First of all, let’s accentuate the positive. Chris Botti, a trumpeter who has paid his dues with Sinatra and Sting, possesses a truly winning personality and a self-deprecatingly droll line in patter. His group includes an exceptional guitarist in Mark Whitfield. And on a forbidding winter’s night the musicians managed to fill Ronnie Scott’s with bright young things who are now that crucial target audience in the land of the bottom line.
Jazz desperately needs personalities, and Botti (pronounced “boat-ee”) has charisma to spare. It’s easy to see why Sony regard him as a hot investment. Swoon away, girls.
But the music? Well, if Michael Bubl? or Robbie Williams in a tux is your idea of the ultimate swing machine, then there’s no reason not to enjoy Botti’s brand of smooth jazz. It’s always possible that people who hear him play My Funny Valentine will go on to explore a Miles Davis version or two. As a Jamie Cullum admirer (just please don’t judge him by the albums) I’m all in favour of seeing jazz reconnect with the marketplace.
On the other hand, there’s an unsettling air of calculation about the horn player. Where Cullum likes to slip into freefall mode, Botti leaves nothing to chance on Someone To Watch Over Me or When I Fall in Love. Every phrase is golden, every ornament polished to a dazzling glow. Apart from the moments when Whitfield is given his head, the results are strangely lifeless, although we did catch a flicker of emotion in Are You Lonesome Tonight , thanks to a guest appearance by the Blue Nile’s vocalist Paul Buchanan.
Amplification adds to the sense of unreality, the mike attached to the bell of Botti’s horn creating an unearthly reverb that gives the impression that he is phoning in his solos from a downstairs bathroom. When he announced that he was about to play the love theme from Cinema Paradiso, I thought for a moment that things were looking up. Botti, however, was presumably referring to some imaginary remake set in a Beverly Hills multiplex, with Adam Sandler playing a youth obsessed with the magic of low-fat popcorn.
Box office: 020-7439 0747. Ends tonight