Twenty-five years ago saxophonist Dave Koz launched a Christmas tour with modest expectations. Now it’s become a holiday institution.
The Dave Koz & Friends show, coming to Detroit’s Music Hall Center on Wednesday, Dec. 7, has gone through all sorts of lineups over the years, and this year’s outing features Friends both old and new. Guitarist Peter White and trumpeter Rick Braun were part of the original holiday tour, while pianist Keiko Matsui is an old pal who’s been on the tour before and vocalist Rebecca Jade is out for her second consecutive year.
Jade, White and Braun also play on Koz’s latest album, “Christmas Ballads,” a 10-song set that runs a gamut from “Ave Maria” and “Greensleeves” to a pairing of John Lennon songs, “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” and “Imagine,” sung by Jade. Those will allow Koz and company to put a bit of freshness into this year’s festivities…
* Koz, 59, says by phone from tour rehearsals in Nashville that the 25-year mark for the holiday tour is gratifying, especially for “a nice Jewish boy” from Los Angeles who played with Bobby Caldwell, Richard Marx and on “The Arsenio Hall Show” before launching his solo career in 1989. “Honestly, when I look at that number on our stage that says 25th anniversary, it kind of feels odd to me. I honestly don’t understand how we got a quarter century of doing this tour basically uninterrupted. Even 2020, we didn’t tour but we did a livestream to bring Christmas to people. But 25 years? I never imagined…”
* With the anniversary in mind Koz wanted to nod to the tour’s past along with its present. “We have two original cast members back — Peter White, who usually does his own (holiday) tour and suspended it this year to come on arts, and Rick Braun came back this year. It’s just a really great mix of people, great mix of artistry, an ability to take these songs, even songs we’ve done so many times and look at them through a different lens with this group of artists and do something different. The whole idea is to build a show that has a certain amount of familiarity but also there’s no material so people come back and feel the want to come back.”
* The “Christmas Ballads” album was inspired by the 25th anniversary of the tour as well. “This year we wanted to celebrate with a new album. The original cast members and I got together in the summertime and did that. It’s taking a slice out of the more romantic side of Christmas, of holidays in general, 10 songs I’ve never recorded before. It was nice to get into some of these songs that aren’t necessarily a standard part of the holiday repertoire.
* During the year Koz also played saxophone on “Free Your Soul” from Ringo Starr’s “EP 3.” “Playing on a song for a Beatle — or even just meeting a Beatle, I should say — was a big highlight for me as a fan, as a person who’s loved their music since the day I heard it. I didn’t know what was gonna happen that day, but here I am in Ringo’s house and a half-hour later he pops in looking exactly like you would hope and expect. He said, ‘Let’s get to it.’ I started to play and he was standing right next to me while I was playing, clapping and singing along to what I was doing. He was enjoying himself so much he said, ‘I just want you to blow the last minute and a half of the song, just take it.’ We did a few takes, and as I’m plying I’m thinking, ‘This is never gonna make the record, a one and a half minute sax solo at the end of the song. It’s a Ringo Starr record.’ Sure enough it comes out and it’s all there. It’s one of the great musical experiences of my life.”
* Koz has a “couple of things I’m sort of working on” at the moment, with no release dates scheduled for them yet. One he describes as “a Disney project…Disney music has that same quality as (Christmas music) of incredible melodies, emotionally resonant pieces of music.” He’s currently three songs into that album, including a “super cool, modern version of “When You Wish Upon a Star.” Koz is also collaborating with Barry Manilow on “kind of a classical album,” which is in “it’s very beginning stages.”
The Dave Koz & Friends 25th Anniversary Holiday Tour, featuring Peter White, Rick Braun, Keiko Matsui and Rebecca Jade, plays at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 7 at Music Hall Center, 350 Madison Ave., Detroit. 313-887-8500.
