Peter White

Award-winning saxophonist Dave Koz returns with a new set of friends for a magical evening of holiday music with a contemporary jazz spin.
Background:
Dave Koz initially picked up the saxophone as a means of gaining entry into his big brother's band. For the young boy who grew up in L.A.'s San Fernando Valley, what began as a ploy became a lifelong obsession. In a career spanning nearly two decades, Dave has established himself as a world-renowned saxophone player, platinum selling solo recording artist, humanitarian, music-business entrepreneur, radio host and instrumental music advocate. The recipient of 4 Grammy nominations, the list of artists Dave has played with bears testament to his talent -- Burt Bacharach, Ray Charles, Natalie Cole, Celine Dion, U2, Michael McDonald, Anita Baker, Luther Vandross, Vanessa Williams and Rod Stewart among others. Signed to Capitol Records by Bruce Lundvall, Dave released his self-titled solo debut album in 1990 -- the first in a continuing body of best-selling works, including the gold-certified Lucky Man (1993), Off The Beaten Path (1996), two holiday-themed albums, December Makes Me Feel This Way (1997) and Dave Koz & Friends - A Smooth Jazz Christmas (2001). His gold-certified fifth album The Dance (1999) spawned no less than five Top 5 contemporary jazz hits. Saxophonic (2003) produced another four top 5 singles and garnered Dave two Grammy nominations.
Over the last quarter century, composer and pianist David Benoit (b. 1953) has been a passionate musical innovator committed to the exploration of many different art forms on the American landscape. A five time Grammy nominee for his extraordinary and seminal contributions to contemporary jazz, Benoit has also embarked on a multi-faceted journey into the classical music world. His long association with Charles Schulz and the famed Peanuts realm led to over ten years of composing music for Peanuts TV specials on CBS. In addition, he has written the themes for the long running soap opera All My Children His career as a contemporary jazz pianist began in 1977 and includes 23 solo recordings over the past 25 years. Many of these, including his 1987 GRP Records debut Freedom At Midnight and its Grammy nominated 1988 follow-up Every Step Of The Way, are considered influential classics in the genre, which came to be known as Smooth Jazz.
Trumpeter Rick Braun was the touring trumpeter for Sade on the "Love Deluxe" tour and that influence resulted in a huge leap for him in style and content from his first to second album. Listening to Night Walk is almost like listening to Sade instrumentally. Night Walk grabbed Adult Alternative's top Most Added honors. In that same year, '94, Rick also released Christmas Present. Rick's 1995 album Beat Street, led the pack again. His influence for this he says is thinking back on his days in War's touring band in the mid '80's. After the fact, those memories had a major musical impact on his writing and on our ears. "This is definitely a more spontaneous recording than anything I've done before. Instead of sitting in a room by myself, composing the music before going into the studio, I just took my inspiration from a bunch of guys getting together and playing, with no idea of what we were going to come up with". Beat Street topped the contemporary jazz charts for a record-breaking 13 weeks, eventually becoming the No. 1 smooth jazz record of the year, garnering Braun Gavin's Artist of the Year and Album of the Year in 1996. Body and Soul topped that with 28 consecutive weeks in the Top 15 on Billboard's contemporary jazz charts. It went on to become No. 3 on the NAC/Smooth Jazz album charts, yielding the No. 1 hit single "Notorious" and garnering another Artist of the Year Award from Gavin. His next release, Full Stride, topped the charts for 20 weeks, and his numerous collaborations with artists Richard Elliot, Brian Bromberg, Chris Standring, Jeff Golub, Peter White and 3rd Force have led to multiple No. 1 records.
Peter White played with Al Stewart 's band for a tour of England, Scotland and then the USA, starting in 1975. This was the beginning of a musical collaboration that was to last 20 years, during which time we wrote and recorded many songs together, including Al's 1978 Top Ten hit "Time Passages".
With a unique musical perspective, intimate voice and prolific treasure-trove of lyrics, singer-songwriter Brenda Russell proves that a truly glowing talent only deepens with time. Composer of the classics "Get Here," "If Only For One Night," and the Grammy-nominated "Piano In The Dark," Brenda's songwriting prowess and chameleon-like ability to shift between musical genres and combine styles trumpeted ovations in 2005 with the opening of the Tony Award-winning hit Broadway musical The Color Purple--a show for which she, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray co-wrote the music and lyrics. Brenda and her co-authors were also nominated as songwriters for a Grammy this year in the Best Musical Show Album category for the original cast album.