Hoping to ice Columbus with holiday spirit and jazz, the “Dave Koz and Friends Christmas Tour” is slated to head into the city.
CAPA is scheduled to host Koz and his fellow performers 8 p.m. Friday at the Palace Theatre.
Koz, headliner for the show, has some experience with the saxophone – he has been playing for 36 years.
“I came from kind of a musical household,” Koz said. “When I was in seventh grade, 13 years old, that’s when I found the saxophone, really as a means of getting into my brother’s band.”
He said he continued into college, playing on the weekends as he pursued a degree in mass communication at the University of California, Los Angeles.
“I never really planned on having a musical career (until) I graduated college and I got a gig that put me into the right spot to be noticed by some people,” Koz said. “The next thing I knew I was traveling the world touring with other musicians.”
He said in the late ‘80s he got a record deal with Capitol Records and he has been performing ever since.
“It’s been a wild ride, but great… very unexpected,” Koz said. He also said the “Dave Koz and Friends Christmas Tour” is now in its 15th year.
Rich Corsi, director of programming for CAPA, said he first booked Koz seven years ago when he started working for CAPA, and since then the show has been successful.
Corsi said he thinks every year the show gets more popular. He credited the show’s success to word of mouth.
“I think all the folks who were coming those first, you know three or four years when we first started presenting Dave, came away just loving it,” Corsi said. “(Fans were) going back and saying, ‘hey next year you got to go with us to this show, you’re going to love it.'”
Corsi said Koz plays all the classic holiday songs in his show, and that’s why people love it so much.
He said he thinks people use the show as a way to kick off the holiday season.
One song Koz plays to help his audience kick off their holiday season is “White Christmas.”
Koz said every time he plays song’s melody, it makes him feel good and nostalgic.
He also said he loves coming to Columbus, and he has performed in the city several times since he started his career.
“It’s a great place. You know, the nice thing is it’s so classy and so classic, but it’s not too stuffy of a place,” Koz said. “And it’s so old and historic. It’s like a perfect place for us to play.”
When Koz brings his jazz music to Columbus, he enters a community with a very strong jazz culture.
Johnny Go, owner of Johnny Go’s House O’ Music, located at 1900 N. High St., said Columbus has more good jazz than Cleveland and Cincinnati combined.
Go said he sells some of Koz’s music in his store but does not carry very much of his smooth jazz.
Koz said Christmas music is strange because it is not new music. He said, despite how old the music is, it’s something we all want.
“It’s like musical comfort food. These songs that remind you of memories of your childhood and your folks and your family and every year you get the chance to create new memories,” Koz said. “The songs are kind of like the soundtracks.”
Tickets for Friday’s show are $28 to $65.50 and available through Ticketmaster.
