Trumpeter Makes ‘Wish’ Come True : Chris Botti Marries Disparate Styles in a Coupling Sure to Attract Jazz, Rock Aficionados

Trumpeter Chris Botti seems to have found solid ground somewhere between rock and a hard-bop place. The busy session man, who has played for Paul Simon, Bob Dylan and Aretha Franklin, draws from both disciplines on his debut album, “First Wish,” (Verve Forecast) in a way that stands a good chance of attracting jazz and rock aficionados.

“I’m not really going after the jazz audience,” said the trumpeter-composer-producer by phone recently from his apartment in Manhattan. “Even though [jazz] is the music I grew up playing, that isn’t what I was shooting for. And I understand why jazz critics wouldn’t like [the album].”

Instead, the 32-year-old Botti, who plays the Coach House tonight, says he was looking for a marriage of pop and jazz with a direction favoring the pop audience. One example on the album is “Like I Do Now,” in which Edie Brickell sings a lyric she added to Botti’s melody.

“A lot of the instrumental pop music you hear comes through the rhythm-and-blues or jazz tradition, with the tunes becoming just a springboard for soloing. With my record, I wanted to put the emphasis on songwriting and, secondly, production--how the music frames the trumpet, which is equivalent of the voice in pop music. I try to frame the trumpet in a very lyrical, voice-like fashion.”

“First Wish” does just that, with Botti stating melodic themes above accessible rhythms and the kind of guitar-keyboard backing that more defines pop music than jazz accompaniment. Unlike most jazz tunes, the songs on “First Wish” are the sort that people might wind up whistling, even after a single listening.

“The shape of the melodies I write are very lyrical, not as angular as in other types of music,” he said. “I try to give them a vocal quality, though I don’t sing myself. So the trumpet is my outlet.”

Not all the pieces on “First Wish” are so pop-oriented. “Cubism,” in which he trades hot lines with saxophonist Michael Brecker, and “Through Tin Hearts” are more out of the jazz tradition, providing plenty of improvisational inspiration for instrumentalists.

“Those are the tunes that I wanted to stretch out in a little more. Because of my friendship with Michael”--Botti helped produce the Brecker Brothers’ latest album, “Out of the Loop”--”I wanted to write something with him in mind. It’s hard to avoid his prowess, and I wanted people to know this was a players’ album as well.”

Botti himself has built his reputation as a player; his roles as producer and bandleader have come fairly recently. Born in Portland, Ore., he was introduced to music at an early age by his mother, a pianist.

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While in high school, he played with such Portland-based musicians as bassist David Friesen while, as he puts it, “playing all the be-bop gigs in town. In the first half of my life, I didn’t want to do anything else.”

He went on to study music at Indiana University and then, in New York, with Miles Davis saxophonist George Coleman. In the early ‘80s, he studied with the late, influential trumpeter Woody Shaw.

“Woody was like Wayne Shorter in the sense that they both see the music in terms of shapes,” he said. “So we didn’t work on the clinical aspects of playing the trumpet, but more on aesthetics. We would play scales, but at weird intervals that would just keep going on. Sometimes we would just hang out and listen to records.

“I’ve made Woody Shaw a mission in my life. He was the most underrated trumpet player, but such a visionary. He made great records, like ‘Rosewood’ and ‘Moontrane,’ and he made great recordings with others, like Dexter Gordon. But you don’t see a lot of Woody [albums] in the record bins these days, not like you do with Miles.”

Botti cites Peter Gabriel’s 1986 album “So” as the turning point in his direction.

“Hearing ‘So’ really changed my thinking,” he said. “I thought there had to be some way to marry these incredible British production values and world-beat rhythms with my jazz sensibilities.”

Central to the refinement of his musical direction was his work with Paul Simon, with whom he has toured several times.

“Paul likes to get studio musicians who have an affinity for playing live. . . . In five years with Paul, I’ve watched him rehearse the band, work out arrangements and rework the songs with the musicians. It had a real impact on how I produce my own work.”

His stint with Simon led to the use of Brickell, Simon’s wife, on “First Wish.”

“We hung out while on tour and became friends. I don’t write any lyrics myself, so I finished up all the music for ‘Like I Do Now’ and asked Edie if she’d write the words and sing it. She said yes to both.”

Botti is still busy doing session work. He appears on the new Carly Simon album and will be heard on the next one from Chaka Khan. He’ll be playing shows this summer with both Simon and James Taylor. But his major push this summer and fall is to promote his own record, which is being classified as “ambient jazz” by critics and disc jockeys.

Botti is ambivalent about the term.

“So many of these labels come and go. Any catch phrase that brings kids to discover things that are more adventurous or out of the ordinary is a good thing,” he said. “I think that when you come out into the market place for the first time, people will dismiss and pigeonhole you no matter what.

“But with time and perseverance,” he added, “the cream always rises to top. With instrumental music, you’re in the game for the long haul. With vision and musical opinion you’ll get noticed.”

* Chris Botti plays tonight at the Coach House, 33157 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano. 8 p.m. $10. (714) 496-8927.