At the age of 5 smooth jazz superstar Dave Koz’s mother forced him and his siblings to play the piano. He hated every minute of it, but the Grammy nominated saxophonist and composer admits it was the foundation of his career.

“I’m not very good on the piano, but I write most of my songs on it”, says the 41-year-old Koz. “It was the basis for all my music.”

Koz, a gay musician who recently came out of the closet in a high-profile article in the April 27 issue of The Advocate, touches down in San Diego this week to headline the KIFM Smooth Jazz Festival taking place May 29 in the Gaslamp. The Gay & Lesbian Times caught up with him by phone twice – once from his home and once while he was driving around downtown Los Angeles on his way to a Lakers game (he was looking for a parking place).

For any musician, coming out is considered a big risk to take – a move that is even in this more progressive day and age seen as something that can end a career or catapult it. Koz says the idea of coming out was sprung on him suddenly when the editors at a regional gay paper reviewing his latest CD, Saxophonic, insisted on describing him as gay, or scrapping the review. Koz’s own reaction surprise reaction? Exhilaration.

“The writer came back to me and said, ‘They won’t run the story unless you will comment on being gay.’ … I was so excited about it! I was like, ‘Let me think about this!’ That’s the fist time ever that that had happened – the thought of coming out was so exhilarating and exciting and so I thought it must be right.”

In talking about his life and music, Koz often uses the analogy of a script to illustrate the way one shapes their life and music. “With the script that I wrote for my life,” Koz explains in talking about the coming-out process, “I realized that it’s like a kid wrote it, you know what I mean? … When I was a kid I wrote a script that went, ‘I’m a gay guy, I’ve got to hide that, I can’t be who I am.’ But then you go through that and you realize, ‘I’m still living by this script that I wrote as a kid. I don’t have to live like that. I’m a grown man.’ … That’s basically what’s happened. I’ve realized I can be as truthful and honest as I need to be – and the gay teens now, they get that. But I realized as I was going through this process that there were a lot of self-worth problems that were still in me – like a lot of gay guys have, they have these feelings but you can’t look anywhere and see anyone else who has them so you keep these things bottled up and you live with them for years. And it just feels wonderful to not have to do that anymore.”

Koz says he didn’t pick up a saxophone until age 15 when he joined his older brother’s band, but he was immediately hooked.

“It felt natural in my hands from the get go,” says Koz. “I wanted to be able to be in a band and not have a real job. In fact, I never had a real job.”

Did the saxophone in any way help a gay teen get through some difficult years?

“As far as me, it’s a vehicle to be able to get what I’m feeling out, and the saxophone has for many years been my vehicle to get out a lot of the feelings that were sort of bottled up inside of me. … There’s a lot of feeling and a lot of emotion that goes into that sound, and the saxophone as an instrument is so emotional and so close to the human voice. It can be sad but it can be happy too and everything in between. The sax and I have a formidable relationship. It’s … really never let me down as an instrument. Whatever I put into it, it gives me the same thing coming out.”

Koz spent most of his teen years with the band playing weddings, bar mitzvahs and various other events. He earned money following his life’s passion to play music, while his counterparts endured typical unglamorous high school jobs at fast food joints and retail stores. It was then that Koz knew he was in this profession for the long haul.

After getting a mass communications degree from UCLA, Koz continued to play music, eventually landing his first professional job as a touring saxophonist with Bobby Caldwell’s band. Soon after, he was invited on a 14-month tour with pop singer Richard Marx. That was just the exposure and experience he needed to launch into his successful solo career.

Koz was signed to Capitol Records in 1990 with the release of his debut album David Koz. Since then, he has gone on to become a world-renowned, multi-million album selling solo recording artist. His other earlier works include Lucky Man (1993) featuring the song “Faces Of The Heart”, which later became the theme song to the ABC daytime drama “General Hospital”. In 1996 Off the Beaten Path was released, featuring Stevie Nicks contributing vocals on the number-one smooth jazz hit “Let Me Count the Ways”. Koz’s fifth album, The Dance (1999), became gold-certified and earned him five Top 5 contemporary jazz hits. This year he released the sax-intensive Saxophonic to critical acclaim.

Adjusting to life at a major record label is sometimes very difficult for new artists, and Koz has come up with an alternative.

“I’ve been through six presidents in my tenure,” Koz says. “It can be challenging at times, but it’s a great honor to be a part of the great legacy of Capitol Records.”

Neverthless, Koz recently co-founded his own independent record company, Rendezvous Entertainment, headquartered in Los Angeles.

“It’s never been a better time for a young, independent record company,” said Koz. The company has about six musicians signed, including emerging contemporary jazz saxophonist Michael Lington.

Many musicians influenced Koz growing up, but his brother – the one with the band –and his family’s listening habits were his biggest influences. Koz grew up to the sounds of David Sanborn, Tom Scott, Stan Getz and John Coltrane, among others. His parents were into the likes of Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and Sarah Vaughan.

While much of the energy of Koz’s music over the years comes from letting out “bottled up emotions” as he says, the result in the music itself is a decidedly more positive, upbeat energy. The irony isn’t lost on Koz.

“For me, the main thing is for people to come and be transported,” he says. “That’s the great thing about instrumental music … it really does allow the listener to write their own stories, make their own scripts. That’s one of the things I love about not only my music but about this world – the instrumental music world. Bottom line is I want them to feel great when they leave, but my music does have this sort of happy – I don’t want to say happy because that sounds dorky – but my music does make people feel good, and hopefully that’s happening.”

Reactions about his coming out from his fans and musicians in the industry have been extremely positive, he says – though Koz hasn’t previously had a strong gay following, so the big showing of support has been an unexpected surprise.

“There have been ripples of unbelievable, positive stuff coming from people I did not expect,” he says. “In the last five years what has happened with gay mainstream issues is incredible. It shows we are living in a different time,” says Koz. “I’m kicking myself for not doing it earlier.”