FYI
Dave Koz on Collaborating with Bob James, Bruno Mars, and Rebecca Jade
Dave Koz at Humphreys. Photo by Donna Daly.
As seen on his tours with Summer Horns, acclaimed saxophonist Dave Koz loves to collaborate with his musical friends. He’s worked with a long list of music icons from Herb Alpert to Rod Stewart, earlier this year releasing an album with legendary pianist Bob James, titled Just Us.
“Bob and I have known each other for a very long time,” Koz noted. “We recorded Just Us all live in his living room in upstate Michigan. And it was a completely new experience for the both of us,” he continued. “Both of us have made a lot of records over the years. We’ve collaborated before, but this pushed us into a new territory where we had nowhere to hide, there was no net. It was totally raw. The recording was capturing live music, two musicians just communicating with each other. And, in many ways, we found the sound that our instruments made together, really intoxicating without any interference from any other instrument or musician. So, we kind of got really excited about the sound that we were making and wanted to make more of it. Before we turned around, we had this album, which is completely different for both of us.”
Koz puts the album’s success down to “…the fact that [Bob James] is one of the great legends of our world. He’s also 85 years old. Can you believe it? And he’s as alive and as curious and as engaged as anybody half his age. He’s just a wonderful gentleman of jazz and a great mentor to so many, including me. I learned volumes from him on this project. So, I think a lot of it has to do with us coming together and doing something that’s very meaningful to both of us and that the audience has responded positively. It’s really, really, great, especially considering that this album sounds very different from anything we’ve ever done.”
Koz and James’ new album, Just Us.
Koz has worked with many artists over the decades. Who is a dream collaborator that he hasn’t gotten to yet? “I think in those kind of questions, you’ve got to go with the first thing that comes to your mind. And the person that popped into my mind was Bruno Mars,” Koz said. “It’s because I think that Bruno, he’s an old soul. He’s definitely making music that has respect for the music of yesteryear. He’s putting his own unique spin on it. And he’s an incredible songwriter and an incredible performer, incredible singer. And those are the kind of people that are at the top of my list.”
One person that Koz has worked extensively with is San Diego-based singer Rebecca Jade. Amongst other projects, she was featured singer on his 2022 single, “Happy Xmas (War Is Over) / Imagine.” “Oh my gosh, I worship Rebecca Jade, I love her so much,” Koz said. “She’s been a staple of our Christmas shows for the last four years. She started out as a background singer on our cruises going back probably ten years ago. I’ve just been such a fan of hers. And in any way that I can to lift her up and put her in front of people that can know and see what I’ve seen since the very first day that I saw her sing, which is this beautiful, talented, effortless woman who can do it all. She can sing anything,” he remarked. “I’ve been so happy to see how much she’s grown as an artist and in her own recording career and in her own shows. She’s become really one to watch in the world of contemporary jazz and modern R&B music. So, I couldn’t be more proud of her,” Koz said.
Bart Mendoza is a music journalist whose work has appeared in numerous publications, from the San Diego Union Tribune to Great Britain’s Shindig magazine. As a musician he has toured the world during the 1980s with Manual Scan, the ’90s with the Shambles, and currently performs with True Stories.
