Recently I reviewed Dave Koz's Ultimate Christmas and really fell in love with it, so I jumped at the chance to attend the Dave Koz and Friends Christmas Tour at Atlanta's Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center. I had never been to the Cobb Energy Center before, but it is a perfect performance venue, and we had wonderful seats directly in front of and very near the stage. The view was perfect and the sound quality stellar.
Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photos during the concert, so I am going to have to try to use inadequate words to describe this extremely visual as well as aural show.
Even before the show began, we knew we were in for fun when a delightful pixie of a girl identified as Holly, dressed in green and with green striped hose, roller-skated across the stage to announce the 15 minute and then the 10 minute mark. She then came back on stage to introduce "Dave Kloz" and friends, insisting when corrected that it was not Dave Koz, and she should know because she worked for him! When a voice from backstage asked her to kill a little time while they finished getting ready, she broke into a killer tap routine followed by a frenetic disco number, thus setting the tone for the evening. She finished her routine by disappearing behind a screen, which when lowered revealed Dave Koz in red pants and a bathrobe with a toothbrush in his mouth. "Good evening, I'm Dave Kloz," he announced before retreating behind the curtains to emerge moments later in a stunning red suit.
Joining Koz for the performance were three other superstars of contemporary jazz: trumpeter Rick Braun (who also produced the Christmas CD), South African guitarist and singer Jonathan Butler, and petite Dutch saxophonist Candy Dulfer. Even though it is billed as the Dave Koz Tour, the four musicians shared time equally, performing both individually and together. They were backed by elaborate projected images which perfectly suited the songs and dazzled the eye, but somehow did not detract from the performers. It was delightful to watch Koz, Braun, Butler and Dulfer bob, weave, and dance across the stage, playing off and interacting joyfully with each other. They were constantly in motion, as one segment of the show moved seamlessly into the other with not a single visible glitch or hesitation. For the first night of such an elaborate production, it was amazing, in retrospect, to realize that it all worked so very smoothly, although at the time it just seemed perfectly natural.
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