Back in fall 2019, as Dave Koz was readying himself to do his annual holiday tour—Dave Koz and Friends Christmas Tour—he was already having thoughts about making an ambitious new album.
“In the beginning the idea was to make like a double album or maybe a double EP that would reflect a little bit about where I’d been and then where I’d like to go,” Koz recalled. “I remember even, Yesterday and Today was the working title of that.”
Of course, within a few months the pandemic hit and this turned everything upside down, including Koz’s plans for a double album.
As a result, when Koz got back to touring post pandemic, he had not one but two new albums under his belt.
The first of those albums, A New Day, arrived in October 2020. To an extent, it follows through on the idea of making an album that stays true to the musical style of the 10 non-holiday studio albums Koz has released since 1990 (all of which have gone at least top five on the contemporary jazz chart). Like his previous albums, A New Day is largely in the instrumental R&B-accented smooth jazz realm.
The pandemic, though, did influence the upbeat feel of the music of A New Day.
“Immediately kind of when the pandemic hit—this is March of 2020—after the initial shock wore off, I was like, well, this is what I noticed about myself. I was really fumbling toward, trying to make myself feel better,” Koz said. “And I noticed it was really through music that I was able to accomplish that; my feel-good music from people I could count on. So it kind of dawned on me that maybe I should get my ass into gear and record some music hopefully to do the same thing for other people.”
“The Golden Hour” was a quite different venture for Koz. He collaborated with guitarist Cory Wong on songwriting, and then recorded with a big band playing, in many cases, songs that were more energetic—at times even rocking—than Koz’s other albums.
“He inspired me,” Koz said of Wong. “He said to me ‘I just want you to do one thing, and that’s one thing for me, and that is not second guess yourself. Let’s just go with it. Don’t try to overthink about stuff. Let’s just capture these songs in the moment and then we can come back to them and see whether we like them. At least in the writing phase, don’t judge.’ That was really great advice because I’m a total judger while it’s going down.”
Koz, though, wasn’t through making new music. He has a new EP, Dave Koz Does Disney, featuring his versions of several Disney songs, coming out. And last year, he released Christmas Ballads, his eighth holiday album, which was released just in time for last year’s 25th anniversary outing of his Dave Koz and Friends Christmas tour, which is back again this year for a 26th edition.
Working with producer Philippe Saisse, who has contributed to several of Koz’s albums, including as an arranger on his 2020 album, A New Day, a first step was figuring out a theme for the album—something that took some effort after seven previous holiday albums.
“Philippe and I, we talked through our many conversations before there was even a note recorded. We came up with the idea of it’s like the time of the day when you would listen to an album like this,” Koz said. “So the specific moment that we had in mind when we recorded it was that feeling of after your guests have left. The party is over. You’ve put away the dishes. It’s the week before Christmas. You’ve got the fireplace going. You have a nice beverage in your hand, maybe somebody special there to share it with. What does that feel like musically? That’s why we decided to do all ballads and to reflect that warm moment that’s very specific in the holidays. And I think we got it.”
A few songs from Christmas Ballads figure to be included in this year’s Dave Koz and Friends Christmas tour, but he will be sure to also perform the Christmas songs that fans have favored on these annual tours. This year, Koz is joined by guitarist/singer Jonathan Butler (who has done several of these holiday tours), singer Rebecca Jade, sax player Marcus Anderson and pianist Justin-Lee Schultz
Koz said he is grateful for how his Christmas tours have turned into an annual tradition.
“There are so many rich traditions that are associated with Christmas time and the holidays in general,” Koz observed. “Because it started to come around regularly, people started to make it part of their traditions, their annual traditions. They came with their kids and they kept coming. And then the kids, I would see kids in the front row and they’d come back the next year and they’d be bigger. And then all of a sudden, miraculously, they’re bringing their kids to this show. Now we have three generations checking out the show.”
Dave Koz and Friends Christmas Tour 2023
Thurs, Dec. 21, 8pm
San Jose Civic
$60-$100
