The Weekender
June 13, 2026
Our Take: It’s the 13th. Are You Superstitious?
Performers, actors and athletes are famously superstitious. The benign description is to call quirky personal traits part of a “routine.” When a golfer plumb bobs, checks out the line, takes…
Read More
June 8, 2026
Our Take: What’s Your Music When Not Listening to Jazz?
For various reasons, we are taking inventory of our cruise programs to find common threads both in terms of “good stuff” and “bad stuff.” Those inquiries quickly lead into a…
Read More
May 30, 2026
Our Take: Miles at 100, Marcus at 23
Sonny Rollins died on Memorial Day. His legendary accomplishments and place in the history of jazz are shared by Lee Mergner in an article below. Normally, we burst directly into June after…
Read More
May 23, 2026
Our Take: Memorial Day Weekend
April is Jazz Appreciation Month. The official start of summer is June 21, 2026, the summer solstice. But, for my money, summer jazz season starts on Memorial Day Weekend. From…
Read More
May 16, 2026
Our Take: A Few Days in the Big Apple
I’m home from a few days in New York City. I know that New Orleans is the epicenter of jazz, but when I am in NYC, I feel the jazz…
Read More
May 9, 2026
Our Take: Mothers of Achievement
The title of this Our Take is a bit misleading. After all, by definition, all mothers have achieved. They are all mothers, a heroic achievement by any measure. When a…
Read More
May 2, 2026
Our Take: The Name is Jazz
When someone says, “you know who it is after hearing one name,” they generally mean a first name. On Chris Botti at Sea III (’26), the headliners joining Chris for…
Read More
April 25, 2026
Our Take: Signature Cruise Experiences Foundation LLC
From its inception, our company, now named Signature Cruise Experiences (SCE), has contributed to funds and foundations that promote jazz education and those who provide relief and assistance to jazz…
Read More
April 18, 2026
Our Take: Excursions…or Experiences?
Recently, we added land-based excursions to our programming on several cruises. Sometimes words are used to describe something without regard to their true meaning. I wondered if “excursion” was one…
Read More
April 11, 2026
Our Take: Livestreams…Our Newest Connection
It was the Summer of 2000 when we began to advertise our first cruise program, The Jazz Cruise 2001. We went to some office supply store and used their mimeograph…
Read More
April 4, 2026
Our Take: I’m Putting All My Eggs in One Basket
Tomorrow is Easter Sunday. I spent some time this week researching jazz tunes that have an Easter theme or connection. Irving Berlin’s “I’m Putting All My Eggs in One Basket”…
Read More
March 28, 2026
Our Take: An April to Remember
There are times in the year when there is so much going on that you are overwhelmed with choices and the dreaded Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) takes control of…
Read More
March 21, 2026
Our Take: It’s the People Almost More Than the Jazz
Having attended a few jazz programs in the past weeks and on the heels of weeks at sea with jazz fans, I have come to realize that while I love the…
Read More
March 14, 2026
Our Take: Charlie Puth
Everyone should have a musical guilty pleasure. Mine is Charlie Puth. On the surface, you could say that he is a pop singer and songwriter who rose to prominence by…
Read More
March 7, 2026
Our Take: Music by Any Name is Music
I am home today, in St. Louis, having spent last week on the inaugural sailing of Top Shelf Country Cruise, our first country music cruise in over 10 years The…
Read More