Jazz Cruise
The Jazz Cruise is an annual full-charter cruise centered on the performance of straight-ahead jazz. Sailing every year since 2001, it currently fills Holland America’s M/S Eurodam with 2,000 guests for a seven-day Caribbean itinerary. The Jazz Cruise features nearly four dozen musical acts, making it a major jazz festival in its own right. The 2015 sailing includes the Arturo Sandoval Band, Monty Alexander, Gregory Porter and the Clayton Brothers Quintet. The Jazz Cruise is produced by Entertainment Cruise Productions (ECP).
History
In the mid-1980s, Norwegian Cruise Line (“NCL”) began sponsoring an annual jazz cruise on the SS Norway. This program was a special "group," meaning that it shared the ship with other passengers. During the early years of NCL’s Jazz Cruise, Anita E. Berry quickly became the largest group leader in terms of the number of guests she produced for the cruise. This resulted in Berry becoming increasingly influential, with NCL asking her to become involved in the production of the cruise, the selection of the artists, the ports-of-call and other aspects of the cruise’s development. In 2000, NCL decided to terminate its theme cruises. By this time, Berry had accumulated significant proprietary assets: a guest list, cruise expertise, relationships with musicians, and finances. She calculated that these were sufficient resources to continue offering jazz cruises on her own. With these, she founded Entertainment Cruise Productions. The Jazz Cruise was ECP’s first format, and remains a popular offering. The cruise will have its fourteenth consecutive annual sailing in 2015.
Itinerary
The Jazz Cruise sails a Caribbean itinerary during the winter season. In 2015, its scheduled ports of call were Falmouth, Jamaica; George Town, Cayman Islands; Cozumel, Mexico; Key West, USA; and Fort Lauderdale, USA.
Performers
Jazz Cruises typically feature scores of acts. In 2015, the full list includes the Arturo Sandoval Band, Monty Alexander, Gregory Porter, the Clayton Brothers Quintet, Marcus Miller, the Christian McBride Trio, the Byron Stripling Trio, the Benny Golson Quartet, the Phil Woods Quintet, the John Pizzarelli Quartet, the Jeff Hamilton Trio, the Joey DeFrancesco Trio, the Regina Carter Trio, the Freddy Cole Trio, the Houston Person Quartet, Randy Brecker, [...] Hyman, Hubert Laws, Cyrille Aimée, Tierney Sutton, Ernie Adams, John Allred, Peter Erskine, Allen Farnham, David Finck, Jimmy Greene, Niki Haris, Antonio Hart, Andre Hayward, Sean Jones, Tony Kadleck, Tom Kennedy, Larry Koonse, Joe LaBarbera, Dennis Mackrel, Russell Malone, [...] Oatts, Eric Reed, Claudio Roditi, Michael Rodriguez, Bob Sheppard, Gary Smulyan, and Jennifer Wharton. In addition, Wycliffe Gordon will host the Gospel Show, and Ken Peplowski will serve as show host. Shelly Berg is the program’s Music Director, and John Fedchock is the Big Band Director. Alonzo Bodden appears as the comedian. The cruise also has a resident historian, Grammy-winning producer Todd Barkan.
External links
- The Jazz Cruise website