Within weeks of deciding to be a professional musician, he was recruited as a member of
Bobby Caldwell's tour. Koz was originally a rock saxophonist before he moved to smooth jazz in 1989. For the rest of the 1980s, Koz served as a
session musician in several rock bands, and toured with
Jeff Lorber. Koz was a member of rock musician
Richard Marx's band and toured with Marx throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, which was around the time he recurred as the guest saxophonist on the
syndicated late-night talk show
The Arsenio Hall Show. He also played in the house band of
CBS' short-lived
The Pat Sajak Show, with
Tom Scott as bandleader. In 1989, Koz decided to pursue a solo career, and began recording for
Capitol Records. His albums there include
Dave Koz (his 1990 solo debut),
Lucky Man,
The Dance, and
Saxophonic.
Saxophonic was nominated for both a
Grammy Award and an
NAACP Image Award. Koz released his second album,
Lucky Man, in 1993. During production of the album in 1992, Koz was approached by the producers of
ABC's
General Hospital to perform on the show after his track entitled "Emily", from his
Dave Koz album, was used as part of the show's soundtrack that year. After his
GH appearance, executive producer Wendy Riche commissioned Koz to write a new theme song for the soap. Koz took elements from the show's existing theme song,
Jack Urbont's "Autumn Breeze", and merged the chorus notes into a brand new smooth jazz composition titled "Faces of the Heart". The new theme music made its debut on
General Hospital's 30th anniversary show, which aired April 1, 1993, and remained as the show's title track until August 27, 2004. "Faces of the Heart" ended up as the third track on Koz's
Lucky Man album. performing at the Dave Koz & Friends Smooth Jazz Cruise 2006 In 1994, Koz began hosting a
syndicated radio program,
The Dave Koz Radio Show (formerly
Personal Notes), featuring the latest music and interviews with who's who in the genre. Dave co-hosted
The Dave Koz Morning Show on
94.7 The Wave, a
smooth jazz station in Los Angeles for six years. He decided to leave the show in January 2007 and was replaced by
Brian McKnight. In 2002, Koz started a record label,
Rendezvous Entertainment, with
Frank Cody and Hyman Katz. Koz has promoted annual Dave Koz & Friends Jazz Cruises since 2005. Koz is the host of a weekly half-hour television series named
Frequency put on by Fast Focus. Koz interviews musicians on the show such as
Earth, Wind & Fire,
Jonathan Butler, and
Kelly Sweet. At the end of each interview, he plays along with the musician, adding some of his saxophone
riffs to one of their hit songs. Koz was also the bandleader on
The Emeril Lagasse Show. The band,
Dave Koz & The Kozmos, featured
Jeff Golub (guitar),
Philippe Saisse (keyboards), Conrad Korsch (bass guitar), and Skoota Warner (drums). Koz hosts a weekly radio show on the
Sirius-XM Radio Watercolors channel called "The Dave Koz Lounge," which airs Sundays at noon ET. On September 22, 2009, Koz received a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame. In October 2010, Koz performed "Start All Over Again" in a
Desperate Housewives season 7 episode "
Let Me Entertain You", alongside singer
Dana Glover. In July 2012, he appeared on
The Eric André Show, season 1 episode 7, and sat in with the house band. In December 2014, he opened Spaghettini & the Dave Koz Lounge, a restaurant and live music venue located at 184 North Canon Drive in
Beverly Hills, California with business partners Cary Hardwick and Laurie Sisneros, who own Spaghettini in
Seal Beach. In 2018, Koz collaborated with guitarist and regular
Vulfpeck contributor,
Cory Wong, on two tracks, "The Optimist" and "Friends at Sea". The two collaborated again in 2021 for the album
The Golden Hour, including the single "Today". In 2022, Koz collaborated with singer-songwriter
Ben Rector on the track "Supernatural" from Rector's album
The Joy of Music. In March 2025, Koz released
Just Us, a duets album with
Bob James. With seven original songs and three standards,
Just Us is uniquely raw and unplugged with just the saxophone and piano only. Regarding the album, Koz has said, "When you only have two instruments, as we have here, taking up the entire sonic space, each can be heard in a much clearer, bolder, bigger way. It's amazing and scary because we hear all the breaths, clicks and pad noise. Those who go on this ride with us will hear our instruments in a whole new way." == Instruments ==