Dave Koz recently released “Ultimate Christmas,” a CD that compiles 16 tracks from his three previous holiday albums, plus a couple of new instrumentals.
He admits the obvious, that releasing this collection made sense because it coincides with this year’s edition of his Dave Koz and Friends Christmas tour.
But Koz sees a bigger, less business-oriented reason why “Ultimate Christmas” deserves to exist.
“I think now for a lot of people it’s just a very complex and complicated and disorienting time,” Koz said in a mid-November phone interview. “I find that [Christmas music is] a reminder of how much music makes people feel good, especially this time of year. You put on those Christmas recordings, and it’s like musical comfort food.
“It makes you feel good. And we really need that right now, I think.”
Each of Koz’s three Christmas albums has featured his smooth jazz interpretations of classic holiday tunes. The songs picked for “Ultimate Christmas” include several selections with guest appearances from some of Koz’s many contemporaries from the smooth jazz genre.
Three performers on this season’s tour — trumpeter Rick Braun, bassist-singer Jonathan Butler and sax player Candy Dulfer — were part of the 2010 holiday tour with Koz. But Koz said fans can rest assured this year’s show won’t be a rerun of the last year’s production.
“It’s never the same show,” said Koz, who has done his Christmas tour every November and December for the past 14 years. “You can have the same lineup from year to year, yet the show is going to change dramatically from year to year. That’s part of the fun.”
The 2010 Christmas tour wasn’t the only good thing to happen for Koz in the past 12 months.
He also released a studio CD, “Hello Tomorrow,” which became his fourth straight album to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard magazine top contemporary jazz albums chart and iTunes jazz album chart.
“Hello Tomorrow,” while still very much fitting the smooth jazz style of his seven previous non-holiday studio CDs, was a departure for Koz in an important respect. His other CDs featured songs that were recorded one instrumental or vocal track at a time, often making extensive use of synthetic rhythms and programming.
The co-producers of “Hello Tomorrow” — Marcus Miller (who played bass with Miles Davis before embarking on a long and successful solo career) and John Burk (who produced Ray Charles’ final CD, “Genius Loves Company”) — pushed Koz out of his comfort zone in the studio by having him record live with a band.
That approach was initially uncomfortable for him, Koz said. But he grew to enjoy it so much that he expects live ensemble recording to again be a key component of his next studio album, which he expects to record in 2012.
“What I loved on that project was the spontaneity,” Koz said. “I loved the live musicianship, and I got very hooked on that, the immediacy of being able to make music with musicians. ... So I think if anything it’s that concept I want to re-create.”
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Concert preview
Dave Koz and Friends
8 Saturday, Nov. 25. $45.20-$87.75 (including service charges). Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, 2800 Cobb Galleria Parkway, Atlanta. 770-916-2800, www.cobbenergycentre.com.
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