| Smooth Jazz |
With the holidays approaching, our friend Dave Koz and his team sent us this album, which is the starting point of a concert series kicking off in December. In a big country like the USA, with so many different religions everywhere, it may seem difficult to make an album for this festive period without offending someone. This is where the genius of Dave Koz and friends come into play, offering diplomatic instrumentals for everyone. Even if Christmas is not your jam, you will appreciate the arrangements and interpretations on this album, because this is above all a merry smooth jazz venture.
Dave’s “friends” in question are none other than the illustrious Rick Braun, David Benoit and Peter White, among others, creating deconstructed works with traditional titles that evoke the holiday season, and a few jingly bell sounds here and there to remind you that this is indeed a holiday album.
French speakers will enjoy “Petit Papa Noel,” popularized a long time ago by Tino Rossi, and an Ave Maria size for the stage highlighting the sax prowess of Dave Koz.
I will let you imagine the nice show that will criss-cross the western part of US theaters from November 25th in Atlanta, to Sarasota on the 26th, Naples, Florida on the 27th, and so on until December 23rd with various guests and not the least (depending on the dates), to be discovered here.
Definitely, Dave Koz is one of the best-known smooth jazz artists in the USA, for a reason: we love his arrangements, his compositions, his joie de vivre which can be felt in his saxophone playing. If you can’t attend the concert, you can still have this album.
The editors of Paris-Move and Bayou Blue Radio, who do not yet donned a white beard and ridiculous red cap on their heads, have happily slapped an “Indispensable” sticker on this CD.
Thierry Docmac
Correspondant aux USA
Bayou Blue News – Bayou Blue Radio – Paris-Move
PARIS-MOVE, October 31st 2022
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