Montell Jordan And Dave Koz Perform For Music Education And Democrats

08/16/2000 7:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Craig Rosen

(8/16/00, 7 a.m. ET) - Montell Jordan and Dave Koz performed their cover of Wham's "Careless Whisper" in Santa Monica, California, on Monday (August 14) as part of a Recording Academy reception in honor of Congressman Steny Hoyer and other key Democratic leaders. The event was a celebration of arts and music education in the nation's schools.

Jordan, who grew up in South Central Los Angeles, told LAUNCH why he wanted to be involved with the event. "I'm involved in this thing because Montell Jordan had a great upbringing with music in school as a child," he explained. "As I became a little older and went to high school, there were no music programs there for me. If I can help any child to avoid the situations that I had from not having music available to me as an extracurricular activity, as something mandatory, as something I could use to get out of the streets, I will do my best to avoid that happening to any other kid."

Koz, who started playing saxophone in junior high school, told LAUNCH that he, too, enjoyed music in school. "I'm here to support arts education. We're here to pay honor to one of the congressmen, Congressman Hoyer from Maryland, who actually has been a staunch supporter of arts education in schools. I'm a musician and artist. I play the saxophone and I started playing in junior high school," he explained. "I had the great honor of being a part of a wonderful jazz band and concert band and marching band, and it just really gave me the confidence because I was a very shy kid."

The Recording Academy event also featured performances by Melissa Etheridge and the Goo Goo Dolls and was hosted by Chevy Chase (LAUNCH, 8/15).

-- Soren Baker, Los Angeles

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