[Menvi-discuss] A Night With My Dad And Trumpeter Chris Botti

[Chela Robles]

As several of you may be aware, last year on a facebook group, Smooth
Jazz Spot (smoothjazzspot.com) which is run by Ken Levinson, had a
discussion back in March about alternative ways of listening to jazz,
in particular, smooth jazz since all the terrestrial radio stations
that were playing primarily smooth jazz are owned by Clear Channel,
decided to go rock style instead. Somehow in the middle of the
discusson, it shifted to who our favorite artists are and some of them
actually have links to their brodcasts like Dave Koz. I mentioned
Chris Botti as my top favorite and the owner told me that I sould
contact him and tell him meaning Chris Botti, that his music inspires
me to play. I laughed at the thought of it and told Ken off the group
in an email how could it be done and the web site is not screen reader
friendly not to mention when he had the amazon.com chat about his Live
In Boston CD, the chat wasn't accessible because it was using meebo
text and he had or has a UStream I could listen to. I said Fat chance.
But It was Ken Levinson who really nudged me to go for it! He told me
to compose an email to him, Ken Levinson, and then Ken said he'd give
it to his friend who also is Chris Botti's friend, saxophonist, Dave
Koz, who then would give it to Chris Botti who ended up eventually
sharing it with Archie Castillo, a nice gentleman, who had told me in
an email that Chris invited me to his concert at the same venue it was
last night on June 3rd, right near my dad's birthday last year and
when he had heard I couldn't make it he said next time, which turned
out to be last night.
So my 26th birthday comes along and my mom and dad were telling me we
should go to Yoshi's instead because Chris Botti's concert this year
is expensive almost literally $300 for two people to go, so I really
wanted to go, I was desperate and prayed that somehow Archie could
offer me two free complementary tickets the next day. So, April 7th
comes along and I get an email from Archie Castillo! Thank God for
people like him! He told me he had two tickets available for me under
my name and that they are free and would be available at will call at
6 PM., night of the concert and that Chris would be available to
autograph CD's, but since the line was too long I and my dad just
figured just seeing him in concert was enough, I didn't care if I had
an autograph, call me crazy but I can't see it, and would have loved
it, but in all honesty, Chris and Archie made my day and that is all I
needede. I would have personally thanked Chris for his gracious
invitation but there were hundreds and hundreds of people of all ages
waiting to see him. So we left. but I'm sure I'm getting ahead of
myself so let me tell you how it really went from beginning to end
which I'll summarize for you.
My mom helped me with my makeup and straightened my hair with her
curling/flat iron which I'm afraid of by the way! Then I at 3 o'clock,
called the box office to double check if the tickets made it and they
said yes. So I dressed up and was wearing a silk black dress that went
to the knees, my boots, a nice necklace, and a nice black sweater. Mom
lent me the necklace and sweater. My dad wore slacks and nice shirt.
Mom took a picture of us before we left. Thanks to dad's GPS we found
the Davies Symphony Hall and the Lighthouse For The Blind is across
the street. We got the tickets, then since the dors didn't open until
7, we decided to go grab dinner. Well we didn't actually grab and run,
we had dad's GPS suggest a very nice Italian restaurant to go to and
the food was great. I had the pasta special which was Penne with
lobster sauce and prauns and my dad had halibut in parchment paper the
other special. He introduced me to my first glass of wine. I had
Marleau and the brand name is Frogs Leap. After the third sip I really
enjoyed it. It made me feel calm unlike wild. After our meal, we go
back to the Davies Symphony Hall and we snag a parking spot, not
handicap, but at a meeter, and my dad paid the meeter just in case
they could care less about my placard. We listened to the Martini
Brothers playing three numbers from Frank Sinatra. Then, we located
our seats and we were 9 rows away from the stage and at one point in
the concert, I was jealous of dad because Chris Botti was 30 feet
away, but my dad got caught for taking a picture of Chris, when a lady
confronted him, I just laughed to myself and later joked with dad
about it in the car. But best thing of all even though there was noat
allowed flash photography and cell phones had to be turned off, and no
recording, I snuck in my DS50 Digital Voice Recorder and no one knew.
Yes call me a sly jazz cat but if there weren't going to be any
pictures, I figured capture it somehow. The audio turned out well, but
nfortuantely I just found out my recorder and its software is not
compatible with my version of Windows. It goes from XP to Vista, yuck!
So I'm praying I'll get an XP Desktop so I can load it on there
someday even though I've grown accustomed to Windows 7 face but what I
need to do is what I need to do for whatever my DS50 software from
Olympus is compatible with.
Chris was amazing though I didn't care for the singer, Lisa Phischer
who basically ruined the last song, "Italia." I told dad that jazz is
my Star Bucks naturally! Now he knows why I like Chris Botti's music a
lot that and the fact he is very entertaining and funny! I was so
wrapped up in all his songs, time flew by fast and with every
perfermance of his my head was dancing to it, I did my impression oif
Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles and no one stopped me! He is very
flirtatious musically I c an tell, I dug every note he played improv
or not, it was amazing! That was one night I'll never ever forget
thanks to Chris Botti and Archie and Dave Koz and Ken Levinson for a
wonderful birthday gift for my 26th year, it was the best father
daughter date I ever had! Virtual Hugs one for each of you!
I ended up home about half past 11. Oh it was so hard for me to
actually sleep so ended up just counting all the high notes he had
played and could still hear in my ears right now, too many to count so
that is how i fell asleep quickly I guess. All in all it was a good
show. The drummer was awesome Everyone did a great job, except when
the lady who sang all the other songs, which turned out good,
literally killed "Italia."
All in all I had a wonderful time with dad and Chris and that wraps up
this note. With many thanks! Chela who feels revived musically thanks
to Chris Botti! I'll practice my trumpet now!
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"To me, music that breaks your heart is the music that stays with you
forever. It's one thing to be melancholy and one thing to be sophisticated,
but when you get the two of them together in a way people can relate to,
then I think you're on to something. You want the sophistication to lie in
the purity of the sound, the beauty of the arrangements, and the quality of
the performances."-Trumpeter Chris Botti
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Chela Robles
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