When the executive director of Jazz Cruises, LLC, first approached Dave Koz and asked him to be the host of his own smooth-jazz holiday at sea, the affable saxophonist replied with a polite but determined "No." Asked a second time, he said no again. Subsequent pitches — and strikes — followed. The idea didn’t exactly excite Koz, who vividly remembered a less-than-thrilling family cruise to Mexico in 1986 following his UCLA graduation.
But when the Grammy-nominated musician was told that he could fashion the weeklong journey any way he chose, business-savvy Koz — who had already created fan-friendly packages like Smooth Jazz Christmas and the Dave Koz & Friends summer tours — finally capitulated.
"I thought about it," explains Koz, on the telephone from his Beverly Hills home one morning in mid-January, "and realized that, wow, it was such a creative thing to do. You have an entire ship and a captive audience of 1,800 people. Plus you can invite all sorts of people to come and make music with you. It’s a floating jazz festival."
