It May Not Be Jazz, But It Sure is Cool
Both David Foster and Michael McDonald have performed on a Signature Cruise Experiences jazz program. In fact, they each have done it twice. Yet both superstar performers spent time during their sets to disavow that they were jazz musicians. The did so out of respect, not out of shame.
The reality, of course, is that they could perform any genre of music they chose to play!
Since those appearances, both men have become hosts of our cruise programs. Michael took the reins of the ’24 sailing of McDonald LaBelle Cruise and David is hosting David Foster: The Hitman Cruise (January 15 – 20, 2026). Happily, Michael is one of the stars of David’s cruise.
The two recently performed at a private function and spent some time together talking about the cruise and their mutual admiration. Kindly, they filmed their chat and made it available to us to share with you.
Few is the number of indisputable icons of music performing today. David and Michael are clearly two of them. We are excited to have them both, together, on David Foster: The Hitman Cruise (davidfostercruise.com).
Still time and room to join us for this once in a lifetime event!
Michael Lazaroff
Signature Cruise Experiences
In This Edition of Jazz Notes
In this edition of Jazz Notes, our jazz consultant, Lee Mergner, will be spotlighting the many talents of Elvis Costello (Botti at Sea III) and Matthew Whitaker (The Jazz Cruise ’26), as well as an “on the ground” report from the Newport Jazz Festival and its director, Christian McBride. Michael Lazaroff will provide the latest updates on Journey of Jazz ’25, Botti at Sea ’26 and the plans for the ’27 sailings of The Smooth Jazz Cruise.
Cruise News
This edition of Jazz Notes has a lot of information to cover, but, before we start that process, there are a couple of Cruise News items to share.
Special Invitation from Chris Botti
The headliners (Elvis Costello, Boz Scaggs, Melody Gardot, Peabo Bryson & Regina Belle) for Botti at Sea III (’26) have been set for a while now, but, on August 6, 2025, Chris Botti and SCE Friends will be hosting a Live Lineup Reveal where they will announce the entire lineup and more details about his cruise in September ’26. This includes the opening of reservations for the amazing San Francisco/Napa/Sonoma/Victoria excursions.
Don’t miss your chance to greet our host, learn more about the cruise and have a lot of fun doing so. Mark your calendars for WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 6, 2025 AT 3 PM ET. We’ll see you there! Register for this live lineup reveal by clicking the button below!
REGISTER FOR LINEUP REVEAL
Journey of Jazz
Journey of Jazz ’25 Update
Journey of Jazz ’25 has been fully reserved, however, for various reasons, some guests are forced to cancel their reservation at the last minute. Currently, there are a handful of Staterooms with balconies available. Interested in a “pop-up” jazz cruise? For more information, call the office.
What is Next for Journey of Jazz?
Will Journey of Jazz Have An Encore? You bet. In keeping with the “journey” theme, we will be sharing the unique itinerary and cruise details for the next edition of Journey of Jazz very soon.
Xmas in July Cruise Prices for Christian McBride’s World at Sea
The special Cruise Prices for Veranda/Ocean View/Inside Staterooms for this program ends tomorrow, July 31, 2025 at 5 PM. You do not want to miss this opportunity. Call the office or go online for details. Promo Code: XMAS
The Smooth Jazz Cruise prepares for ’27
Talent offers for the ’27 sailings of The Smooth Jazz Cruise are going out very soon and, sometime around Labor Day, we will announce the lineups for SJC ’27.1 and SJC ’27.2. Both sailings will be (roughly) the same time of year as the ’26 sailings. SJC ’27.3 will be in the Fall, just like SJC ’26.3. The locations for that cruise are under wraps right now. We will be sailing somewhere very nice…and not near any hurricanes!
Signature Cruise Experiences Homepage Makeover
If you have a moment, checkout the new homepage for our company website (www.scecruises.com). We have added some fun and exciting video footage that we hope you will enjoy.
