Arts & Entertainment

Dave Koz’s Ultimate Christmas Collection, Featuring 18 Holiday Classics, Is Out Now

Ultimate Christmas, featuring 18 holiday songs performed by Dave Koz, was released today by Capitol/EMI. The collection features the six-time GRAMMY® Award nominee’s renditions of such perennial holiday classics as “The Christmas Song,” “Winter Wonderland,” “Deck The Halls,” “O Tannenbaum (O Christmas Tree)” and “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” plus “White Christmas” featuring Kelly Sweet and “Please Come Home for Christmas” featuring Kimberley Locke. The songs were hand-picked from Dave’s three previous holiday albums – December Makes Me Feel This Way, A Smooth Jazz Christmas and Memories of a Winter’s Night. Koz also recorded two brand new instrumentals for Ultimate Christmas: “Welcoming the Season (Prelude)” and “Welcoming the New Year (Coda).”

Dave Koz and Friends Christmas Tour 2011 kicks off on November 25th (the day after Thanksgiving) at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center in Atlanta, GA. Trumpeter/composer/producer Rick Braun, South African singer/guitarist Jonathan Butler and Dutch saxophone star Candy Dulfer will join Koz for the 14th anniversary of the tour. The four will perform hits from their respective catalogues and jam on new arrangements of holiday favorites. See below for itinerary.

“[Koz] works extremely hard at engaging his audience. His showmanship, in fact, is impeccable,” said The Times of London. The Palm Beach Post called last year’s Christmas tour “downright uplifting and energizing” while the El Paso Times observed: ““El Paso’s love affair with Dave Koz, and his with us, showed no signs of letting up…as Koz and his latest touring companions lit up the Plaza Theatre like a Christmas tree.”

Dave’s latest studio album, Hello Tomorrow, debuted at No. 1 on both Billboard’s Top Contemporary Jazz Albums chart and iTunes’ Jazz Album chart and was named the “Best Smooth Jazz Album of 2010” by iTunes. Hailed as “an event record” by The New York Times, it features “Put The Top Down,” which spent 18 weeks at No. 1 on the Mediabase Smooth A/C chart (the longest stint at No. 1 of any of Koz’s chart-topping hits), the Top 5 hit “Start All Over Again” featuring vocalist Dana Glover and Dave’s version of the Burt Bacharach-Hal David classic “This Guy’s In Love With You,” which hit No. 1 on the Breakouts for Hot Dance Club Play chart. “Anything’s Possible,” Koz’s latest single, was also a #1 hit record.

Track listing – Ultimate Christmas Collection

1. Welcoming the Season (Prelude)

2. Santa Claus Is Coming to Town

3. The Christmas Song

4. Sleighride

5. White Christmas

6. Winter Wonderland

7. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

8. Little Drummer Boy

9. Please Come Home For Christmas

10. Silver Bells

11. Eight Candles (A Song For Hanukkah)