Chris Botti in Boston (CD/DVD)

A front row seat to the best concert of the year. I love that artists are putting out CD/DVDs!!! Listening to Chris Botti's music is divine but watching him play is divin-est--I know thats not a real word but you get the idea :). Chris is a commanding presence on stage even when surrounded by stellar-stars like Sting, Steven Tyler, Yo-yo Ma, John Mayer and the sexy Katherine McPhee. He's confident and funny, and like all great
performers, he takes your hand and navigates you seamlessly through the show. He remained calm even when, mid-song, a guy in the second row had a heart attack!! Apparently he lived (watch his hilarious intv. in the behind the scenes material)!

Then, of course, there is the music. Chris' version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" is so hauntingly beautiful I cry every time I hear it. I had tons of favorites but his duet with Steven Tyler singing "Smile" is so fun to watch, maybe because the two-shot of them playing together is fantastically incongruous. His band kills on When I Fall in Love, which is another favorite. And as many times as I've heard Miles Davis' Flamenco Sketches I never tire of hearing Chris play it; or Time to Say Goodbye, or Caruso; or Seven Days, his duet with the sublime Sting (it's not possible that that man is nearly 60). I guess I love all the songs.

Spend the extra few $ for the DVD it's worth getting a peek of the rehearsal (with all the funny screw-ups and authenticity of unguarded stars) and the behind the scenes interviews with Chris and Sting and Yo yo Ma and Josh Groban....and then there's John Mayer's sweet Kodak moment. Priceless.