yet. I hope he does, because it will mean more work for all trumpet players!

[adamcz]

jgadvert, you claim to be having "much success," and to be "surpassing your competitors who have better playing skills" by doing the things that Chris Botti does. If that is true, you must be measuring success with the dollars in your bank account. That may be what makes a Wall Street trader succesful, but it has nothing to do with playing music. There is nothing wrong with what Chris is doing (getting rich), but let's not confuse it with success as a musician.

[jgadvert]

With popular music tastes where they are, I dont think he will ever get as popular as Herb or Al Hirt(they were a tad bit more pop/commericial). Chris is targeted to a special (millions of people) R&B market of listeners who are in to Smooth Jazz.

Not bashing any one individual here....but the business ignorance of musicians has always been both frustrasting and profitable for me.

[jgadvert]

Hey Adam(fellow trumpeter):

All the best wishes to you and your achieving what "successful is to you". As for claims, my band has one of the best show date schedules in the New York market. Yeah, were playing covers for now...but the stuff a clearly defined mass market of New Yorkers wants to hear.
My competitors think folks want to primarily hear great musicianship. Since I have 10-15 shows a month and they have 2, I figure somethings wrong with their thinking. Call up my website (downanddirtyband.com) and you will see I'm the real thing. I don't just play Trumpet in the band. I run in it, own it, conceived the stategy.

If you disagree with me, I totally respect your opinion.

Why don't you tell us a little about yourself and what your way of thinking has provided for you.

[_bugleboy]

JGadvert,

I just visited your website. Thanks for the html code for a marquee! Very effective touch.

How about some sound files? Or are they on the way or did I just miss them?

[jgadvert]

Charly:

Thanks for taking the time to check out my site. BTW, as someone else said recently, you do this forum a great service. You have a fan here. Anyone who calls up your nice sight can see what a great background you have.

Mine is a basic site by design(who we are, where we play and what we look like). No sound bites yet. I'm working on it!
Be happy to send you my demo tape if you'd like. It too, is very stategic.

[pfrank]

In the "Underapreciated" string, after praising Don Cherry, Lester Bowie and Jon Hassell, I wrote this about Chris Botti, and I quote:

"P.S. I saw Chris Botti on TV with Sting and was amazed by his sound. (Anybody know what mouthpiece he uses? Looks like an old Bach)
So I bough one of his CDs (it was just 8 bucks) and enjoyed his sound and liked the harmon-open horn overdubs, but to me, it's unfortunate that Chris's CD is more Mersh (commercial sounding) than Sting baby's own stuff (who I haven't been able to listen too since Police). It's SO synthy over-produced and the horn is mixed way back (another non-jazz Mersh convention) that my conclusion is that Chris Botti remains a fine trumpet athlete and I'm waiting for him to say something other than pleasantries. It must be his "handelers". He should dump them and try to do something dangerous."

Today, I still agree with the above, but I realize that Chris might be one of the most mellow people on the face of the earth, and I shouldn't criticise him if he likes to play that stuff. It's just that it takes more than a good tone to interest me. It IS overproduced.

[adamcz]

jgadvert, I am definately not so blind as to think that the general public wants to hear innovative, creative music. What they want to hear is stuff that is familiar to them so that they can feel included. However, this is not how music progresses. If everbody took the approach that was most profitable, we would be hearing the same exact rhythms and forms from now until the end of time. I never doubted that you have a heavy gigging schedule... in fact I assumed it as soon as you said you play like Chris. I want to make clear that I am not criticizing your playing, since I haven't even heard it... I am just going on the assumption (of course not entirely accurate) that you play just like Chris.

As far as telling a little more about myself... the fact that I haven't yet had much success financially or even musically does not mean that my ideals are wrong. I plan to spend my entire life developing my voice on the trumpet and through my compositions, and hopefully some day in the future, there will be people who appreciate what I've done or tried to do.

Let me mention Branford Marsalis for a second. Years ago he played on the Tonight Show, and made perhaps more money than any other jazz musician at the time (not by playing jazz of course). Eventually he relized he was dying musically, and quit so that he could develop the amazing music he's playing now. These days he plays smaller performance spaces, and often times has audiences walk out in the middle of his shows. However, his goal is to push the music forward, and in doing that as beautifully as he is, he is enjoying enormous success. Luckily musicians throughout history such as Gesualdo, Beethoven, Stravinsky, Messiaen, Cage, Charlie Parker, Ornette Coleman, and now Branford have chose to challenge themselves and their listeners, and in doing so have advanced the music. If not for them we might still be listening to Gregorian chants!

