Keyboardist/Guitarist Doug Kōbs was accepted into the classical piano program at Lawrence University in Appleton, WI, but switched to jazz and ultimately earned a degree in Jazz Performance from the University of North Texas in 1989. While studying the piano, Doug also honed his flat picking and finger style guitar technique.
After playing around the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, including a stint with the jazz/R&B group Fingerprints, Doug headed to Denver, sitting in with local and national jazz artists at Denver’s Market Street jazz fixure, El Chapultepec.
With the Day2 Band at Scooters in Raleigh, NC
In 1995, Doug hit the Big Apple, where he regularly joined the late night jam at Manhattan’s famous jazz hangout Small’s on 10th Street in the Village. As multi-keyboardist for the Prog Rock/Alternative band, The Zipperbits, he spent the next few years gigging at such New York hot spots as CBGB, The Mercury Lounge and Arlene’s Grocery.
With The Zipperbits at CBGB in Manhattan
After 15 years in New York, Doug relocated to Raleigh, where he is currently the keyboardist and webmaster for the funk/reggae/dance band BIGFooT GRooVE for several years. Doug continues to sub as keyboardist for the Motown/dance band West Street Band as well as classic rock band Faster than Boys.
Doug is primarily known as a jazz player, however, with regular solo jazz piano gigs at the Washington Duke Inn in Durham, the Umstead Hotel and Spa in Cary and the Carolina Exotic Car Club in Raleigh. Doug is a sideman for various top jazz musicians and also performs regularly throughout the Triangle with his jazz ensemble, Jazz Plus and with Lauren Meehan one of the Triangle’s premiere jazz vocalists.