Chris Botti

At the Queen Elizabeth Theatre

The Vancouver International Jazz Festival presents Chris Botti with special guest Michael Kaeshammer

Multiple Billboard jazz chart #1s, RIAA-certified Gold and Platinum records, numerous nominations and a GRAMMY Award for Best Pop Instrumental—how could Chris Botti possibly top all of that? Well, with “a trumpet sound that suggests the softer side of luminosity, the realm of sunsets and half-moons and low-wattage incandescence”, the largest-selling American instrumental artist’s “studio output is to his live show what a votive candle is to a fireworks display” (New York Times).

Through a string of stellar albums as a leader, plus work with an encyclopedia of pop and jazz A-listers—including Sting, Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett, Lady Gaga, Yo-Yo Ma, Michael Bublé, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Herbie Hancock, Andrea Bocelli, and even Frank Sinatra—Botti has thoroughly established himself as a clarion voice in contemporary music. Whether he’s calling upon firepower or finesse, Chris Botti is a showman, artist, and bandleader extraordinaire.

Michael Kaeshammer
Michael Kaeshammer isn’t so much a piano player as a piano whisperer, able to coax dazzling, kaleidoscopic sounds from the instrument in a way few can rival. The German-born, BC-based Kaeshammer released his debut album Blue Keys back in 1996, at the tender age of twenty-one. Countless collaborations, solo records, JUNO nominations and Western Canadian Music Awards later, he unveils the eclectic and energetic Turn It Up. It’s very much a post-lockdown record, with Kaeshammer’s uplifting storytelling and pop-driven crossover of classical, jazz, blues and boogie-woogie beckoning us out of isolation and into shared joy.