Dave Koz Awakenings
Album:
http://www.sensual-music.com/ more romantic and easy listening music.
Dave Koz (born March 27,
1963) is an
American saxophonist. Because they look and sound similar, Koz often draws comparisons to another well-known saxophonist,
David Sanborn, and is sometimes billed as "the second coming of Sanborn." He usually plays soprano or alto saxophones, but sometimes plays tenor; he used to occasionally have parts in which a baritone saxophone would have predominance.
Biography
Dave Koz was born on March
27, 1963 in Encino, California. From an early age, he and his sister took piano lessons. "My mom basically forced my sister and me to play piano from when we were toddlers. I hated piano; I was never any good at it. But I have to thank her now for making me do it, because I write most of my songs on the piano."
Around age nine, he began taking drum lessons, but notes that he was not very good at drums, "
I am the world's worst drummer. I could not keep time to save my life." At age 13, his brother,
Jeff, had a band that
Dave wanted to be in, but his brother told him over and over that there was no way he could be in it. Dave eventually wore him down, and his brother told him that the only way he could be in the band was if he could play the saxophone, because their band did not have a saxophonist. That was all he needed to hear. Two years later, he was in the band and working gigs with the band and by himself.
Dave attended
William Howard Taft High School in
Woodland Hills, performing on saxophone as a member of the school jazz band. He later graduated from
UCLA with a degree in mass communications in
1986, and only weeks after his graduation, decided to make a go of becoming a professional musician.
Within weeks of that decision, he was recruited as a member of
Bobby Caldwell's tour. For the rest of the
1980s, Koz served as a session musician in several bands, toured with artists such as
Jeff Lorber &
Richard Marx, and played in the house band of
CBS' short-lived
The Pat Sajak Show, with
Tom Scott as bandleader.
In
1990, Koz decided to pursue a solo career, and began recording for
Capitol Records. The move proved to be successful, and his self-titled
album earned high praise from critics and fans alike. His later albums include
Lucky Man,
The Dance, and
Saxophonic. Saxophonic was nominated for both a
Grammy Award and an
NAACP Image Award.
In
1994, Koz began hosting a syndicated radio program, The Dave Koz
Radio Show (formerly
Personal Notes), featuring the latest music and interviews with who's who in the genre. Dave co-hosted of The Dave Koz
Morning Show With Pat
Prescott on 94.7
The Wave, a smooth jazz station in
Los Angeles for six years. He decided to leave the show in
January 2007 and was replaced by
Brian McKnight.
In
2002, Koz started a record label,
Rendezvous Entertainment, with
Frank Cody and Hyman Katz. One of the first albums from that label was
Golden Slumbers: A
Father's
Lullaby, which came at the time his brother Jeff became a father for the first time.
In an
April 2004 interview with
The Advocate, Koz came out publicly as a gay man.
Later the same year, he was named by
People magazine as one of their "50 Hottest
Bachelors" in their June issue.
In 2004 he recorded the
Luther Vandross song "
If Only For One Night" with
Paul Jackson, Jr.,
Brian Culbertson and
Lenny Castro, as one of the tracks for the
GRP Records tribute album,
Forever, For Always, For Luther. In
2006, he played on all the songs for the followup tribute album, released this time on his own Rendezvous Entertainment label, called Forever, For Always, For Luther
Volume II, which also was produced by Rex Rideout and Bud Harner.
Vandross also appeared as a background vocalist on the single "
Can't Let You Go (The Sha-La
Song)" from Koz's
1999 album, The Dance.
In 2006, Koz was selected to host a syndicated afternoon show for
Broadcast Architecture's new
Smooth Jazz Network. The show, based in Los Angeles, is broadcast on other Smooth Jazz stations across the country. Koz and
Ramsey Lewis are the only two Smooth Jazz personalities to host two different syndicated shows during the week.
Capitol Records/
EMI's "
Forever Cool" (
2007) features Koz in a new arrangement of "
Just in Time" with the voice of the late
Dean Martin.
Koz has promoted annual Dave Koz &
Friends Jazz Cruises since
2005.
Koz is the host of a weekly half-hour television series named
Frequency put on by
Fast Focus. Koz interviews musicians on the show such as
Earth, Wind & Fire,
Jonathan Butler, and
Kelly Sweet.
At the end of each interview, he plays along with the musician, adding some of his saxophone riffs to one of their hit songs.
- published: 05 May 2013
- views: 2303