Midnight Without You

by Chris Botti

Overview

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.

Product Details

Release Date:	05/20/1997
Label:	Polygram Records
UPC:	0731453713222
catalogNumber:	537132
Rank:	76453

Tracks

1. The Steps of Positano
2. Midnight Without You
3. Regroovable
4. Never Gone
5. The Way Home
6. When Rain Falls
7. Until Now
8. Mr. Wah
9. Forgiven
10. Alone in the City

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Chris Botti   Primary Artist,Piano,Trumpet,Keyboards
Blue Nile   Track Performer
Joe Bonadio   Tambourine,Sordu,Native American Drums
Jonatha Brooke   Vocals,Track Performer
Paul Buchanan   Vocals
Shane Fontayne   Solo Instrumental,Guitar
Harvey Jones   Keyboards
Tony Levin   Bass
Jerry Marotta   Cymbals,Native American Drums,Brushes
Vincent Nguini   Guitar
Shawn Pelton   Drums,Snare Drums
Larry Saltzman   Guitar
Marc Shulman   Guitar
Andy Snitzer   Piano,Electric Piano,Wurlitzer,Native American Drums
Gerry Leonard   Guitar
John Levanthal   Organ
Paul Joseph Moore   Piano,Keyboards
Bakithi Kumalo   Bass
Jeff Allen   Bass

Technical Credits

Joe Bonadio   Contributor
Chris Botti   Producer,Engineer,Atmosphere
Guy Eckstine   Executive Producer
Harvey Jones   Atmosphere
Kevin Killen   Producer,Engineer
Jerry Marotta   Contributor
Shawn Pelton   drum programming
Andy Snitzer   Programming,Producer,drum programming
Giulio Turturro   Art Direction
Paul Joseph Moore   Programming,Producer,Engineer
Kristen Koerner   Engineer
Aron Keene   Engineer
Keith Shortreed   Engineer