One if by land, two if by sea. Or, camper van by land, cruise ship by sea. We’ve travelled on The Jazz Cruise 5 times since 2012, and we were scheduled to go again in January 2021. COVID cancelled that, so our reservation rolled to January 2022. A late Dec COVID surge caused that one to be canceled. We were hopeful that Janurary 2023 would mark our return to this floating jazz festival. And it was.
We departed Fort Lauderdale on Friday, January 6th. Once on board, I had to check out the basketball court - need to do something to work off the calories consumed on a cruise.
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Look at that jump shot elevation by Paul
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Once we were sailing, the music started almost immediately. We heard Tierney Sutton, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Samara Joy, and the Welcome Show, which featured about a dozen great musicians. Saturday was a day at sea, so we heard the Christian Tamburr Quartet, Houston Person, an All Stars #1, Bria Skonberg, Samara Joy, Clint Holmes, and the full big band with several guests.
The passengers on The Jazz Cruise skew toward the older ages. Elena and I are still among the young crowd. It’s a very jazz knowledgeable audience. There was one lady on the cruise who liked to get up and dance when the music moved her. It was joyful, yet a bit funny, as she reminded me a bit of Elaine dancing on Seinfeld.
Sunday we arrived at Costa Maya, which is just a made up corporate port name. After we were forced to snake past all the shopping opportunities, we emerged into the small village of Mahahual where we had booked an excursion to the Bacalar 7 color lagoon for kayaking. The girls at the check in booth informed us that we were the only people booked that day. Instead of cancelling, as some tours do when there aren’t enough people, they gave us a private excursion. Our guide Eliot came over to introduce himself. When we told him we were on The Jazz Cruise, his eyes lit up. He said he played drums, trumpet, and was learning sax. He asked if we had heard Chuck Mangione, which of course we had. Chuck’s tenor sax player Chris Vadala twice.
Eliot turned out to be the most interesting and well-educated tour guide we’ve ever had - and he was only in his 20’s. He was knowledgeable about biology, geology, Maya history, and so much more. He was trilingual in Mayan, Spanish, and English, and he even knew some Texas slang like “y'all” and “fixin’.” At one point, he started naming US Presidents in reverse order, and he apparently knew them all. And, of course, we spent a lot of time talking about jazz music and musicians. It was almost an hour drive up the Yucatán to the lagoon, and we finally turned onto a narrow dirt road where the jungle scraped the van on both sides. Eliot said, “This might feel like a kidnapping at this point, but it will be the nicest kidnapping you’ll ever experience.” We arrived at a small resort on the lagoon, and we were the only people there.
We had a great kayaking trip across the lagoon and into the mangroves. Then we paddled back and sat on our private deck overlooking the lagoon while we were served a delicious lunch of chicken and pork tacos. The salsa was great too - both a traditional salsa and a fresh pineapple salsa. We had stopped on the way to purchase some very special local pineapple, and they made into the pineapple salsa for us. Even the hibiscus tea was delicious. We were able to hang out and relax for a while before we loaded back up for the hour drive back. On the way back, Eliot taught us the Mayan counting system. I can now write numbers in Mayan, which is a base 20 system that uses only three symbols - a dot, a dash, and a seashell looking figure.
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Bacalar 7 Color Lagun
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We returned to the ship and enjoyed concerts by the All Stars #3, Etienne Charles, John Pizzarelli, and an All Star group of vocalists with Shelly Berg on piano.
The next day was Cozumel. Elena loves to be in the water, so we scheduled a 5-hour, 4-stop snorkeling tour. We visited a coral reef, a sea turtle area, a starfish area, and finally a sandbar where we snacked on guacamole and ceviche while stingrays swam around our feet. Elena even saw an Eagle Ray on one of the stops. There were also many large starfish, sea turtles, barracuda, very small sharks, and many varieties of fish.
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Snorkeling off Cozumel
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We returned to the ship to see the Christian McBride salute to Ray Brown with Benny Green on piano and Greg Hutchinson on drums. We then heard the Wynton Marsalis Octet. Next up was Clint Holmes and Monty Alexander.
Tuesday was a day at sea. Elena spent most of the morning in the pools and spas. I shot some hoops and had a bit of rest. Then we heard Christian Jacob, All Stars #5, Kurt Elling, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and the big band with Ann Hampton Callaway, Christian McBride, and Bria Skonberg.
Wednesday was another day at sea. We spent much of the morning in the pools. Then we attended concerts by All Stars #6, Tierney Sutton Band, another All Star lineup led by Nicki Perrott, the Hall of Fame show with a cast of talent as they inducted Joey DeFrancesco into the Hall of Fame. We dined in the dining room that night for the first, and only time, on this cruise. We then enjoyed Ted Rosenthal Trio and All Stars #7. At the last concert, I started to feel ill and was concerned that I had picked up a virus on the ship. I had a scratchy throat, irritated sinuses, and a bit of fever. I went to bed a bit early, and it was almost gone by morning. t realized that it was probably a reaction to the lady who sat next to me at one of the prior evening shows. She had way too much perfume on, and I’m sensitive to smoke and perfume. I was the victim of olfactory assault.
Thursday was the final port day in Nassau. There were 5 cruise ships in port, so we opted to stay and swim on our ship. We then enjoyed a final day of concerts too: Keyboard Capers with all the keyboard players doing a solo piece (best piano recital ever), then they rotated through a bebop chart and each took a short solo. We then saw Monty Alexander, Christian Sands, and finally the full big band with a few guests including Samara Joy. The best sunset of our cruise saved itself for the final day too. I stood on the deck watching it and talking to sax great Dick Oatts.
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Sunset on our last night
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Friday morning, we departed the ship and headed for the airport to fly back home. It was such a wonderful week filled with love, kindness, intelligence, wit, humor, and humanity that it was difficult to leave this little bubble of how society should really function. And the other super bonus of the cruise was that my sister and her partner were on the cruise too, so we were able to spend many hours visiting and catching up with them. They live in Virginia, so we don’t see each other very often. They are both librarians on the front lines of the current wave of ignorance and book banning efforts.
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Band Members
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All Star Groups
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Keyboard Capers
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The Jazz Cruise 2024 lineup is already announced and the cabins are being booked, so we’ll decide soon if we’ll return next year. There is a very strong possibility we’ll be on board.
- Paul
