September 8, 2023
GRAMMY-winning trumpeter Chris Botti has released a stunning new version of “My Funny Valentine” featuring a passionate special guest performance by violin virtuoso Joshua Bell and a first-class band comprised of Taylor Eigsti on piano, Thomas Morgan on bass, and Vinnie Colaiuta on drums. It’s the second single to be revealed from Botti’s forthcoming Blue Note Records debut Vol. 1 out October 20, a beautiful ballads collection produced by David Foster. One of the most popular instrumentalists in the world, Botti makes a fresh start on Vol.1. Having successfully crossed over from jazz renown to pop stardom, the trumpeter’s first album in more than a decade finds him crossing back with a small group project focused on acoustic jazz and classic standards.
Botti will be touring extensively across the U.S. this Fall including the return of his beloved Annual Holiday Residency at the storied Greenwich Village jazz club Blue Note New York where he’ll be performing from December 11 to January 7. Visit chrisbotti.com for a full list of tour dates.
“I turned 60 in 2022, at a time that seemed like a restart for so many things in the world,” Botti says. “I wanted to strip away all the orchestral arrangements and focus more on my playing, the playing of my band, and these jazz classics that we always love playing on stage.”
While Botti could boast of the major names with whom he’s shared stages, this project allows him to share his enthusiasm for the jazz greats past and present that excite him from Miles Davis to Keith Jarrett to Pat Metheny to Brad Mehldau. He points to landmark albums like Davis’ Kind of Blue, John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, or Metheny’s duo outing with Charlie Haden Beyond the Missouri Sky as models for the kind of sophisticated mood music he set out to make.
Not that Vol. 1 is a complete about-face – longtime fans will immediately recognize Botti’s glowing tone and regal melodicism, as well as his flair for investing the narrative of a song with high drama and vibrant emotion. “There’s a cinematic quality that I like to hear in music, and that I’ve found that audiences really love,” he says. “The essence of that remains on this album. It’s paramount to me that there is incredible beauty and elegance to all of the performances.”
