At the precise moment when a corporate reshuffling and a reduced roster led to death knells in the press for
Columbia Records'
jazz division,
Chris Botti was signing on after three albums at rival
Verve, the
jazz arm of
Universal. Along with
Bela Fleck, poached from
Warner Bros.,
Botti seemed to represent the new lean-and-mean
Columbia Jazz, an eclectic, contemporary artist with considerable crossover potential to go with his
jazz legitimacy. While the dominant sound on
Botti's
Columbia debut is naturally his haunting, minor-key trumpet playing, highly reminiscent of the more introspective aspect of
Miles Davis, his original music, co-written with one-name producer
Kipper, is strongly reminiscent of the
pop-jazz approach of his most recent employer,
Sting, whose tour hiatus created the opportunity for the recording of the album.
Sting even contributes a song, the
samba-paced "All Would Envy," complete with lyrics describing a wealthy May-December marriage, sung by
Shawn Colvin. But elsewhere his spare, stylish, multi-cultural music provides a guiding principle.
Botti is true to the basic tenets of
smooth jazz, which hold that a steady beat within a propulsive rhythm track must be maintained, over which the soloist makes his presence felt. But he and
Kipper keep things simple, often using an acoustic guitar to create musical textures more suggestive of Rio than west Los Angeles, where the record was actually cut. And even with his less-is-more style of playing,
Botti is capable of coming up with melodies that would be strong enough to support lyrics if someone wanted to write them. (A good example is
"Light the Stars.")
"Easter Parade," the final track, is by the members of
the Blue Nile, another good touchstone for the trumpeter's moody, atmospheric sound. The result is a step above most of the cookie-cutter contemporary
jazz albums of the day. ~ William Ruhlmann
