Monday, Nov. 12, 2007 | 7:08 a.m.
Who: Chris Botti
When: 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 16.
Where: Ovation at Green Valley Ranch.
Tickets: $52 and $63; 617-7777
Trumpeter Chris Botti is "homeless."
It's not that he can't afford a home - even several homes anywhere in the world. It's just that he prefers the vagabond life at this stage in his career.
"I have no residence," he said during a recent telephone interview from Los Angeles, where he's taping the Larry King show. "No residence anywhere. I have one suitcase, a trumpet and a carry-on bag. I have no storage shed. I own no possessions at all. My business manager gets all my mail and I just roll from town to town with my band."
He'll roll into town Friday to play at the Ovation at Green Valley Ranch.
"I'm busy usually 330 days a year," he says. "There may be 30 days off, scattered around. I just don't live anywhere."
Botti, 45, was born and raised in Portland, Ore. But after he left home, went to college and began finding success with his trumpet, he became a nomad.
He won critical acclaim for his solo jazz debut, "First Wish," in 1995 but gained more attention recording with a range of pop artists, including Paul Simon, Bette Midler, Aretha Franklin, Linda Eder and Ratt. He hit it big when his album "When I Fall in Love" hit No. 1 on the jazz charts and followed the next year with "To Love Again: The Duets." He won a Grammy in 2006 for "What Are You Doing for the Rest of Your Life?"
Botti's 10th album, "Italia," hit No. 1 this year with the title song sung by Andrea Bocelli and a beyond-the-grave duet with Dean Martin on "I've Grown Accustomed to Your Face."
Moviegoers will hear Botti this Christmas playing in "The Bucket List," directed by Rob Reiner and starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman.
"Trust me," Botti says. "This movie is going to be a huge success. It's beautiful."
It has some advantages, certainly, for the kind of life I have. I'm aware of my good fortune to, as a jazz musician, to be able to play this many places in the world. I'm going to Russia in couple of weeks, then Hungary and in the spring to China for the first time and then Japan, Poland, England. It's just so much fun to travel to so many places and have these huge audiences.
What sorts of venues do you play in?
We do everything from big outdoor arenas that seat 6,000 to 7,000 to 10,000 people to 500 seaters on multiple nights. I'm going to finish the year at the Blue Note in New York - 34 shows, 350 seats, two shows a night. I enjoy the variety of going in and flexing our jazz muscles in the smaller venues and then turn around the next day and go stand on a big stage in front of a whole mess of people and play more of a pop show, even though it's still jazz.
What's your take on the state of jazz these days?
I don't know. It's genre specific. I've been fortunate the last few years with great audiences for my tours, but I think as a whole you might find four, five, six or 12 jazz musicians not doing anything and one doing something. It's not like country music where the whole genre is having a resurgence of acceptance. Jazz is more artist driven. That's what people react to, the specific artist.
How did you get started in music?
Mother. She got me into the piano. She played piano and would teach me, but more than anything she got me into being dedicated to an instrument. She instilled upon me the importance of dedication and patience. I think when you're a kid, playing instruments - whether cello, trumpet or piano or something - you've really got to get into that aspect of it, the dedication. So many times young people pick up an instrument and expect that instant gratification that they get from the Internet or Game Boy. They expect that, and when it doesn't come right away they move on. I pushed through all that stuff and stayed with it. I switched to the trumpet from the piano in the third or fourth grade. Then I heard Miles Davis when I was 12 or 13 and I instantly knew I wanted to try to play music the rest of my life. I was totally fascinated by that melancholy, beautiful sound of Miles Davis. That's what did it for me.
What was your first professional gig?
Playing with Frank Sinatra. When I say professional, it's not when I was 16 and playing in a club and they would give me 20 bucks. I define professional as when you're out on your own, not in college and out on your own. I dropped out of Indiana University in 1984 and my first professional gig was three weeks later with Frank Sinatra in Los Angeles at the Universal Amphitheater. That was a big time thrill for me, but it wasn't even a blip on the radar for Sinatra. I mean it was an incredible experience. I tell the story a lot. He came in for the first sound check and called for "Fly Me to the Moon" and in the middle of the song is a trumpet solo, but I was so nervous. I had dropped out of school like the day before. I think Sinatra sensed I was nervous and congratulated me on my solo. I was so delusional about the comment I thought he and I were best friends and I went over and tried to hang with him during a break. He was polite but his assistant put his arm around me and said, "Don't bother Mr. Sinatra anymore, kid."
Has your career been a struggle?
I did all the usual struggling. I moved to New York. I didn't know anyone there. There were times early in my career when I was completely broke and doing crazy gigs in really bad neighborhoods - gigs that started at 2 in the morning. That's what you do when you're a young naive kid in New York, trying to pay the rent. I quickly adopted the philosophy of trying to be the jazz musician that sophisticated pop musicians would go to. So early on I worked a long time with Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell. But my big break was my association with Sting. To this day he's been the person most responsible for my worldwide exposure.
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