Holiday tour result of tragedy

The annual Dave Koz & Friends Christmas Tour has brought joyful holiday music to audiences all over the country for 15 years. But the original idea for the show was born of sorrow.

It started in 1997 when Koz, popular smooth-jazz saxophonist and radio show host, interviewed pianist David Benoit for a broadcast. The musicians discovered that each had lost a parent — Benoit’s mother and Koz’s father had both died recently.

It was Benoit who came up with the idea to go out on a concert tour.

“I said, ‘We ought to go out and do a Christmas tour, because it’s going to be kind of tough around the holidays without our parents,’” Benoit recalled. “Dave is the one who made it happen. I had the idea, and he ran with it.”

While Benoit has continued to play the annual tour on and off over the years, Koz has gone on the road to play holiday favorites every year.

This year, Benoit has rejoined the tour and will perform with Koz, star drummer Sheila E. and others Dec. 14 at Wells Fargo Center in Santa Rosa as part of the “Dave Koz & Friends Christmas Tour 2012.”

“It’s a fantastic time to be out touring. People are in such a great mood,” Koz said by phone from one of the tour’s stops in Florida.

“A lot of people have come to this show many years in a row,” he added. “We see families, with grandparents and kids. We see office parties, where people come with their co-workers.”

The tour has featured an ever-changing cast of guest stars over the past decade and half, growing from half a dozen performances in 1997 to 26 cities this year.

“It’s like casting a television show or a movie,” Koz said. “You put together people who may or may not know each other, but whose music, temperament and personality flow together. That influences the direction of the show.”

Benoit, known for his interpretation of Vince Guaraldi’s “Peanuts” theme music, will have his own segment in the program, and one of the highlights this year is Sheila E.’s new version of “Little Drummer Boy,” renamed “Little Drummer Girl.”

“Sheila E. typically brings down the house practically every time she plays,” Benoit said.