McBride’s World at Sea
Christian McBride Revitalizes
the Newport Jazz Festival
The Newport Jazz Festival is the oldest jazz festival in the world, meaning it was the first jazz festival in the world. Founded by budding impresario George Wein in 1954 (gosh, the same year I was born), the iconic event has evolved over the years, presenting just about every important jazz artist of the last eight decades – from Duke Ellington to Wynton Marsalis and everyone in between. Just as Signature Cruise Experiences sets the gold standard for jazz cruises, so too has Newport done the same for jazz festivals. With the help of a team of advisors like Danny Melnick, Darlene Chan, Jason Olaine and many others, George curated the festival himself until 2017, when he turned the reins over to Christian McBride. Christian, working with the new executive director Jay Sweet who had had enormous success rebooting the Newport Folk Festival, brought his own catholic (that means broad) tastes in music to the festival’s programming. So that meant Andre 3000 would appear on the same stage as Maria Schneider.
Attendance at the festival steadily grew in the ensuing years, thanks in no small part to Christian’s open mind towards including more jazz-leaning or jazz-adjacent acts like The Roots and Nile Rodgers. But there was, and still is, some blowback from the jazz faithful. “Why are you presenting artists like that at a jazz festival?” We can answer that one. To sell tickets so that they can also see dozens of great more pure jazz acts. So that the festival will remain financially viable.
What many people don’t remember is that George had been presenting jazz-adjacent acts since the festival’s beginnings, as anyone who has watched the 1959 film Jazz on a Summer’s Day would know. In that film, you’ll see ionic jazz artists like Thelonious Monk and Louis Armstrong performing on the same stage as decidedly non-jazz acts like Chuck Berry and Mahalia Jackson. In George’s case, booking people like Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Al Green, B.B King, and Sly & the Family Stone over those many years sold tickets, but didn’t lead to quite the backlash that would come later. Perhaps because the roots of jazz in blues, R&B and soul were clearer than the connection between hip hop and jazz.
Two important points here: First, this year’s edition of the Newport Jazz Festival (held August 1-3) sold out in advance for all three days. In the festival’s 70-year-plus history that’s never happened before! Second, if you’re a straight-ahead jazz fan who is not interested in seeing Janelle Monae, Willow or Raye, then you can still enjoy the many sets by decidedly jazz artists like Ron Carter, Dianne Reeves, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Emmet Cohen, Terence Blanchard, John Scofield, Marcus Miller, Hiromi or many others. It’s still the Newport Jazz Festival. This coming weekend Christian himself will showcase both his straight-ahead side with a performance by his big band (with some surprise special guests) and his funkier side with the Philadelphia Experiment, which features him on electric bass with his former high school classmate Questlove and the keyboardist Uri Caine, a bona fide jazz cat who can groove like Les McCann when that’s called for.
For our part, we’re happy to have Christian curating the music for McBride’s World at Sea. It turns out that he knows something about choosing artists that connect with audiences.
– Lee Mergner
The Jazz Cruise ’26
Matthew Whitaker: From Prodigy to Professional
Although guests of The Jazz Cruise have come to expect to see many of their favorite artists year after year, they also appreciate being introduced to new or emerging artists who may not have come to their city or town yet. During The Jazz Cruise ’26 our guests will get to witness the extraordinary talents of Matthew Whitaker. The 24-year-old pianist and organist has already performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, the Apollo and many other storied venues. This will be his debut on The Jazz Cruise.
Born three months prematurely in 2001, Matthew weighed less than two pounds and he was given a less than 50 percent chance of survival. He was later diagnosed with retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), which caused his blindness. To say that he was a prodigy doesn’t do it justice. As he told the NEA’s Ann Meier Baker, “I’m the only one in the family who is musical, although my dad listens to music and knows what sounds good. My grandfather is the one who started my musical journey when he gave me a keyboard at age three and I started by playing nursery rhymes. I began piano lessons at five, at six I learned the drums, at seven I got into jazz and at nine I taught myself the organ.”
Like many jazz organists, Matthew started playing that instrument at church. “My parents didn’t really want me to play it, probably because they thought it would be too loud,” he explained. “But my church pastor told them to let me play and then friends gave me a small organ. After that I got a Hammond A100, then finally a portable Hammond B3, and a few others as well.” At the age of 13, Matthew became the youngest artist to be endorsed by Hammond in its more than 80-year history. He was also named a Yamaha Artist at 15, likewise becoming the youngest musician to join that stellar group of jazz pianists.
Although he often plays by ear, he also reads Braille music. “I learned to read Braille music at the Filomen M. D’Agostino Greenberg Music School (FMDG) for the blind and visually impaired in New York City,” he said. “I learned the basics of that for playing classical music, because there’s not much Braille music available for other styles of music. I do learn music by ear, but if the music is really challenging, I check it by the Braille to be sure.”
