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For Chris Botti, all roads lead back to Sting

Playing Kuss Auditorium on Sept. 26, Botti is America’s biggest-selling jazz artist

In the wake of his 2004 breakthrough, "When I Fall in Love," Chris Botti has become the biggest-selling jazz artist in the country.

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By Andrew McGinn, Staff Writer 4:02 PM Thursday, September 24, 2009

SPRINGFIELD — He’s smooth. He’s sophisticated.

He’s got a spit valve.

And the first time trumpeter Chris Botti took the stage with Sting, spit happened.

“I walked on stage,” he recalled, “and a big spit came down on some woman.”

He can laugh about it now — Botti has emerged as the biggest-selling jazz artist in America.

Playing Kuss Auditorium on Saturday, Sept. 26, this is a guy who makes blockbuster pledge-drive specials for PBS, surrounds himself with pop stars and turns out Top 40 albums.

Yet, he still talks about the way Miles would’ve done it.

“Am I a traditional, swing-based musician in the way Wynton is? Absolutely not,” Botti said. “You define yourself by what you do and what you don’t do.”

Miles, he said, didn’t have Dizzy’s chops.

“So what did he do? He deconstructed everything and made ‘Kind of Blue,’ ” Botti said.

A pop album, he insists.

“They used restraint on ‘Kind of Blue’ like no other,” he said.

Curiously, the 1959 album is really the only one Miles sold to people outside jazz circles.

So it’s not surprising that Botti, one of People magazine’s 50 most beautiful people of 2004, is courting the mainstream like no one else in jazz.

For “Chris Botti in Boston,” his most recent PBS special, he was able to corral Sting, John Mayer, Josh Groban, Yo-Yo Ma and even Steven Tyler of Aerosmith (not to mention the Boston Pops) to join him.

Then again, Botti is a product of the mainstream.

“I wouldn’t be here talking on the phone right now had it not been for Sting,” he said. “All roads lead back to that association.”

Having already played with Paul Simon, it was Sting who became Botti’s true benefactor, featuring him on the Brand New Day tour in 1999.

“He single-handedly gave me a career,” Botti said.

Go ahead and call him smooth jazz — a term Botti says is applied to any jazz musician who gets airplay.

“If you don’t get on the radio,” he said, “you’re Wynton Marsalis and Roy Hargrove.”

But to disarm any would-be critics, Botti strives to maintain a jaw-dropping band.

“Miles was certainly the greatest trumpet player for a number of reasons,” he said. “Conceptually would be number one. And Miles surrounded himself with the best band.”

Botti is after the same concept — when Miles stepped off to the side, you got Herbie Hancock or Wayne Shorter.

When he steps off, you get pianist Billy Childs or drummer Billy Kilson.

“You don’t have to score every basket. You can assist,” Botti said. “Your team is still going to win.”

Besides, he needs time to go empty the spit valve.

“I try to discreetly get rid of it,” he said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0352 or amcginn@coxohio.com.