If it were a musician's job to make money, Chris Botti and Britney Spears would be more succesful than any of the names I just mentioned. But since it is a musician's job to play music, success should be measured in terms of the music that is played.

[jgadvert]

Very nice post Adam. I understand your point of view completely. Thank goodness their are musicians willing to push the boundries. As long as they can keep food on the table.
How many times have you seen a succesful commercial artist "change their musical formula" and go down the tubes(Sting might be a rare exception, havnt checked the sales of his recent Jazz album vs. The stuff with The Police)? That could be a post itself...its endless. Nice thing is they made millions first and then had the luxury to explore. When Chris Botti gets more dangerous, the same may happen to him to.

Pleasing Musicians=poverty(99% of the time)
Pleasing Audiences=continued prosperity(99% of the time)

BTW. I dont play anywhere near as well as Chris Botti. I just understand his "handlers" business approach. Its mearly applicable to my little microcosm approach to my local cover band.

[Yoinks]

See, the thing you have to understand about Chris Botti, is that this is absolutely not all he is capable of. He plays this kind of music TO MAKE MONEY, and of course he does enjoy it as ONE COMPONENT of his playing. However, Chris did not start out his career like this. Out of college he went to New York and did studio work with Randy Brecker and company. Chris can sightread like a madman in almost any style, bebop, funk, acid, modal, and of course the commercial studio stuff, etc. you name it, and can play almost anything. He could probably sit down and play the whole Real Book in all twelve keys like it was nothing. Like I said, I recently heard him live and he played a couple of bebop tunes that blew me away, and he sure can play loud if he wants to, and harsh.

If Chris' image ever fell through, or whatnot,(I don't see that happening soon) and he couldn't go this commercial route, beleive me, he could go make a lot of money and be an industry leader doing studio work and playing more straight ahead jazz. He absolutely COULD fall back on his trumpet playing abilities, quite easily actually.

[tom turner]

Hi,

Nice post Yoinks! The world is full of starving yet outstanding musicians who have great chops, exceeded only by their blinded ego . . . musicians who can't relate to people or fans . . . musicians who blame the fact they can't make much money on the horn on the idea that their music is so intellectually inaccessable that the "throng of cattle" can't appreciate them.

Culled from this great "herd" of talent comes men and women who actually ARE special in their talent.

Culled from this much smaller group are people who can actually function as sharp human beings in their interpersonal relationships and as business people . . . for these are the musicians who become successful in dealing with the business people who run studios, clubs, arenas and auditoriums--and the musicians who can be trusted to have their "stuff" together by the businessmen who hand over the investment capital.

Culled from this SMALL group are those young enough and good looking enough to attract the young market who spends their wages on recordings . . . and packs the arenas at $100 a ticket.

From this tiny group are culled the young lions who are willing (and able) to give up having a "life" and will commit to signing contracts that keep them bound to a (usually) VERY short life of endless motel rooms, travel and concerts.

To the Chris Bottis of the world I can only say, "GO FOR IT . . . TAKE THE OBSCENE AMOUNT OF MONEY THAT IS THROWN YOUR WAY ONLY FOR THAT SHORT "SEASON" AND ENJOY IT!" For the day will soon come when you have a wife and family that you want to be with . . . for the day will come when you are "too old" to market . . . for the day will come when you tire of playing the same song night after night and you begin to hate the songs that first freed--then "enslaved" you.

When the day comes that you hang up the road life, you can STILL play the intellectual stuff that so many strive to perfect . . . yet with ONE BIG difference . . . you'll have some REAL money to invest, to live luxuriously on, and to retire with!

DON'T "SELL OUT" YOUR POTENTIAL OF BEING SUCCESSFUL. The real "sell out" is to listen to people who don't want you to step out and be successful.

"Marketable" musicians have a commercial life almost as short as a fashion model's. GO FOR IT . . . and MORE POWER TO YA!

Sincerely,

Tom Turner

[ This Message was edited by: tom turner on 2002-04-10 13:19 ]

[pfrank]