Beaumont Club, Kansas City, MO
February 18, 2006
It was freezing cold outside the Beaumont
Club, on most nights a Country-Western bar, but inside it was
sizzling hot with the music of David Sanborn and Chris Botti. After
a delay in the start time, due to cancelled flights for David
and Chris, they hit the stage. Kansas City’s only
Smooth Jazz station switched to Country over a year ago, and
the fans have been starved for live music from our nationally
known contemporary jazz artists. Over 1,500 people packed
the venue and didn’t care that it started late!
Chris started off with “When I Fall in Love” with
accompaniment from David. He even shook his water bottle
for a little percussion. It was great to have them both
on stage playing on each other’s songs for most of the
90-minute show. “Senor Blues” was next with
a solo from Grammy-winning pianist Billy Childs. The
next song was one of their favorite Miles Davis tunes, “Flamenco
Sketches.” Chris started off with his muted trumpet and
David took over with a blues-y sax.
Chris talked about being Italian and taking his mom to a theatre
in NYC to see a wonderful movie where the music was so powerful
they stayed until all of the credits were over. It was,
of course, “Cinema Paradiso.” Chris played
it beautifully with only the piano as background. David
was up next to tell a story about a love from long ago and
how with all his touring he was away from her a lot. He
said he would talk to her by phone every day and say “very
romantic things that probably sound silly now.” He
said one of the things he always said was, “I’m
with you even as we speak.” So he played the passionate
solo “As We Speak” from his 1981 album. Billy
Childs came in with some beautiful piano work.
“A Thousand Kisses Deep” was followed by “Lotus
Blossom” and then a little “Maputo” which
brought the crowd to its feet. Chris pointed out a couple
of young boys who were there and talked about how important
it is to keep music in the schools and bring young people to
hear live music. Chris came down off the stage to play
the standard “Funny Valentine.” It was mesmerizing,
as always, and the lady in the front row enjoyed having Chris
play to her.
James Genus started getting funky with his bass on “Relativity” and
after some terrific harmonizing by David and Chris, Billy Kilson
took over with his drums and drove the song home. He
rocked the place for about five minutes while everyone watched
with amazement.
After the crowd gave a standing ovation, they played an encore
of “I’ll Be Seeing You.” Chris said
that he had played this Frank Sinatra song at the Blue Note
once and a lady in the front row asked another lady who wrote
the song. The other lady said, “Rod Stewart.” So
Chris said (over everyone’s laughter), “So now
we’re going to play the Rod Stewart classic, ‘I’ll
Be Seeing You.’” Chris and David ended our
evening by playing a haunting rendition of the song with some
wonderful piano by Billy Childs. What a great end to
a show filled with such awesome talent. They added some
much needed heat on a cold Saturday night in Kansas City!
- Susan Johnson
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