Dave Koz goes to the movies

You really have to give credit to Hollywood for making what was once essentially a hometown gathering to pat each other’s backs into a major world event. So just like what usually happens during the first months of the year, the world once more went into movie mode in anticipation of the Academy Awards.

The winners for 2006 have been announced but that does not mean movie lovers have now turned into other things. They are now going around checking out the winning performances, either at the cinema, if the movie made it to local theaters or at home, thanks to their favorite vendor of pirated films.

But while films do leave an impression on the viewer, there is nothing quite like the effect movie music has on everybody. The music score sets the mood for the scenes and viewers react accordingly. Hearing the music sends us reliving favorite portions, puts us inside those situations we watched on the screen, and for the particularly sentimental and imaginative, those melodies become our own personal themes.

Breathes there a soul who did not hear It Might Be You playing in his head at that initial burst of attraction for a member of the opposite sex? Only liars will say they never did. It Might Be You, performed by Stephen Bishop was used in the movie Tootsie. It was nominated for the Academy Award in 1983 but lost out to Oh! What a Feeling from Flashdance. No matter. It Might Be You remains a big favorite today. That must be why it was included among the Academy Award winning songs included in the At The Movies album by sax wizard Dave Koz.

Koz is the most popular sax player of the moment. What he is to sax is what Chris Botti is to the trumpet today. At the Movies, smooth and lushly emotive, is seen by some as a betrayal of his jazz ethic. It is too middle of the road and he just plays along with the orchestra and the oh-so dramatic arrangements. But then there is not really much that an artist can do with a repertoire such as this. What Koz did was enjoy the opportunity to put his imprint on some of the most beautiful movie music ever written and hopefully once more evoke the feelings we associate with them.

Enchanting best describes the results. One can almost sense the glamour of Hollywood from the moment when the voice of the great Judy Garland intros the first bars of Over the Rainbow, the Academy Award winning song in 1940 from The Wizard of Oz. This feeling stays with you throughout the album along with other emotions. Check that joyful lilt you get as Barry Manilow’s smooth vocals joins the sax in Moon River, the Oscar winner of 1962 from Breakfast at Tiffanys.

Truth to tell, I’d forgotten how beautiful The Summer Knows from The Summer of 42 is until I heard it again in this album. And what about that wonderful combination of Koz, Botti and Johnny Mathis in The Shadow of Your Smile from The Sandpiper. Of course, no collection of memorable movie themes should be without As Time Goes By from the Oscar nominated score in 1944 of Casablanca. And with sound bytes from Ingrid Bergman at that!

And everybody is sure to enjoy these other cuts. Somewhere from the Oscar winning score of West Side Story, 1962 with Anita Baker; The Pink Panther from the Oscar nominated score in 1965 of the movie of the same title; The Way We Were Oscar winner in 1974 also from The Way We Were, with Vanessa Williams; A Whole New World, Oscar winner in 1993 from Aladdin with Donna Summer; and Schindler’s List from the Oscar winning score in 1994 of the movie of the same title. As for It Might Be You it is performed twice, one version guests india. arie and the other has Peter White on the guitar.

I am glad that Koz decided to put a Cinema Paradiso Suite in his album. The music from Cinema Paradiso was not a winner at the Oscars but I believe that it should have been at least nominated. We watched awe-struck as that melody initiated a young man into the magical adventure that is the cinema. I cannot think of any composition from recent times that fully captures the sense of wonder we feel when watching a great movie. And Dave Koz with his sax makes an awesome guide.