RIP Kevin Koch, a San Diego Music Stalwart

Kevin Koch

For more than four decades, Kevin Koch supplied splash, sizzle, and swoosh from behind his drum kit for numerous bands in San Diego County. It didn’t matter whether the context was—bebop, swing, blues, funk, disco, or country—Koch was ready to supply the supple touch, friends and former colleagues say.

“He was always a team player,” said bass player Gunnar Biggs of Carlsbad, a frequent collaborator with Koch. “He always found the groove that was making everybody the most comfortable.”

A Del Mar Terrace resident, Koch died on June 20 from heart failure at a local hospital. He was 71, born March 2, 1954, according to one of his dearest friends and longtime musical colleague, saxophonist Mark Lessman.

Lessman said he stayed in contact with Koch until his last day. The Encinitas resident was instrumental in putting together a Celebration of Life concert in honor of Koch on Sunday, July 13, at Humphreys Backstage Live.

The event attracted a capacity crowd of more than 150 people, including dozens of musicians who had played with or heard Koch over the years. Relatives from his home state of Wisconsin and other locales attended as well, Lessman said.

“We were close friends for over 40 years,” Lessman said. “Kevin was an extended part of my family. I think we sent him off well. Keven played with me often. In the ’80s, we all crossed paths together. It was quite a scene back then.”

Speaking of the Humphreys celebration, Biggs said, “Just the hang and hearing people talk about Kevin was worth it. On the whole, it was a level of connectivity that I think was really needed for the musical community. It took a celebration of life to bring the musical community together.”

Among the many bands for whom Koch played, he may be best remembered for his role in the nationally heralded jazz-funk-fusion band known as Fattburger.

“I was kind of like a sixth member of Fattburger over the last few years,” Lessman recalled.

Gunnar Biggs, Kevin Koch, Art Resnick.

Koch anchored Fattburger on drums throughout its two-decade and 15-album run and took over many of the business duties, recalled Tommy Aros, the band’s percussionist. Aros was among the many musicians who performed at the Humphrey’s celebration.

While Fattburger was conceived of and named by keyboardist Carl Evans Jr., he and his fellow members—including Koch, Aros, bassist Mark Hunter, and guitarist Steve Laury—insisted on it being a collective enterprise.

“Everything was decided as a group,” Aros said of Fattburger. “The way it was put together, we all contributed. It was all produced by the band (as a unit). We were pretty tight. Kevin was a good player. He could play all the styles. He was an all-around player. He was a jazz player. He liked Latin jazz. He was perfect for the band, and he was easy to get along with. If it weren’t for Kevin, there might not have been a Fattburger. He put a lot of work into it. Kevin was the one that did all the business stuff.”

After coming to Los Angeles from Wisconsin some five decades ago, Koch moved down to the Del Mar area to gig with guitarist Peter Sprague. He lived in a community of musicians near Carmel Valley Road and eventually moved into a house there with a view of Los Peñasquitos Lagoon, which his comrades labeled “the bunker.”

Biggs recollected spending many days there jamming with Koch, Sprague, and his brother, the saxophone-playing Tripp Sprague, among many other musicians.

“It was kind of a musicians’ ghetto,” Biggs said.

Koch played in various configurations of Sprague bands. The drummer also played with Biggs and pianist Art Resnick in the Elegant Trio, as well as in a trio with Biggs and pianist Butch Lacy at Chuck’s Steakhouse in La Jolla and other venues around town.

Koch, center, with the People Movers band.

In 1983, as documented in Tuned-In, a cable-TV magazine, Koch held the drum chair for the People Movers, a perennially popular dance band at the San Diego Hilton’s Cargo Bar on Mission Bay.

In recent years, following the demise of Fattburger, Koch played frequently with Biggs in Lessman’s band at the now-defunct Northern Spirits in San Marcos, at Ki’s in Cardiff, and with bluesman Robin Henkel at Ki’s and Panama 66 in Balboa Park. Koch also appeared around town with trombonist Dave Scott’s band.

“Kevin and I go back to 1976, back in the ‘bad hair’ days,” Biggs said referring to the era of long hair and Afro perms. “We were always crossing paths and doing casuals around town. When we did hook up, he and I immediately got along. Over time, we became telepathic in playing together.”

Once, Biggs said, his wife Bonnie asked Koch what he thought about as he played, because he always sounded so smooth and natural.

“I try to think like I’m underwater when I’m playing,” Koch replied.

Added Gunnar, “When we were heading into the end of a phrase, he would do a triplet kind of thing in a Latin tune, and I would jump into it and play it with him. People would say, ‘Did you rehearse that?’ No. We could just kind of see the road ahead and make the road together.”

As a player, Lessman said of Koch, “He had amazing chops. You felt like you were in a conversation with him.”

Recently, Lessman said that he and Koch had been improvising sax and drum duets together. “Inevitably, we would hit the same note and we would just stop and start laughing.”