The Jazz Cruise is back with vigor and surprises

After two years of pandemic-prompted cancellations, The Jazz Cruise picked up right where it left off in January 2020. This year's January 6-13 sailing from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to the Caribbean was loaded with talent, peerless playing and a few splendid surprises.

How to describe it in a nutshell? The finest jazz performed in varied combinations between early afternoon and 1 a.m. On several days, the music began before noon. And that doesn't count  lectures, interviews, and daily passenger jam sessions that stretched from 9:30 a.m.  to 2:30 p.m.

More than 100 musicians were aboard, with the headliners including singer Dee Dee Bridgewater, pianist Monty Alexander and trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. The Jazz at Lincoln Center artistic director came aboard with his octet during the Celebrity Millennium's (8 a.m. to 11 p.m.) extended stop in Cozumel, Mexico.

Each band aboard the cruise performed three times during the course of the week, so you could catch someone later if you had a conflict with another show in one of the ship's four performance venues. Players were also mixed-and-matched in eight different top-notch All-Stars concerts. Deck Four's Rendezvous Lounge specialized in piano trio and solo piano shows that had an up close, in-your-living-room atmosphere.

Sutton, Holmes

Here is a chronological rundown of some of my personal favorites from the week's many offerings:

• Singer Tierney Sutton's opening night Sky Lounge performance with her longstanding band included the first of the cruise's "you had to be there" moments. Singer Clint Holmes jumped on stage for the finale, joining Sutton in a clever scatting duet on Bob Dorough's "Devil May Care."
  

• Trombonist Wycliffe Gordon's Gospel Hour is a treat each time out, this one bringing the jazz church to a Saturday morning, because it was a day at sea unfettered by a port-of-call. Gordon opened with a duet with pianist Lafayette Harris Jr. on Thomas A. Dorsey's "Precious Lord" before bringing out band mates Terell Stafford, Rickey Woodard, Javier Nero, Matthew Parrish and Eric Harland. Singer Niki Haris added rousing gospel vocals on "Precious Memories" and "This Little Light of Mine." Gordon, shifting between horns and vocals, shared an original pandemic-inspired tune, "Blues 2020."
  

Godwin Louis, Etienne Charles

• Trinidad-born Etienne Charles treated the audience to bop and non-bop material flavored with the rhythms and musical spices of the Caribbean with his Creole Soul band. This younger band included alto saxophonist Godwin Louis, Cuban pianist Axel Tosca, guitarist Alex Wintz, bassist Barry Stephenson and drummer Savannah Harris. With Charles shifting between trumpet and congas, they put fresh stamps on Trinidad boogie-woogie pianist Winifred Atwell's "Coronation Rag," Henri Salvador's "Dans Mon Ile," which Antonio Carlos Jobim said influenced him in developing the bossa nova, some Hazel Scott, Bob Marley's "Turn Your Lights Down Low," and a vibrant calypso, among others.

Sing, Sing, Sing

• Sing, Sing, Sing was a stand, stand, standout. Musical director and pianist Shelly Berg performed with nine of the singers on the cruise. Each talked about their primary influence in deciding on jazz careers, then shared a tune of their choosing that underscored their individual styles. This 90-minute gem was a mutual admiration society event with John Pizzarelli, Bridgewater, Sutton, Holmes, Haris, Kurt Elling, Ann Hampton Callaway, Bria Skonberg and rising star Samara Joy. whose sheer vocal power and artistry had her peers' jaws dropping. Callaway's segment had the audience - and all of the other singers - in stitches, as she improvised lyrics that spoke to each of their traits and background stories that they shared minutes before. It was clever - and masterfully done. Here's a link to the YouTube clip.

• 

  Gordon, Marsalis
  

  New Orleans jazz flavors were prominent throughout the Wynton Marsalis Octet concert. They explored "No Surrender" from the leader's Integrity Suite, and "Deeper Than Dreams" and "Ballot Box Bounce" from the The Democracy Suite. Former sideman Wycliffe Gordon joined the festivities for "Buddy Bolden's Blues" and "Basin Street Blues." Alto saxophonist Wes Anderson, another Marsalis band alum, who was aboard the cruise as a passenger, joined the band on "Moscow Blues."

Samara Joy

• Samara Joy, who turned 23 in November, only found her way to jazz at age 17, but has absorbed much from studying the masters - and transforming it into a personal style. While Sarah Vaughan is the primary influence, she also shared material from Carmen McRae, Abbey Lincoln and Betty Carter in her performance with pianist Luther Allison, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington. She also performed Barry Harris’ composition "Now and Then," to which she added original lyrics.
  

Bridgewater, McBride, Green

• Bassist Christian McBride teamed with two old friends and band mates, pianist Benny Green and drummer Greg Hutchinson, to celebrate the impact and musical legacy of bass great Ray Brown by performing material from his repertoire. All three had worked in Brown's bands, McBride in SuperBass, a project that also included The Jazz Cruise's big band director, John Clayton.The high-level performance finished with a fourth former Brown collaborator. Dee Dee Bridgewater joined the trio for "I'm Beginning to See the Light" and "Here's That Rainy Day." Misty eyes and goosebumps prevailed - on stage and in the audience.

Wintz, Hart,Sewell

• John Hart teamed with Wintz and Marvin Sewell for a Guitar Summit, in which each of the players chose tunes and then shifted between melody, harmony and rhythm responsibilities. With no other musicians on stage, it was intimate and riveting.

• Keyboard Capers, produced by Emmet Cohen, featured 14 of the cruise's 18 pianists in a 90-minute showcase. (Ted Rosenthal, Billy Childs, Christian Sands, Benny Green, Renee Rosnes, Christian Tamburr, Luther Allison, Emmet Cohen, Christian Jacob, Kenny Banks Jr., Axel Tosca, Tamir Hendelman, Sullivan Fortner, Bill Charlap.) Each performed a solo piano piece in his or her own style, then handed off to the next player. All were riveting.   

