Born in 1962, Chris Botti was introduced to music by his mother, who was a musician herself trained in classical piano. He started playing the trumpet at age nine, and eventually enrolled at the prestigious Indiana University music programme later as a young adult, working with jazz educator David Baker and trumpeter Bill Adam. In his time there, he won two National Endowment of the Arts Grants, which he used to study privately with trumpeter Woody Shaw and saxophonist George Coleman. He left college early in his senior year, touring with Buddy Rich and Frank Sinatra before relocating to New York City. He worked with a number of artists in the next few years, notably Paul Simon as well as others such as Joni Mitchell, Bette Midler, Aretha Franklin and the Brecker Brothers.
As a leader, Botti made his solo debut in 1995 with First Wish, which combined the sounds of contemporary pop-jazz with the textures of art rock. He scored the film Caught in 1996, then released two more albums in the next few years. His work caught the attention of Sting, who invited Botti to tour with him as a featured soloist. Botti’s time with Sting allowed him to refine his style and sound, resulting in three successive albums: Night Sessions (2001), December (2002) and A Thousand Kisses Deep (2002), which all ascended high on Billboard’s jazz charts.
The trumpeter’s true breakthrough came in 2004 with When I Fall in Love, an album that embraced a more traditional orchestral jazz style with vocal features from Sting and Paula Cole. The record hit number one on the jazz charts and was his first Top 40 entry. A year later, he again topped the jazz charts and reached number 18 on the Billboard 200 with To Love Again: The Duets, an album which again featured Paula Cole, alongside Jill Scott and Michael Bublé. These albums were followed by the opera influenced Italia (2007) and Live in Boston (2009). In 2012, he released the melodic Impressions, which saw Botti collaborating with jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, guitarist Mark Knopfler, country singer Vince Gill, music legend David Foster, among many others. The album received critical acclaim and was awarded the GRAMMY for Best Instrumental Pop Album. For much of the next decade, Botti toured heavily in his home country and around the world, only returning to the studio in 2023 for his 11th studio album, Vol 1.
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