eJazzNews Archive

Botti/Sanborn Tour Band Comprised of Fellow Grammy Winners

Originally published on eJazzNews ·

On February 14, 2006, eJazzNews ran an announcement of a run of concerts pairing trumpeter Chris Botti with alto saxophonist David Sanborn, opening the next night at the Civic Center in Des Moines, Iowa. The item arrived days after the 48th Grammy Awards and leaned heavily on the band’s Grammy credentials. Sanborn died on May 12, 2024, at the age of 78; Botti moved to Blue Note Records and released Vol. 1 in 2023.

What the 2006 announcement said

The two leaders were to be backed by pianist Billy Childs and drummer Billy Kilson, with James Genus on bass for the February dates and Kenny Davis taking over in March. The itinerary ran from Des Moines and Omaha through the Savor Dallas festival, Kansas City, Washington’s Warner Theatre and Baltimore’s Lyric Opera House, then to California dates in Sacramento, San Francisco, Fresno and San Diego, ending at the McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert on March 29. Several stops, among them St. Louis and Minneapolis, were billed as Botti shows without Sanborn.

The announcement also promoted Botti’s PBS pledge special, Chris Botti Live with Orchestra and Special Guests, filmed on December 1 and 2, 2005, at the Wilshire Theatre in Los Angeles with guests including Sting, Gladys Knight, Jill Scott and Burt Bacharach. It quoted Don Heckman’s Los Angeles Times review of the concert, which credited Botti’s own trumpet playing and band, more than the guest singers, with carrying the evening.

Checking the Grammy claims

Most of the Grammy details hold up, but some need context. The release said Botti’s recording of “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?” (it added a stray “For” to the title) had just won a Grammy. The award, for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s), went to the arrangers Billy Childs, Gil Goldstein and Heitor Pereira, for the track with Sting from Botti’s album To Love Again. Childs won a second Grammy that night, Best Instrumental Composition, for “Into the Light.”

Kilson played drums on the Dave Holland Big Band’s Overtime, which won Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album the same night; the award went to Holland as leader. The release dated Botti’s “first Grammy recognition” to the Brecker Brothers’ 1994 album Out of the Loop. Botti co-wrote, co-arranged and co-produced one track on it, “Evocations,” and the album won Best Contemporary Jazz Performance at the 37th Grammy Awards in 1995. Botti’s own first Grammy as an artist came later, although he was nominated at the 2006 ceremony with Burt Bacharach for “In Our Time.” Sanborn’s total of six Grammys is correct.

What happened next

Botti’s Grammy finally came at the 55th awards in 2013, when Impressions won Best Pop Instrumental Album, after nominations for Italia and Chris Botti in Boston. His first album for Blue Note, Vol. 1, followed in October 2023. Childs kept composing and winning: the Recording Academy now lists six Grammy wins for him, the latest for The Winds of Change, named Best Jazz Instrumental Album at the 66th awards in 2024. Kilson has also recorded under his own name, including Pots and Pans (2006) and, with his trio, Descension Rising (2016).

When Sanborn died in May 2024, The Guardian’s obituary counted six Grammys, a platinum album and eight gold albums. For more on the jazz and pop crossover both men worked in, see our guide to jazz fusion.

Sources

This page is based on an article from the original eJazzNews archive (2001 to 2018), with background and sources added in 2026. The original text is not republished here. You can read the original as it appeared on eJazzNews via the Internet Archive.
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