Botti brings A-list artists together

Sting joined trumpeter Chris Botti and the Boston Pops at Symphony Hall. Josh Groban and Steven Tyler also sang. (Evan richman/globe staff)

There is something so fabulously not magical about attending a concert being taped for later broadcast during a PBS pledge drive. It's where you get to see a harried makeup guy jog on stage to powder the star's face between songs, and where the surprise guest isn't some local yokel but John Mayer - doing Frank Sinatra. It's definitely the only place you see Sting, Josh Groban, Chris Botti, and the Boston Pops make four attempts at getting "Shape of My Heart" right. (For the record, Groban blew the lyrics on the second try, Botti missed his entrance on the third, at which point Sting announced that he needed a drink.)

Needless to say, a good time was had by all.

"Chris Botti Live in Boston" will become a television special and DVD in March 2009. But last night - the first of his two-night stand - it was a relaxed evening with good friends and good music. Botti, a jazz-pop trumpeter who has made the leap from in-demand sideman to Top 40 star, certainly achieved his goal of bringing a wide range of styles to Symphony Hall, which was by turns a jazz bar, rock club, opera house, R&B joint, and "American Idol" showcase.

The latter incarnation came courtesy of lovely Katharine McPhee. The season five runner-up did a fine job tamping down her slick pop inflections during a commendable cover of "I've Got You Under My Skin." The bigger surprise, though, was Mayer, whose languid and swinging take on the ballad "Glad To Be Unhappy" would have made Sinatra proud.

Botti's instrumentals - among them "Ave Maria," "Caruso," and Miles Davis's "Flamenco Sketches" - were pristine. (They weren't always well-chosen; the trumpeter's icy-cool sound was practically an affront to Leonard Cohen's soul-stirring "Hallelujah.") But Botti's tones were beautifully formed, the man can hold a high note and charm a crowd, and his four-man band was beyond tight and tasteful.

And yet Botti disappeared, as mortals tend to do, when his former boss Sting took the stage to sing tricky, winsome "Seven Days." "Goodnight!" Botti shouted, only half in jest, following the rock star's first, mid-set appearance.

Wielding comparable wattage but a good deal less musical power was Steven Tyler, in fully-scarved regalia, for wan renditions of Aerosmith's "Cryin' " and "Smile," his contribution to Botti's 2005 duets album.

Josh Groban hasn't been showered with a lot of love in these pages, but his beautifully restrained performance of "Broken Vow," an anthem in desperate need of a home in the movies, earned him a new convert last night. Likewise Sy Smith, a member of Botti's touring band, won hearts and minds with her rousing and unlikely funk cover of "The Look of Love."

Oh yes, the Pops were there. Keith Lockhart and company supplied sweet swells and cinematic flourishes - the perfect icing on a successful pledge drive.

Joan Anderman can be reached at anderman@globe.com.