Not Just Elevator Music Anymore...

One time… I met a boy at a club. We played a really intense flirtation game, and then I got sick, left him at the club, and woke up on the train the next morning in Brooklyn. The following week, I ran into the same boy at the same club and again the really intense flirtation game began. That weekend was my birthday and I ended up with someone else, but not before giving the boy my number.

He called me and the following weekend we met for drinks. He had a cold and wasn’t feeling well, but didn’t want to lose me again for the third week in row. After a night of partying, he insisted that I go home with him to his house on Long Island. We knew nothing was really going to happen because he was sick and he started coughing really badly.

To be honest, I really enjoyed his company, so I said why not? -- It doesn’t have to be about sex; and we headed to his house. It was a big beautiful house, in a nice neighborhood full of trees. It did not feel like NYC anymore, but rather like a real neighborhood. It was an amazing spring day. The sun was shining brightly.





He put me in his bed, a very nice sleigh bed with all white down pillows and a white down comforter. It was like lying on a cloud. He opened up all the windows of the house so that a nice breeze was blowing through it. It was very relaxing, and we fell asleep.

A few hours later, I woke up to find that he was in his living room putting a DVD in.
He explained to me that he had made a donation to a foundation, and they had sent him a DVD and tickets to the concert of a jazz musician by the name of Chris Botti. He just wanted to put the DVD in for music and he was coming back to bed. I sat down on his black leather couch and watched for a minute. I LOVED the music. It was a jazz trumpet player playing his own rendition of Ave Maria with the Boston Pops orchestra. We decided to watch the whole thing. I got cold on the couch and like a gentleman; he covered me with a blanket.


I was mesmerized by the music. It was so calm and relaxing. Chris Botti played the jazz trumpet while special guest like Sting, Lucia Micarelli, Katherine Mcphee, Josh Groban, Steven Tyler, Sy Smith, Yo-Yo Ma, and John Mayer performed. One of the Josh Groban songs made me cry.
I fell asleep again with the breeze blowing through the house and the relaxing jazz sounds of Chris Botti playing on the surround sound stereo system. It’s one of those pleasant kinds of moments that get etched in your mind forever. I woke up coughing—I think I caught his cold.

Growing up in Hawaii, I was never a big jazz fan. One time… in the 6th grade, Kenny G released a song called Songbird and everyone I knew loved the song. But that was pretty much the extent of my jazz exposure until I reached college. As a music major, I had to take classes on music history and ethnomusicology, where I learned about jazz, and how musicians would all take turns improvising melodies over the same 5 chords. I could appreciate the musicianship and how talented jazz players were, but I never really liked it. I classified it as elevator music that only old people like my parents listened to.

But here I am on a couch loving this jazz concert of Chris Botti.
Is it that I have finally matured enough to really appreciate jazz? Am I just getting old? Or is there something more to Chris Botti?

I knew that I wanted a ticket to the concert in NYC on June 4th -- not because the boy had a ticket and was going (I Like him a lot and we are becoming great friends, but he has a lot of drama including a boyfriend!).

Chris Botti would be playing at the Beacon Theatre on the upper west side. With my work schedule getting more and more hectic with the upfront negotiations beginning (the negotiating season between ad agencies and TV Networks), and me having to stay later and later, I decided I would buy a ticket the day of the performance. In the meantime, the CD on my IPod would do.

The night before the concert I realized that as much as I wanted to go, maybe I should spend that money on something that I needed—not that I didn’t have the money, just that I’ve been trying to really budget my money. I text messaged the guy and told him I hope he enjoyed his concert tomorrow.

He text messaged back: “How do you remember the concert is tomorrow, I forgot about it”.

“I remembered because I wanted to go and was still thinking of buying a ticket” I texted back.

“I have an extra ticket, you can come with me, and the tickets were free remember?” he said.

“Why me?” (And not your boyfriend I thought).

