It’s been over a year since fans have been able to watch Dave Koz perform live thanks to the pandemic. Now he’s back with his friends for their Summer Horns tour! The month-long tour will be across two countries and have 18 tour dates.
Koz celebrated his 30th anniversary as a recording artist last year but now he will be able to finally celebrate with his fans. With the first show within just a couple of days, Koz sat down with Watermark to discuss performing on stage again, how he got his start, what it was like coming out in 2004 and what people can expect at the Summer Horns tour.
Watermark: How did you get your start in music?
Well, I can hardly remember it’s been so long. I started playing saxophone in the seventh grade in beginning winds, never thinking for a minute way back when that this would become my life but through a series of wonderful experiences and some very important people that kind of pushed me along the way, here we are this many years later, and I’ve been making records for 30+ years and traveling all over the world.
I feel incredibly blessed and it was really this guy named Jeff Lorber who was the big change agent for me. He saw something in me when I was in my 20s auditioning for his band. He’s kind of a fusion pioneer and when I auditioned he said “You got the gig and I want to talk about you making your own records,” and up to that point, that was never even in my purview. I never even thought about that. It was very exciting. He lived up to his commitment and here we are, you know, all these years later. He’s still a big part of my life and I feel incredibly blessed and excited about getting back out there on the road. These will be the first shows in Florida. The first shows that we’ve done in over a year and a half. I can’t believe it. I’m nervous, but I’m really excited.
Going back to your beginning, why’d you pick up the saxophone in the first place?
Well, it was primarily as a means to get into my brother’s band. My older brother, who was doing a lot of weddings, bar mitzvahs and fraternity parties with his friends and I just saw how much fun they had and they didn’t have to have other jobs. I just wanted to be in the band and they did not have a saxophone player and this was during the ‘80s, late ‘70s, when every pop song had a sax solo. So if you were a band that was playing parties and didn’t have a sax player, you were kind of out of step. I just really wanted to be in that band and that was the way in. That’s why I picked up the saxophone and then I drove my brother crazy for like two years until he finally relented and let me be in the band. He sort of gave me a one-shot, it was a wedding and he said, “All right, you get $10 to play this wedding.” Everybody else made $100. He gave me $10 and I did okay. So I got in the band and that’s how it all started.
So what is it about performing on stage that wants you to tour the country? Do you ever see yourself stopping?
I am 58. I can’t even believe that’s coming out of my mouth because I feel like I’m… how old are you?
I’m 21.
Well, maybe I don’t feel 21, but maybe 31. Something like that. I still have a lot of energy and a lot of passion to bring music to people. I think that as long as there’s an audience, that is wanting and desiring to hear my saxophone or to come on our cruises or to hear the shows that we put together, whether it’s summer or Christmas. I think if the audience is still there, interested and excited, then it’s almost a certain kind of joyous responsibility, pleasure and privilege to be able to bring that music to people around the world. I hope that I continue to do it. I may not do it with the same kind of reckless abandon that I’ve done for the last 30 years, because really, I’ve been on the road for the better part every year for 30+ years. At least half sometimes, three-quarters of the year away from home. So the pandemic has really opened my eyes to the feeling of what it feels like to be home and that is a really cool thing. I really enjoyed my couch. I haven’t even gotten to know my couch for all these years and I really have been enjoying the idea of just sleeping on the couch at night and watching Netflix like everybody else in the country.
Due to COVID-19, everyone’s performances were put on hold. So what is it about getting back there? What are you most excited about and what are you looking forward to the most?
Well, there is nothing that can ever replace the experience of a live concert. Especially the kind of music that we make with the Summer Horns. Our show this year features three of the finest saxophone players that I know. Kirk Whalum, Mindi Abair and Vincent Ingala. The four of us will be out there touring all summer long with a wonderful band and this is music, not just from our catalogs, but also music from the golden era of music for me, which was when all these horn bands ruled the airwaves. There were these incredible bands, big bands with big horn sections. Tower of Power, Earth Wind & Fire, Chicago, Blood Sweat & Tears and Kool & the Gang. They were so exciting. That’s the music that we’re out there this summer and that’s the real draw for us is to be able to share all this high-energy, really high-octane music with the audiences. I did a bunch of live streams this last year during the pandemic but you’re playing to nobody. You’re playing to a camera. That’s not the same as playing in front of people, not seeing their faces and knowing that the music is connecting. There’s this shared experience that we haven’t had for a very, very long time. So that’s the big draw, being able to return to that. I’m trying to describe it, but really it’s indescribable. If you’ve been to a show that you really love then you know exactly what I’m talking about.
