Just attended Chris Botti's performance in the Matthews Auditorium of McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey, tonight.
As always, Chris put on a great show. He had five sidemen - piano, guitar, bass, drums, and electronic keyboard, and three guest artists - violinist, female vocalist, and male vocalist. All were extraordinary performers.
The material range from straight jazz (like Flamenco Sketches) to pop jazz (like Look of Love and Let's Stay Together) to neo-classical jazz (like Italia and Emmanuel). It was quite a tour de force, although I personally preferred the pop jazz numbers he featured more in earlier appearances.
I'm glad he has kept Look of Love in his routine since it is still my favorite, with its inspired original arrangement and its knockout opening. Auhmmm,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muisPg2ti8Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGTDwiGxkzU
The performance was electronically augmented through the room's substantial audio equippage, even while Botti and female vocalist Sy Smith walked up the aisles engaging the audience in some of the numbers. By the way, he welcomed the audience to take pics and make recordings as we wished -- no copyright lawyers here.
Notably, while Botti's tour travels the world, there are some devotees that are so taken that they follow his travels to attend his performances in many geographically diverse venues.
I wish I could be one of them. Ahem.
