The trumpeter makes apologies for making albums whose very straightforward melodies owe more to his pop session work with Chaka Khan, Aretha Franklin, and Scritti Politti than the Chet Baker jazz vocabulary he grew up learning.
If Botti was aiming for such a seemingly paradoxical blend of open spaces and smoky intimacy on Midnight Without You, he's definitely on the mark.
A few of the tracks here -- most notably the snappy blues-based pop tunes "Regroovable" and "The Way Home" -- have seductive rhythm schemes and hypnotic gut-sticking hooks, but the rest just sort of hang back and play aloof, daring listeners to find them anything more than steamy, romantic background music for slow dancing and whatever comes next.
The Blue Nile's Paul Buchanan infuses a folky vocal personality into the title track, and "Mr.
Wah" uses those synth textures as a springboard for some more intensive improvisational funk exercises, but on tunes like "The Steps of Positano," "Never Gone," and "When Rain Falls" Botti's warm tones are in service of what amounts to a melancholy soundtrack to a rainy day.
Which seems to be Botti's very intention.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Steps of PositanoChris Botti | Chris Botti | Play | 03:40 | 8 MB | 0 MB |
| 2 | Midnight Without YouChris Botti, Paul Buchanan, Paul Joseph Moore | Chris Botti, The Blue Nile | Play | 04:28 | 10 MB | 0 MB |
| 3 | RegroovableChris Botti | Chris Botti | Play | 04:49 | 11 MB | 0 MB |
| 4 | Never GoneChris Botti | Chris Botti | Play | 04:19 | 9 MB | 0 MB |
| 5 | The Way HomeChris Botti | Chris Botti | Play | 04:52 | 11 MB | 0 MB |
| 6 | When Rain FallsChris Botti | Chris Botti | Play | 04:25 | 10 MB | 0 MB |
| 7 | Until NowChris Botti | Chris Botti | Play | 03:57 | 9 MB | 0 MB |
| 8 | Mr. WahChris Botti | Chris Botti | Play | 04:57 | 11 MB | 0 MB |
| 9 | ForgivenChris Botti, Paul Joseph Moore | Chris Botti, Jonatha Brooke | Play | 05:08 | 11 MB | 0 MB |
| 10 | Alone in the CityChris Botti | Chris Botti | Play | 06:19 | 14 MB | 0 MB |
| 46 mins | 107 MB | |||||
| 0 mins | 0 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jeff Allen | Bass |
| 2 | The Blue Nile | Performer, Primary Artist |
| 3 | Joe Bonadio | Native American Drums, Sordu, Tambourine |
| 4 | Chris Botti | Atmosphere, Composer, Engineer, Keyboards, Piano, Primary Artist, Producer, Trumpet |
| 5 | Jonatha Brooke | Guest Artist, Performer, Primary Artist, Vocals |
| 6 | Paul Buchanan | Composer, Guest Artist, Vocals |
| 7 | Jimmy Corona | Technical Support |
| 8 | Guy Eckstine | Executive Producer |
| 9 | Shane Fontayne | Guitar, Solo Instrumental |
| 10 | Harvey Jones | Atmosphere, Keyboards |
| 11 | Aron Keene | Engineer |
| 12 | Kevin Killen | Engineer, Mixing, Producer |
| 13 | Kristen Koerner | Engineer |
| 14 | Bakithi Kumalo | Bass |
| 15 | Sung Lee | Design |
| 16 | Gerry Leonard | Guitar |
| 17 | John Levanthal | Organ |
| 18 | Tony Levin | Bass, Guest Artist |
| 19 | Bob Ludwig | Mastering |
| 20 | Jerry Marotta | Brushes, Cymbals, Native American Drums |
| 21 | Paul Joseph Moore | Composer, Engineer, Guest Artist, Keyboards, Piano, Producer, Programming |
| 22 | Vincent Nguini | Guitar |
| 23 | Frank Ockenfels | Photography |
| 24 | Shawn Pelton | Drum Programming, Drums, Drums (Snare) |
| 25 | Larry Saltzman | Guitar |
| 26 | Keith Shortreed | Engineer |
| 27 | Marc Shulman | Guitar |
| 28 | Andy Snitzer | Drum Programming, Guest Artist, Native American Drums, Piano, Piano (Electric), Producer, Programming, Wurlitzer |
| 29 | Giulio Turturro | Art Direction |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |