Chris Botti

First published on 9 Jun 2010. Updated on 5 Apr 2011.

Chris Botti took his sweet time getting to Australia as a solo artist. The talented trumpeter has come through as a world tour wingman for the likes of Sting and Paul Simon, but his back-to-back shows at the Basement this month will be his first in town as a headlining performer. The chart-topping jazz player comes to Sydney with his latest CD/DVD release, Chris Botti in Boston, recorded with the Boston Pops Orchestra and a surprising medley of musicians including Steven Tyler, Josh Groban and John Mayer.

Where are you right now?
I'm at home in Los Angeles. I have a rare few days off. We are on the road nearly 300 days a year.

That's doesn't leave for much downtime. Are you doing anything exciting with it?
I don't do much. I just practise my trumpet a lot. If you have any time where you can actually learn something new or work on your craft, you take it.

Are you looking forward to Australia?
Australia is right at the top of the list of countries I'm dying to visit. The audience in Australia has a real strong affection for that jazz-classical-pop crossover sound. They're into it. And there isn't a language barrier. It makes it much more daunting for someone like me to go to Eastern Europe, Jakarta or Japan where they might not understand the music or where we're coming from. I've been crafting one of the best bands out there, so I'm really optimistic about these shows.

One of the best? Anyone we might know?
If you've seen the Rolling Stones in the last 20 years in concert, they have a guest singer that they bring with them everywhere named Lisa Fischer. She does all the duets with Mick. The Rolling Stones have had her for the last 20 years. She's now in my band for the next seven months and she's coming to Australia. She walks on stage and she's one of the greatest singers out there today, with a register like Mariah Carey and the stage presence of Tina Turner.

Snagging her from the Rolling Stones sounds like a major coup.
When they go back on tour, she'll be back out with them.  With the amount of money they pay her, of course she will!

Take us back to the very beginning.
I started to play the trumpet when I was nine. When I was 12, I heard the music of Miles Davis. His trumpet was so melancholy and haunting and beautiful that it triggered something in me. After that, I knew I wanted to be a musician for the rest of my life.

The road to fame can be tough. Did you ever have a backup career in mind?
No. When I meet a young musician who says, "If this doesn't work out, I have something to fall back on," I guarantee you nine times out of nine, they fall back. You have to be slightly crazy to be a musician in the first place because there is no security. There is no guarantee of anything and the stakes are so high.

Josh Groban, John Mayer, Steven Tyler and Yo-Yo Ma are just a few huge names that appear on …in Boston. How did you pull that off?
They're all friends, first and foremost. I basically just called them up and asked them if they wanted to do this. It's not like someone at the record company said, "Hey kid, this is someone you've got to work with."  They're all people I've played with throughout the years. It made for a real eclectic night.

Why choose Boston's Symphony Hall as the staging ground for this release?
Boston Symphony Hall and Carnegie Hall rank as two of the most high profile symphony halls in America. What Boston has is the Boston Pops, that legendary crossover orchestra. We wanted to do something with them and they were thrilled. It came off great.

You do regular orchestral gigs. What keeps you coming back to that sound?
Textures. You get the band rocking out when they need to, but also, you get all of the soft stuff. The audience just loves it. We've made performing with orchestras throughout the world a real focal point for my career.

Sting, Paul Simon, Josh Groban, John Mayer. Is there anyone left on Earth you haven't played with?
Peter Gabriel. He's at the top of my short list. That's the one person. I'm such a huge admirer of his voice. Maybe one of these days we'll do something. Who knows? Gerald M. Gay