Introducing Mr Chris Botti...

Last night, along with my good friends Chris & Jenny, I had the absolute pleasure of seeing Jazz trumpeter extraordinaire Chris Botti live in concert at the Tivoli here in Brisbane...

Now the reaction I got from most people I know when I mentioned I was going to this show was "Chris who???".   Well, by way of introduction, Grammy nominated Chris has been the opening act for the likes of Josh Groban, Sting and Paul Simon; as well as recording with some of the world's greatest musical artists from Frank Sinatra, Michael Buble, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, John Mayer, Andrea Bocelli, Joshua Bell and even Aerosmith's Steven Tyler.

Broken Vow - featuring Josh Groban

Shape of My Heart - featuring Sting & Josh Groban

Chris was even voted as one of People magazines 50 Most Beautiful People in 2004.

Thanks to a pre-sale I was lucky enough to secure the three of us front row center tickets (SCORE) - especially those moments when Chris was looking directly at you. And at one stage he and his vocalist (the amazing Lisa Fischer, who is most known as the touring vocalist for The Rolling Stone) came down into the crowd to do a couple of numbers. Now while Lisa took the stairs, Chris just jumped right down from the stage literally right in front of me. At this point, my friend Chris (not to be too confusing) got to shake his hand and he thanked her for coming along to the show.  The next couple of pics were taken while both he and Lisa were on the floor right near us and show just how close we were.

Can't get much closer than this...

There were so many highlights during the show and one of my favorites was when he did the Leonard Cohen classic "Hallelujah" with his guitarist Mark Whitfield.  Below is a clip I've found from the Live in Boston DVD which gives you an idea of what it was like.

Hallelujah

At one point during the show, Chris mentioned David Foster and then went on to mention Josh. Well we couldn't help ourselves and gave a bit of a cheer (I know, we're so predictable)...

- so then when he starts his encore he looks directly at us (which, let's be honest, he did a fair bit during the show as being in the front row definitely has its perks) and said something like "You're the Josh Groban fans aren't you, well this is a song I've done before with Josh" and Lisa rejoined him on stage to sing "Broken Vow"... 

Lisa and Chris during "Broken Vow"...

As an unusual end to the show, Chris even invited the brother & sister of his Qld born violinist, Caroline Campbell, to the stage to rock out on drum during Nessun Dorma.

Much to our inner fan-girl excitement, Chris came out to the foyer of the Tivoli to sign autographs after the show.  We waited to quite near the end, and when it was out turn he was like you were the "Josh Groban fans in the front row".  So this gave me the perfect opportunity to tell it that it was thanks to Josh that I was introduced to his music. He then asked if Josh was touring out here and I told him that there were no plans as yet, but we were hopeful for next year.  I then mentioned that I was going to the States to see him in November and he wanted to know where. I had a little bit of a brain freeze, but was able to eventually remember and I told him that I hoped Josh would be ready for me.  He then joked that he'd text him tonight to let him know.  It was really quite surreal, and probably a good thing we waited to be at the end of the queue for the signing.  He even wanted to know if I'd seen him in concert before, which of course I have and listed Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and London for Chess. He asked Chris what her favorite Josh song off the new album and she responded "Higher Window" and he was like "that's mine as well"...  I've probably forgotten some other major points of this conversation, but I vaguely recall him asking if I'd heard other versions of Broken Vow like Lara Fabien etc.   Anyway, enough of my babbling, here are the pics from after the show -

Happy concert goers...

Me & Chris...

Chris & Jenny...

Oh look, it's a "Botti Sandwich"...

And my prized autographs...

Here's hoping Chris comes back our way soon and that I'm able to score such great tickets once again.

While I didn't take all that many photos and just enjoyed the show, my gallery can be found here.