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Swing Time

Upcoming concert at the Sound Board
features saxophonist Dave Koz.

Suzanne Chessler

Special to the Jewish News

T

he summer tour "Side by Side"
aptly describes the jazz event Dave
Koz and Brian Culbertson bring
Thursday, Aug. 6, to the Sound Board at the
Motor City Casino.
Koz, both a sax musician and composer,
will be sharing the stage with the keyboard-
ist-trombonist as well as with singer Peabo
Bryson.
"This really is a collaboration because
Brian and I put our music and bands togeth-
er and crafted a show," says Koz, 44, whose
radio program runs 2 7 p.m. Mondays-
Fridays on Smooth Jazz V98.7-FM. "It's not
like one opens for the other. It's three artists
who have a lot to say and jam-packed it all
in one concert."
Koz fans will hear "All I See Is You" and
You Make Me Smile." A Koz-Culbertson duo
will perform Koz's "Faces of the Heart:' the
theme from General Hospital.
There also will be many Culbertson and
Bryson hits.
"We're doing some music that's never been
heard before," says Koz, changing from the
Capitol to Concord record label. "I'm work-
ing on a new recording project that will be

-

coming out early next year so we're debuting
a brand new song that Brian and I wrote."
Traveling to concerts and recording stu-
dios does not interfere with Koz's radio com-
mitment.
"Because the way technology is now, I don't
have to be at the studio to host the show','
explains the instrumentalist, who started
playing sax in seventh grade, joined a teen
band and fully launched his concert and
recording career right after college. "I can do
it wherever I am via the Internet."
Koz, who wrote a religious song and has
played it at one California synagogue for
12 successive Yom Kippur services, had a
memorable stage experience in Tel Aviv last
November.
"I was invited to perform at the 10th
anniversary of the Shimon Peres Peace
Center," he says. "I played 'Over the Rainbow'
from my At the Movies album, and [Israeli
President] Shimon Peres was in the front
row. It was an extreme honor to play in Israel
and for him."
Four years ago, Koz decided to reveal that
he is gay.
"I'm very inspired by young people who
know who they are and say who they are he
explains. "At a certain point, I was not willing
to not be the full person that God made me."

Dave Koz

Koz considers charity work important to
being a full person. He has joined the Los
Angeles Jewish Symphony in a program
raising funds to feed the hungry. In the fall,
with the help of Whole Foods, he is debut-
ing a Koz wine with proceeds going to the
Starlight Children's Foundation.
"I have a real passion for wine says Koz,
who enjoys cooking and lists his favorite
recipes on his Web site, www.davekoz.com .
"Being able to combine my love of wine with
philanthropic work is very special."

❑

Dave Koz will appear 8 p.m. Thursday,
Aug. 6, at the Sound Board in the Motor
City Casino, 2901 Grand River, in Detroit.
$49.50-$55.50. (313) 309-4595; www.
motorcitycasino/Sound-board.aspx.

In another jazz concert, "Big
Band Bash," 8 p.m. Friday,
July 31, at the Meadow Brook
Music Festival on the grounds
of Oakland University in
Rochester, Thomas Wilkins
leads the Detroit Symphony
Orchestra in a tribute mark-
ing the 100th birthday year of
the iconic Jewish clarinetist
Benny Goodman. The program
features the Dave Bennett
Sextet — with Michigan clari-
netist Bennett, Tad Weed on
piano, Paul Keller on bass,
Pete Siers on drums, Hugh
Leal on rhythm guitar and
vocalist Carol McCartney
— along with arrangements
of Goodman material by Paul
Keller for the full orchestra.
"I have often said that
the best era in American
jazz was the Big Band era,"
says conductor Wilkins.
"Unashamedly, it gave our
toes permission to tap and
made our bodies a vehicle for
Swing. And if that was not
enough, this was one of those
magical times when melody
was singable, memorable and
just plain lovely."
Tickets are $15-$30. (313)
576-5111; www.palacenet.com .

J ews

Nate Bloom

Special to the Jewish News

Nuptial Notes

On July 16, the engagement of Ivanka
Trump, 27, to New York Observer
newspaper publisher Jared Kushner,
28, was announced. Kushner comes
from a prominent New Jersey
Orthodox family active in real estate.
His father, Charles
Kushner, is a
major philanthro-
pist whose proj-
ects include two
Jewish day schools
named after his
late parents, both
Holocaust survivors.
Trump and
Ivanka, as most
Kushner
people know, is the
daughter of real estate mogul Donald
Trump and his ex-wife, Ivana Trump
(neither of whom is Jewish). Beautiful
and smart (she's a graduate of the
Wharton School at the University of

B8

July 30 - 2009

Pennsylvania), Ivanka currently is
vice president of real estate develop-
ment and acquisitions at the Trump
Organization.
New York magazine released a
recent interview with the couple right
after the engagement was made pub-
lic. Here's an excerpt:
"Jared's Orthodox Jewish back-
ground presented a challenge to the
relationship, but Ivanka has worked
hard to show Jared's parents that she
embraces Judaism. This week, she
completed her conversion after study-
ing under [Modern Orthodox] Rabbi
Hillel Lookstein on New York's Upper
East Side. This spring, for instance,
Ivanka attended a benefit for the mik-
vah (ritual bath) in Jared's hometown
of Livingston, N.J., with his mom,
Seryl, and his two sisters ..."
On June 27, Zoe Winkler, 28, the
daughter of actor Henry Winkler,
63, and his wife, Stacey, 61, married
actor Robert Reinis, 35. The Jewish
wedding was held in the backyard of

the Winkler's Los Angeles home. Zoe
is a nursery school teacher who was
introduced to her new husband by
the mother of one of her students. It
was a long court-
ship with many
ups-and-downs.
Robert's kind-
ness to Zoe dur-
ing Stacey's long
battle with breast
Zoe and Henry
cancer helped
Winkler
bond the couple
together.

New Flicks

Judd Apatow co-wrote and directed
the comedy-drama Funny People,

opening Friday, July 31, and starring
Adam Sandler, who plays a famous
comedian diagnosed with an incurable
blood disease and told he has a year
to live. He decides to use his time to
help the career of a struggling young
standup comedian (Seth Rogen).
Rogen's character lives with two other

young comics, played by Jonah Hill
and Jason Schwartzman. The plot
thickens when Sandler runs into his
old girlfriend (Leslie
Mann, Apatow's
real-life wife)
who's married to a
macho Australian
(Eric Bana). When
Sandler's disease
goes into remission
— he has critical life
Judd Apatow
choices to make.
Aliens in the Attic, which also opens
Friday, is an about a family on vaca-
tion in Maine. The four kids become
aware that their house is under attack
by space aliens while their parents are
clueless. Playing the two older kids are
Ashley Tisdale (High School Musical),
24, and Carter Jenkins (Keeping Up
with the Steins),17. Doris Roberts, 78,
plays their grandmother. ❑

Contact Nate Bloom at

middleoftheroadl@aol.com