Dave Koz - The Dance (1999)

Note: this CD released using HDCD encoding.

Definitely of its time; Koz plays it safe and that's not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, I'm fairly confident that I've heard almost all these tracks on a jazz station at some point. Koz unapologetically goes straight for the candlelight dinner/champagne/roaring fire couples but I knew that going in. Even though he doesn't really need the help, Koz has plenty of guest artists on this album: Burt Bacharach, BeBe Winans, Luther Vandross, David Benoit, Montell Jordan, Chris Botti, Jonathan Butler, Marc Antoine, Nathan East, Jeff Lorber, and members of Take 6. Each track has its own producer depending on the guest artist, so it's amazing the album is as cohesive as it is. Not as good as Lucky Man, but a nice addition to the smooth jazz/instrumental pop shuffles on my office computer's playlists.

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #190
• Billboard Contemporary Jazz: #3
• Billboard R&B: #67

It also fared well on the year end charts for 2000:

Billboard, December 30, 2000, p. YE-85

Tracks: My picks for this one include Together Again, Can't Let You Go, Love Is On The Way, and The Bright Side. The only tracks to skip are the lackluster Know You By Heart and the below average covers of The Dance and Wham's Careless Whisper featuring Montell Jordan (but I can't really blame Koz for wanting to record that famous sax lick). The track where Koz almost stretches out and varies his formula slightly is the brief Cuban Hideaway, which features multiple sax overdubs over an Afro-Cuban-lite groove.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:
December Makes Me Feel This Way (1997)
Lucky Man (1993)

Dave Koz - Lucky Man (1993)

Dave Koz is one of the better-known smooth jazz artists partially because he knows how to market himself: radio and TV host of syndicated smooth jazz programming, smooth jazz cruises, "Dave Koz and Friends" tours, not to mention TV appearances on The Weather Channel, Beverly Hills 90210, and Desperate Housewives. But all that promotion is for naught without good material. This album is a little ballad-heavy, but it is one of Koz's strongest releases. It has just the right combination of slick production and guest artists (Phil Perry, Maceo Parker, Clarence Clemons, Booker T. Jones) while utilizing a stable of first-call session musicians. It's the album of a young musician trying to find his own sound, but still commercial enough to find a place on the then-emerging smooth jazz radio market. It's just uneven and dated enough that I don't listen to it much these days other than the few tracks I've ripped to iTunes.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: #176

Tracks:  The album starts off strong with Shakin' The Shack followed by You Make Me Smile. Also good are Tender Is The Night and Wait A Little While. People may recognize track 3, Faces Of The Heart, as it served as the theme for General Hospital for many years. I'm not a fan of Silver Lining and the attempt at hip-hop/jazz fusion, Don't Look Any Further.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD:  Happy 21st birthday, Kelly Taylor.

Previously revisited for the blog:
December Makes Me Feel This Way (1997)

Dave Koz - December Makes Me Feel This Way (1997)

A better-than-average Christmas album. With the exception of the occasional keyboard, this is an all-acoustic affair which sounds like Dave just invited some friends over to play some Christmas tunes - no pressure, lots of fun. There are some great non-traditional arrangements here. Koz later released Christmas CDs in 2001 & 2007 and a compilation of the three Christmas CDs in 2011. I've got no excuse for avoiding them like I have.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: Sleighride gets us off to a happy start, but the first 8 tracks are all fantastic - don't skip any of them. While Koz's saxophone takes the lead, the songs aren't all in a smooth jazz vein; the honky-tonk arrangement of Winter Wonderland is probably my favorite cover of that song. Things go downhill fast with two original tunes, the French-flavored Eight Candles and the title track (which includes vocals by Koz) - not bad tunes per se, just out of place here.

Warning: after a minute of silence, the last track contains a dreaded "hidden track." Here, the hidden track is comic Phil Hartman reciting a tongue-in-cheek rendition of The Night Before Christmas in a coffeehouse beatnik style. It's funny, I don't know why it was hidden.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD:  No specific memory, but these songs get a lot of playing time each year around the holidaze.