The Dave Koz and Friends Christmas Tour is swinging just close enough (Palm Desert near Palm Springs, California) this week to give David Benoit time to skip out for a few hours and join me in the JazzTrax Studio for a Christmas-Time David - Art Chat. We have been conversing on the JazzTrax airwaves ever since I was one of the first to book Benoit as a solo act at the debut 1987 Catalina Island JazzTrax Festival. As friends, some interesting things come out of our conversations. You'll learn about a forthcoming brand new Benoit CD coming in late Spring. I tell David about Euge Groove's recent panic attacks on a european Tina Turner Tour last winter and spring, David will surprise me this week with his story of calling paramedics a few year's ago while on the Koz Tour in San Francisco because he was having the first panic attack of his life. Anybody who's had this syndrome out there will find the conversation fascinating, because I too had my spell with this more than two decades ago. Oh... and the very best songs of David Benoit too, plus selections from his Christmas recordings, including Charlie Brown.

Beyond just the notes, some observation. The fan base for Smooth Jazz remains huge and will for probably the rest of our lifetime, even as it ages. Even as the total number of Smooth Jazz Radio Stations has shrunk as has the volume of Smooth Jazz CD Sales, Smooth Jazz Festivals are still going strong... including Catalina Island, despite the recession hit, as are the Smooth Jazz cruises. It's been said by many, including Jay Beckenstein of Spyro Gyra, that the economy, and the fact that we don't buy CD's like we did even ten years ago will not kill creativity. New music is, and will continue to be, produced in this genre. We gave 'Album of the Year' honors to Jesse Cook - in part because he continues to stretch the boundaries with such distinctive instrumentation and melodicness. We included Basia even though many think her sound is over, simply because it can't be held against her that she simply disappeared for so long. Her Hot is still Hot. And Benson is just pure Benson. And look at his Special Guests on his newest. And as displayed both in new releases and debut releases and how they knocked 'em out on the October JazzTrax Live Performance Stage, Trumpeter Cindy Bradley, Saxophonist Phillip 'Doc' Martin, Guitarist Drew Davidsen, and Keyboardist Gail Jhonson gave us one of the finest years of Debut Artists comin' out of nowhere that we'd seen in a long long time! We did not name a 'Best Album' or 'Best Song Title' because absolutely nothing jumped out at us. And it took until the very last performance of the year... closing night in the Avalon Ballroom for us to see what we gave 'Best Live Performance' honors to... because George Duke didn't just put on a concert...he put on a SHOW!.

So put some of 2009's Brand New under the Christmas Trees. Or better yet, don't wait. Buy a few of our picks and start listening right now at home and in your car. I'm already looking in the JazzTrax mailbox for the first brand new of 2010. Won't be long.David Benoit, Norman Brown, and Paul Hardcastle (Jazzmasters) are already wrapping up brand new ones.

Here's to everything new in 2010!