Jazz trumpeter Chris Botti wins over MCA audience

If you consider the way Chris Botti dressed at his concert Sunday at the Maine Center for the Arts, you can arrive at some idea about his audience and his aesthetic. He wears jeans (youth crowd), spikes his hair (grunge crowd) and sports a blue velvet jacket (Doc Severnsen all the way).

But when Botti, who is 43 and riding a high wave of celebrity these days, starts blowing the trumpet, the distinctions fall away. The man can play. And while he may have been a bit too loud at times for the older crowd, a bit too tender at times for the younger crowd, and – it has to be said – just right for the Doc Severnsen crowd, he proved that Wynton Marsalis isn’t the only trumpet player worthy of headlining a jazz concert.

Sunday’s concert was Botti’s first time in the state as a solo artist, and he quickly won over the crowd with his opening tune, a sultry version of “Embraceable You.” Botti mikes his instrument, creating a reverberated sound so romantic and dreamy that it’s impossible to do anything but sigh at the prettiness.

When he got rocking in a jam session with his three-piece band, however, Botti showed off his tricks. He’s an athletic player, moving around the notes with speed and smoothness rather than pyrotechnics. The sound was sexy and luscious, but then it popped like champagne. You might not say it was steamy, but it was plenty hot.

It’s not natural for a trumpet to fade into the background of a quartet, but Botti proved himself a generous leader, giving ample solo time to Andy Ezrin on keyboards, Jon Ossman on stand-up bass and the vividly agile and versatile Billy Kilson on drums. Jeanne Jolly, a singer from Los Angeles, joined the quartet late in the show to croon out a few numbers, including “Good Morning, Heartache,” “What’ll I Do,” and “Lover Man.” While Jolly’s voice is lovely enough, she came on too late to join the band’s groove. The result: She was overpowered.

Although some may have been surprised at Botti’s repeated mention of a girl-done-me-wrong line (except he didn’t use the word “girl”), he was in every other way a personable and entertaining stage presence, telling stories and at one point jumping into the audience during a piano solo and taking a seat next to a young boy at his first jazz concert.

“Bring your kids to see live music,” he instructed the audience. He then told how, at 12, his life was changed by a band director who turned him on to one song. It was Miles Davis playing “My Funny Valentine,” which Botti also performed before closing the 100-minute show with an encore of “One for My Baby (And One More for the Road).”

Alicia Anstead can be reached at 990-8266 and aanstead@bangordailynews.net.