“Music saved my life; if it weren’t for music, I don’t know what would have happened.”
So says celebrated jazz saxophonist Dave Koz. Today he’s an award-winning recording artist, nationally syndicated radio host, vintner, and philanthropist. He’s also a confident out gay man. But growing up in suburban California, Koz was not so self-assured—of either his talents or his sexuality.
Introduced to the piano as a toddler, and the drums several years later, it wasn’t until Koz was in his early teens that he discovered the saxophone—primarily as a way to perform with his older brother’s band, but also as a survival tool for adolescence.
Koz, now 47, brings his Smooth Jazz Christmas Tour to Sarasota’s Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall Nov. 28 an to Clearwater’s Ruth Eckerd Hall on Dec. 1. He’s also promoting Hello Tomorrow, his first album of new material in seven years.
In a recent interview with Watermark, Koz deconstructed his take on the Burt Bacharach classic “This Guy’s In Love”—a song ready to be embraced as an anthem for marriage equality. He also explained how music became a way of expressing himself when he couldn’t find the words to do so.
WATERMARK: How did the new album come about?
DAVE KOZ: Like a lot of people right now, I was trying to ride this wave of changes and differences in my life…waking up one day and realizing my life was a lot different than I thought it was going to look like at this point. This is the first album of all original material, except for the one cover, that I made in seven years. It was the first time in a good chunk of time—including the passing of my mom and coming out—that I was going back to the drawing boards creatively. Everything seemed to be at this point where it was a “reset” for me. I just went with it and emerged on the other side of it a much stronger person for having been pushed and pulled in a lot of new directions. I found it very invigorating and also a great learning experience.
If there’s one track to really talk about it’s your cover of “This Guy’s In Love.”
I’ve always loved that song. The guy who made it famous, Herb Albert, makes an appearance on this song. He wasn’t a singer and he sang it; there’s a vulnerability that comes with people that don’t normally sing. I’m not a Pavarotti. The way I approach it, which is appropriate for the song, is, “Hey, I like you—I’m not sure how you feel about me in return. I’m making myself vulnerable and putting myself out here, and I feel confident enough in doing that.
It’s a simple message of love, of all kinds. It could be a marriage equality song, of two people expressing their love for each other.
There’s a little ad-lib at the end of the song where I sing, “This guy’s in love with this guy.”
So, when you sing a line like that, it begs the question: Is there someone specifically you’re thinking of when you sing that lyric?
There is. He hasn’t arrived in my life just yet. (laughs) But in the past few years I’ve had a lot better idea of what that person is like.
You were on Desperate Housewives earlier this season…
It was a fantastic opportunity to expose a song from the album, “Start All Over Again.” I call that tune that tree trunk of this album. The name of the album comes from the song’s chorus. It caught the attention of Marc Cherry, the show’s executive producer. He met with Dana Glover, who wrote the song, and me, and told us he wanted to build an episode around the song, he believed in the song that much. I was born and raised in L.A. and know the Hollywood thing; sometimes you hear stuff like that and think, “God willing.” But more often than not it doesn’t happen. Well, sure enough, there we were on the set with all those famous actors and actresses. It was a very special gift for this album, a great launch.
