Chris Botti Begins Blue Note Performances on Wednesday

Chris Botti returns to the Blue Note with his band this Monday for his annual 3-week residency including New Year's Eve. This year's lineup features Chris Botti (trumpet), Billy Kilson (drums), Billy Childs(piano), Lisa Fischer (vocals), Ben Butler (guitar 12/17-26),Leonardo Amuedo (guitar 12/27-1/6), Richie Goods (bass), Andy Ezrin (keyboards), Arianna Warsaw-Fan (violin 12/17-26), andCaroline Campbell (violin 12/27-1/6). New Year's Eve will include a champagne toast, hats, noisemakers, a countdown and balloon drop.

Since the release of his 2004 critically acclaimed CD When I Fall In Love, Chris Botti has become the largest-selling American instrumental artist. His success has crossed over to audiences usually reserved for pop music and his ongoing association with PBS has led to four #1 jazz albums, as well as multiple Gold, Platinum and Grammy Awards. Performing worldwide and selling more than three million albums, he has found a form of creative expression that begins in jazz and expands beyond the limits of any single genre.

Over the past three decades, Botti has recorded and performed with the best in music, including Sting, Barbra Streisand, Josh Groban,Michael Bublé, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, John Mayer, Andrea Bocelli, Joshua Bell, Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and even Frank Sinatra. Hitting the road for as many as 300 days per year, the trumpeter has also performed with many of the finest symphonies and at some of the world's most prestigious venues from Carnegie Hall and the Hollywood Bowl to the Sydney Opera House and the Real Teatro di San Carlo in Italy.

Impressions, Botti's 2012 Columbia Records release, is the latest in a stellar parade of albums - including When I Fall In Love (2004), To Love Again: The Duets (2005), Italia (2007), and the CD/DVD Chris Botti in Boston (2009) - that has firmly established him as a clarion voice in the American contemporary music scene. Playing with his uniquely expressive sound and soaring musical imagination, Botti is joined on the disc by featured artists Andrea Bocelli, Vince Gill,Herbie Hancock, Mark Knopfler, and David Foster in a warm, intimate celebration of melodic balladry.

With Impressions and the albums that preceded it, Chris Botti has thoroughly established himself as one of the important, innovative figures of the contemporary music world.

When: Monday, December 17 through Sunday, January 6, 8pm & 10:30pm

Where: The Blue Note, 131 West 3rd Street, New York, NY 10012

Tickets: $65-75 table seats, $40 at the bar. New Year's Eve: 7pm $125 table seats, $75 at the bar; 10pm $150 table seats, $95 at the bar.