Matthew acknowledges the influences of so many jazz pianists and organists, including Dr. Lonnie Smith, Jimmy Smith, Joey DeFrancesco, Charles Earland, Tony Monaco, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea and Oscar Peterson, but he also keeps an open mind to other genres. “I listen to literally anything,” he explained. “I could be listening to a jazz piece, gospel or just playing along with different songs, like music playing on shuffle mode.”
But jazz is closest to his heart and inspires his creativity. “I’m always in the basement recording and arranging music,” Matthew said. “I’m grateful to have all the equipment I need to experiment with different sounds. That’s what I love about jazz—it allows you to be you.”
Matthew believes that music connects us all and that every child should have access to music education. Beyond his music performances, Matthew advocates for persons with disabilities, consulting with companies to improve accessibility features. His advice to others: “Don’t let your disability stop you and just have fun.” For his part he does other things than music like rock climbing, skiing and other activities.
No longer a prodigy, Matthew Whitaker is now an established jazz musician with both albums and soundtracks to his credit. We’re proud to introduce him to our guests on The Jazz Cruise ’26.
– Lee Mergner
Botti at Sea ’26
Elvis Costello’s Jazz Roots
Since his arrival on the music scene in 1977 as a proto-punk or new wave singer-songwriter, Elvis Costello has immersed himself in many different musical styles and directions – from country and Americana to R&B and classical. Even jazz. Not many rock singers can boast that they had Chet Baker play on their record, as Elvis can with the song “Shipbuilding” from his Punch the Clock album in 1983. Later, Baker would record one of Elvis’s tunes, “Almost Blue,” on an album of his own. Costello wrote it with the trumpeter in mind when he was “in the thrall of” Baker’s version of “The Thrill Is Gone.”
But Elvis has very deep roots in jazz, thanks in no small part to his father, Ross MacManus, who was a trumpeter and singer of some note in the British Isles. Beginning in the late ‘40s, Ross played trumpet in bebop jazz bands throughout Northern England and eventually joined the popular Joe Loss Orchestra in 1955 as the featured singer. During Elvis’s appearance on Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz radio show in 2005, the British-born host explained to Elvis that when she was 19, she had seen that group perform at a dance. “Joe Loss was somebody I listened to a lot,” Marian told Elvis. “They played what I would call dance music of the time. It was a very good band, and although I don’t recall listening with great concentration, it must have stayed in my head.”
On that same show, Elvis sang “At Last,” a Glenn Miller vehicle from Orchestra Wives in 1942. His father sang it on a 1958 EP by Joe Loss, six years after Ray Anthony’s cover made the top ten and two years before Etta James’s iconic version. “I played my Dad’s recording of the tune on Desert Island Discs (a BBC show),” Elvis told Marian. “Both my parents have been very supportive all through my career and understood the different things that I’ve done, but obviously their heart lies in the music we’re speaking about today.”
Elvis’ mother also contributed to his youthful immersion in jazz, because she and his father ran jazz clubs in Merseyside, near Liverpool in the late ‘40s and early ’50s. And she also ran a record store, so their house was a repository for a record collection that featured singers like Nat Cole, Peggy Lee, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday, as well as instrumentalists like Clifford Brown, Charles Mingus and Miles Davis. “These sounds were familiar to me, and I heard a wide range of ballads other than the ones I grew up buying as a teenage rock-and-roll fan,” Elvis explained. “When my young adult curiosity took me back to many of those artists and the recordings, I found that they were equally vivid.”
He would also go on to marry a gifted jazz musician. Although he rarely performs with Ms. Krall, the two share a deep love and appreciation for the music’s history and legacy. We’re fortunate to have Elvis share that lifelong affinity with guests on Botti at Sea ’26.
– Lee Mergner
Signature Cruise Experiences Programs
DAVID FOSTER: THE HITMAN CRUISE
is in Open Booking
CHRISTIAN MCBRIDE’S WORLD AT SEA
is in Open Booking
THE JAZZ CRUISE ’26
is in Open Booking
THE SMOOTH JAZZ CRUISE ‘26.1 & 26.2
are Fully Reserved
THE TOP SHELF COUNTRY CRUISE
is in Open Booking
THE SMOOTH JAZZ CRUISE ‘26.3
is in Open Booking
BOTTI AT SEA’26
is in Open Booking
