If Dave Koz was a baseball player, he'd be headed for a hall-of-fame career. The guy's sold out six of his last seven concerts in El Paso, including Sunday's show at the Plaza Theatre. That's an .857 batting average. Even Albert Pujols can't match that.
Why is Koz so big around here? There are a lot of reasons. He's fun, he's intense, he keeps it fresh and no two shows are alike. He tends to hit it out of the park, or the Plaza, every time he plays here.
Take Sunday's energized "side-by-side" show with Brian Culbertson, for example. It's a new approach for Koz, who typically tours with his own band, aided and abetted by a special guest or two. On this one, though, Koz and Culbertson are equals, performing most of the time on one another's tunes, backed by a muscular four-piece band drawn evenly from each artist's touring ensembles.
R&B smoothie Peabo Bryson, who's playing a handful of dates on the summer tour, got his own mini-set to start the second half.
Koz, the affable saxophonist, and Culbertson, his boyish accomplice (a triple threat on keyboards, a black trombone and youthful boy band bottle blond good looks), worked together well, more like a couple of juiced up staff aces than the meat of the order. They had a natural chemistry that suggested they've been doing this together for years, when in fact they hadn't toured together in several years.
Though the 36-year-old "Culbie" is 10 years Koz's junior, the pair had a natural rapport and shared a propensity for upping the ante on one another, though it's clearly Koz who's No. 1 in the rotation.
They came out firing some high, hard and funky stuff (Culbertson's crackling "Always Remember" benifited from a punchy two-horn arrangement) before Koz threw a big, sultry, sweeping curve on the sexy "Surrender," one of the first of many standouts, during the first act's quieter mid-section.
They closed out the eventful first set by offering up some big fat ones right down the middle, particularly their highly successful songwriting collaboration "All I See Is You" and a crowd-pleasing "So Good" that had most of the musicians running around the stage before it was over.
Bryson's turn came in the second half. In fact he got about half of the second half, which was a couple of innings of relief too many. No matter. Bryson, who's been here on the "Colors of Christmas" tours, has lost none of the clarity or expression in his voice, though a missed button on his gray, leopard-skin jacket revealed a little too much bare belly (later rectified).
He extolled the virtues of good love with "If Ever You're in My Arms," asking audience members how many they told their significant others they loved them. A duet with backup singer Christy Wright on "Tonight," his duet with Roberta Flack, was a nice touch, and his "Show and Tell" is one of those songs that always seems to sound good.
Better, though, was the Peabo-less band's blowout version of "Bada Bing," one of Koz's newer tunes and a showcase for guitarist Randy Jacobs' inner wild man as he ran around the stage jumping, spinning, posing and rolling around on his back.
Not to be outdone, the 36-year-old, spikey-haired Culbertson's solo on "On My Mind" came complete with a lot of flash (he played it from the wrong side of his Roland keyboard) and a little sex appeal (he wiggled his butt for the ladies, who shouted their approval).
A choice cover of Rufus' "Ain't Nobody" brought Peabo and his singers back to the stage for a rousing, show-closing version of the '70s funk classic, which was followed by an encore of "Get It On," which ramped up the energy even more as Koz and Culbertson turned into a two-man horn section bent on chasing one another.
It was that kind of friendly one upmanship kind of showmanship that gave this particular Dave Koz show an energy only hinted at his Plaza show last summer, and that one was pretty energetic. As in past concerts, Koz sang the praises of the El Paso's enthusiastic audiences — and he'll be back with his Christmas show Dec. 17 — noting that Culbertson had made a favorable impression in his first Sun City visit. "I don't think you're going to forget this guy soon," Koz predicted.
The crowd, many of them Koz concert repeaters, probably won't forget Sunday's show anytime soon, either. It wasn't a perfect game. It was more like a grand slam.
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