What instrument is your favorite to play and why?
Well for me, the saxophone is like another part of my body. It’s the way that I can communicate. In a lot of ways, words don’t have the ability to communicate the way that the saxophone can. The sax is such an expressive instrument. It was a very different time when I grew up. I’m gay. I didn’t have the ability to talk about that and I didn’t even know how to find words for that. So at 13-years-old this instrument came into my hands and it wasn’t the first instrument that I played. I played other instruments and sucked at them but the sax immediately connected with me and I was able to get these really intense feelings that I was feeling inside, without anybody to talk to. The sax provided this vehicle for me to express myself and to at least feel like a whole human being at a time when I just didn’t have the resources, like we do today. A young kid growing up gay has tons of resources, tons of people to talk to and you see it so much. Back then it was a very different scene. So the saxophone really became my best friend, like my trusted ally that I could tell it anything and it would be there for me. I mean in a lot of ways, I think it saved my life. It’s been my valued friend for all these years. Almost 50 years since I’ve been playing it.
Society wasn’t as open about people who are in the LGBTQ+ community as they are now. When you came out in 2004, was there ever a fear in the back of your mind that your career could be negatively affected?
Yeah, it’s true. And I did. I had a lot of fear about that happening. When I was younger, I never thought I would do that. I never thought I would come out because I just thought, you know, it’s too far and I don’t know, it just never dawned on me that it was a possibility for me until all of a sudden in 2004 it just presented itself. I was like, “I’m doing this,” I guess I just waved off any of the potential negative effects because I just was not comfortable anymore with being two people: one public person and one private person. I just wanted to put those two halves of me together into one hole and I didn’t even know that would have ever happened but there was this opportunity to do it and I just was like, “I’m doing this,” and I never looked back. The funny thing is we all may have this mountain of fear that you build up about something. Every day that goes by you build more on that mountain until it becomes almost insurmountable. You can’t get over it because it’s too big, because you’ve worried about it for so many years. Then all of a sudden, at least for me, it was like “I’m climbing this mountain. I’m getting to the other side. I don’t care who says anything, I’m just doing it, Whatever happens, happens.” The funny thing is that I got to the other side of the mountain, I looked back and there was no mountain. It was all in my head and this can be something that every human being can relate to. I think. We all have fears about whatever it is that we feel like we can’t surmount and yet you have to push through and then you push through and realize that was most of it, if not all of it was in our heads and that was totally the way with me coming out. There were zero negative reactions. I mean nothing. Everything improved. It was another opportunity to realize that being authentic in your life. Showing up as who you are, exactly as who you are, is always a good thing to do.
Going back up to your beginning or even now, what musicians do you look up to for inspiration?
Well to me, the guys that are still doing this many years later and still doing it so strongly like Stevie Wonder. There’s a guy named Herb Alpert who’s one of my chief mentors in life. He plays the trumpet and he’s almost 90 years old. Guys like Norman Lear, who is a television producer, is a dear friend of mine, he’s 99-years-old and still producing television. There are so many of these guys, whether it’s Billy Joel, Elton John or George Benson. These are people that have been around for so long that are still doing it at a very high level. Smokey Robinson is another one. Those are the people to me that I look up to most because I hope that I’m able to be as committed to craft as they are late in life because that’s really what they’ve done. They’ve committed to their craft, their art and continue to create it well beyond their retirement years and that’s pretty amazing to me.
Moving now to your 2021 tour, what can people expect from your shows?
Tomas, this is a very high-energy, fun summer show. Summer is in the name of the tour. It’s Summer Horns. So this is for artists that are coming together to create a really wonderful, jam-packed show full of life and energy. We’re just really, really excited about coming out and doing a tour. We haven’t played music live in front of people for, you know, nearly two years and so this is really like a return to the stage and a return to that feeling of being outside and enjoying life, music and seeing everybody. We’re really, really excited about it. I think it’s a real gift. I wasn’t sure until really the last minute whether we were going to be able to do a tour because, you know, there’s still a lot of fear out there. I think that this is going to be a really, really wonderful summer and we’re thrilled to be starting it and kicking off in Florida.
The Dave Koz & Friends Summer Horn tour begins on July 30 at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, then moves to Jacksonville at the Florida Theatre on July 31 for two shows and finally at a part of the Dr. Phillips Center’s Frontyard Festival in Orlando on Aug. 1. For more information on the Dave Koz & Friends Summer Horn tour, visit davekoz.com.
