This week, smooth jazz trumpeter Chris Botti gave a fan the surprise of a lifetime. The St. Petersburg Times reports that Nancy Blacklin, a huge jazz fan and especially of Botti, was watching the Botti perform from up in the balcony of a concert hall in Ohio. The Clearwater, Florida grandmother had recently lost her husband of 46 years, and her granddaughter had persuaded her to fly to Ohio for a visit and to see Botti perform.

Midway through the show, reports the newspaper, Botti asked “Where’s that beautiful grandmother from Florida? Nancy, where are you? What are you doing way up there?” It turns out Blacklin, 77, had been set up by her granddaughter. Botti then invited Blacklin to a seat in the middle of the front row. He then dedicated a song to her.

Blacklin’s Botti shows are done yet. She will also see him perform in her hometown on Friday, October 16, as the trumpeter performs at the Clearwater Jazz Holiday smooth jazz festival.

(Smooth Jazz Network)

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 15th, 2009 at 4:00 pm and is filed under Smooth Jazz, Smooth Jazz News, Smooth News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.