It is Day 3 of The Greatest Party at Sea! Everyone is in a celebratory mood as we start a two-week celebration of the 20th Anniversary of The Smooth Jazz Cruise. As always, the opening song, which features every headliner on the cruise was a rousing success. For whatever reason, my emotions get the better of me every time we present the opening song. Maybe, it is the relief that the cruise has begun or just the glorious sight of all the performers on the stage. Whatever the reason, I get choked up.

Today is the 3rd day of The Jazz Cruise ’24. Amazingly, during our first two days, we have enjoyed more than 20 “In Concert” events. Virtually every one of the nearly 100 musicians have performed at least once.

In a few hours, several Jazz Cruises’ staff will be boarding Celebrity Summit for a 5-day cruise during which we will be preparing for our four 7-day programs that begin on January 18, 2024, with The Jazz Cruise ’24. The next four editions of The Weekender will be delivered while we are “At Sea.” Each edition, starting with the January 20 note, will highlight the activities of the cruise then in progress. Hopefully, we can share some of the excitement of the cruises with everyone.

The world of Jazz Cruises reflects the growing interest in live music. The upcoming ’24 Cruises are fully subscribed, and the readership of The Weekender and Jazz Notes is larger than ever. After a one-week holiday, The Weekender returns in its rightful place as the first email you receive on Saturday mornings.

The holidays are now in full swing. I know this because no agent or manager is answering their calls and, when I do reach someone, it is a recording saying, “let’s talk after the holidays.” In the real business world, they would name a hard date as to when they would be back in the […]

Last week was dominated by programming of upcoming shows and cruises. We had two Samara Joy shows to program and our entire team was in St. Louis working through the programming for The Jazz Cruise ‘24, The Smooth Jazz Cruise ’24.1 & ’24.2, and Botti at Sea ’24. Four full days of putting the final […]

For the next couple of days, at Jazz Cruises, it is all about Samara Joy. Turn back the calendar one year and I will bet that many of you had either not heard of her or knew her by word of mouth only. A turn on The Jazz Cruise ’23, followed by a momentous double […]

Wycliffe Gordon is in our hometown this week performing at Jazz St. Louis. I had the absolute pleasure of seeing him and his wonderful band, the International All Stars (Adrian Cunningham on reeds, Ehud Asherie on piano, Corcoran Holt on bass and Emanuel Harrold on drums, sitting in for Alvin Atkinson who is ill). They […]

It’s Thanksgiving weekend; a time for good cheer.Many believe it’s the best time of the year! It’s only one day, there’s no Thanksgiving Eve,The meal is quite simple, requires no tricks up your sleeve. There’s turkey and dressing and cranberry sauce,No need to make cookies for Ol’ Saint Nicholas. A green bean casserole will be […]

On Sunday mornings, Paula and I drink coffee and watch Sunday Today with Willie Geist. Besides liking him as a host, the show is a nice mix of news, entertainment and whimsy. The hour goes by quickly and requires two large cups of coffee for each of us. One of the recurring elements of the […]