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Mike

"Koz"

Kozlowski

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Koz was born and raised in Berkeley, California where he was influenced and participated in the Bay Area music scene in the 1960's and '70's.  San Francisco artists such as Santana, the Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, the Doobie Brothers, and Huey Lewis and the News filled the airwaves.  Koz also gravitated toward the local Oakland funk band Tower of Power who gleaned much of their influence from James Brown and the Motown sound of the era. 


Koz became a big fan of these bands' sounds and the bass lines, rhythms, and vocals that came with them. Koz started playing bass professionally in 1975 at the ripe age of 19 playing in bands in bars in the Truckee-Tahoe area. Koz took up the harmonica casually around that period, too. 


Koz's 45+ year music career has spanned the genres of rock, pop, blues, rhythm and blues, soul, funk, country and western, reggae, latin, and jazz. Koz has played in bars, nightclubs, cabarets, showrooms, amphitheaters, concert arenas, and studios in San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Tahoe, and Reno with most of his time in the Reno-Tahoe area. In L.A. in the late '70's Koz had an opportunity to play with members of Elton John's rhythm section. Also in the late '70's and early '80's Koz played in a band with vocalist Lydia Moreno (Phillips) of the popular Bay Area recording artist Stoneground. Also in the '80's and 90's, Koz performed with recording artists sax man Danny Hull (Cold Blood) and guitarist/vocalist Trey Stone (recently inducted into the R&B Hall of Fame). 


Koz also toured the western U.S. and Canada in the '80's with The Hollywood Cowboys which was a great foundation for the style of music he now plays with Reno based band, the Deckheads. 


The past 20 years or so, Koz has played and toured with bands from Nevada to California to Illinois, to New Jersey's Atlantic City, whose focus was primarily on tribute shows such as Abbracadabra (tribute to ABBA) and River of Souls (tribute to Dan Fogelberg). Koz got a call from Pete Nevin in the summer of 2016 to perform in concert with the Deckheads. 


Koz says about this band: "It's an honor, privilege, and a natural fit playing with Pete and the Deckheads. I get to lay down solid bass foundation and rock, groove, sing, and play harp to my heart's content. These guys are very talented musicians and great people to hang out with, too!" 
 

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