“Because you deserve to go”.

He told me to meet him in front of the Beacon at 10 till 8 the next night. All day at work I was worried that this would be the night that we pull an all-nighter and I wouldn't be able to go. I got out at 7:15 PM and headed on the 2 express train one stop from Times Square to 72nd Street. The Beacon Theatre was literally in sight of the 72nd Street station.

On the corner of Broadway, ticket scalpers shouting “Chris Botti, Chris Botti tickets”. A Woman walking next to me asked her friends how much she thought tickets to the concert were for. Having looked online several times, I kindly informed her that the cheapest tickets I saw were $50. “Oh I got my ticket for less than that, I was wondering about tickets from the scalper—I’m sitting way up there and maybe he has better seats. Are you going to the concert?” she asked.

“Yes” I replied.

“Where are you sitting and how much did you pay?” she asked.

I really didn’t know where I was sitting and the tickets were free, so I lied and said “in the orchestra, and I don’t know how much they were, a client of mine gave it to me”. I got worried. What if my tickets were right next to hers and not in the orchestra!

When I got to the theatre I looked up at the marquis.
It said in bright lights CHRIS BOTTI SOLD OUT TONIGHT. If I had purchased a ticket day-of-performance like my original plan was to be, I would not have been able to get in. Wow! Can you believe my luck?

I met the guy at the Starbucks on the corner. We ordered some coffee, he handed me my ticket. Row K Orchestra. Awesome seats! And I’m not next that lady!





We entered the theatre just as the lights went down and Chris Botti opened up with "Ave Maria"--just like the DVD. We got to our seats and I was immediately mesmerized. The whole audience was mesmerized.


Chris shared stories between sets about how he dropped out of college 4 months shy of graduating to play with Frank Sinatra, and how he toured with Sting who in the same day wrecked him AND made his career by taking him out of his band, and making him the opening act.

Chris’s band is amazing too.
I cannot even begin to describe his drummer, his piano player, and his guitar and bass players.
All I can say is go buy the DVD "Chris Botti in Boston" and you will understand and see firsthand how amazing they are. Remember, I am not a jazz fan!

There were two special guest performers from off of the DVD.
Lucia Micarelli, a very talented violinist whose rendition of Emmanuel with Chris actually made me cry. I have never heard the violin sound so clear and haunting. The other guest was Sy Smith, who happens to be the cousin of the guitar player.
Sy is a singer with one of those really sweet voices. She sang “The Look of Love”. She is also talented in that she can scat bebop and sound exactly like Chris Botti’s trumpet.

There were even funny moments like the band beginning a number having no clue where their drummer stepped out to-—he just wasn’t there! and the piano player had to call the dummer up to come back on his cell phone. And a moment when the guitar player decided to play Rod Stewart’s song “If you think I’m sexy”.


They also did the Flamenco Sketches—originally made famous by Miles Davis. It is one of those songs that each of the musicians would solo on over the same 5 chords—just like I learned in college!

They ended the whole evening by turning off all the microphones, and lights (except for one spotlight) and Chris stepping into the audience, and playing the last song as if we were in a dark smoky bar. AMAZING!




As the lights came up, I got to see the newly renovated look of the Beacon Theatre.
It was stunning. Golden statues of Greek gods. I’d say this was one of the most beautiful theatres I have ever been in.


Chris Botti is an amazing musician, and I have to hold him up there with my favorites, and do I dare say... yes up there with Britney and Madonna. Britney and Madonna know how to put on a show. But Chris Botti knows how to put on a show with just music, not dance, not words, but pure music. That is true talent.


He will be performing this concert again in New Jersey in November (he is on a 5 year world tour), and at the end of this year, he is doing a 3 week residency of 44 shows at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York so be sure to catch him. In the meantime, check out the DVD CHRIS BOTTI IN BOSTON. It will be well worth your time to culture yourself with some jazz music.

For Real, Seriously!