For example,

Trading off, Keyboard Capers

 Sands shared an instant improvisation inspired by his trip to the beach in Nassau, Bahamas that morning. Tosca played the Cuban son-pregón "El Manisero, known in English as "The Peanut Vendor." Tamburr added a twist by playing "I Remember You" on vibes. This lively session closed with a four-six- and even eight-hands romp through Charlie Parker's "Billie's Bounce" as the players took turns at the shared piano.

It felt like a Day 7 highlight, even though there were nine more sets scheduled that afternoon and night, including Monty Alexander's third trio show. Much like Benny Golson did a few years ago, he spent time between songs reminiscing about his influences and inspirations.

The Jazz Cruise began in 2001. Because of the pandemic lull, this was its 21st sailing. Founder Anita Berry took Hank O'Neal's old Floating Jazz Festival concept of the 1980s and '90s, which had heavy concentrations of jazz on regular sailings of the SS Norway and a few other ships, and upped the game. She chartered an entire ship for an all-jazz cruise. Her son, Michael Lazaroff, has continued the tradition.

The Jazz Cruise was followed by this week's Blue Note at Sea. The Jazz Cruises LLC series continues for the next two weeks with sailings of The Smooth Jazz Cruise.

Wycliffe Gordon's Gospel Hour with Niki Haris

Jazz at sea with healthy doses of Latin flavor

Anybody who didn’t hear enough music aboard the 2019 edition of The Jazz Cruise only has themselves to blame. The offerings were plentiful and varied, with music running from 11:30 a.m. to after 1 a.m., with staggered programming in five different performance spaces. There were more than 100 jazz musicians in the lineup, and about 2,000 passengers aboard the m/s Celebrity Infinity.

The cruise departed Fort Lauderdale FL on Saturday, January 19 and returned a week later after brief stops in St. Croix, San Juan, Puerto Rico and Labadee, Haiti. Clearly, most folks aboard were there for the music. It was the 19th annual cruise, and more than a few passengers have been on most of them. 

Valdés, DeFrancesco, Shaheed

This year’s personal treats:

Swinging style and bebopping finesse

Stephanie Nakasian has had many facets to her career. She was a banker in Chicago and Manhattan. Then she caught the jazz bug. She heard bebop pianist Hod O’Brien, started working with him a bit in 1980 and a year later quit her day job to become a full-time singer. 

Stephanie Nakasian

She built her chops as a two-year member of the vocal group, Jon Hendricks and Company. She married O’Brien, and figured out how to balance motherhood, performing (often with her husband) and a long career as a music educator at the University of Virginia and the College of William & Mary. These days, she’s known to some as rising star jazz vocalist Veronica Swift’s mother.

On Friday, February 11, Nakasian’s quartet performance in Venice FL illuminated her vocal artistry. The wide-ranging program was a palette for her swinging style and bebopping finesse. Her scatting was never overdone. She used it sparingly – and effectively – to put a different twist on familiar fare. She also put a fine spin on several tunes that aren't heard much today.

Jazz with an unrivaled intimacy

Michael Ross

There is nothing quite like the intimacy and congeniality at a jazz house party. That was clear on Thursday, March 1, when bassist Michael Ross and his wife, Amanda, welcomed about 40 friends and jazz lovers into their Sarasota FL home for an evening of music.

Fred Johnson

The band for the one-hour-plus set of music included Ross, singer-percussionist Fred Johnson and reed player Danny Jordan, who performed on tenor sax and several flutes.

This was like having jazz in your living room - except for the fact that it was held outside on Ross's lush garden patio as the full moon rose in the distance.

St. Petersburg-based Johnson's deft fingers added colors and accents with his cajon, a box-shaped wooden percussion instrument on which he
sat, but his vocal creativity carried the night. 

Veronica Swift's jazz DNA serves her well

The Charlotte County Jazz Society got to catch a rising star on Monday, February 12, and she made a mighty impression.

Fresh off a week-long series of performances aboard The Jazz Cruise out of Fort Lauderdale, singer Veronica Swift quickly showed she's the real deal in a concert with tenor saxophonist Jeff Rupert's very fine quartet. The band included pianist Richard Drexler, bassist Ben Kramer and Marty Morell, who was late pianist Bill Evans' longest-serving drummer. (Rupert, Drexler and Morell are on the University of Central Florida jazz faculty.)

Swift

Swift, the 23-year-old daughter of late bebop pianist Hod O'Brien and singer Stephanie Nakasian, has a swinging presence. It is backed  by her abilities to explore a wide range of tunes, write and deliver vocalese (lyrics written to classic jazz solos), scat tastefully and emulate instrumental sounds that often make her one more horn player in the band.

Rupert

She is making a rapid rise on the national jazz scene on the heels of her second-place performance in the 2015 Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition and her December 2016 graduation from the University of Miami's Frost School of Music. She's now based in New York City, gigs regularly in Manhattan and tours with trumpeter Chris Botti.

On this evening, Swift and the quartet explored a half-dozen tunes from their 2017 CD, Let's Sail Away, plus a few other gems with their high-energy, bop-infused swing.

An all-star evening of exuberant swing

Tenor saxophonist Harry Allen and trombonist Wycliffe Gordon headlined an evening of exuberant swing Wednesday night, January 24 at the Venice FL Performing Arts Center and their all-star band delivered the goods.

Gordon, Allen

The horn players were joined by the terrific rhythm section of Eddie Metz Jr. (drums), Nicki Parrott (bass and vocals) and Rosanno Sportiello (piano), plus special guest Stephanie Nakasian on vocals.

Gordon, Parrott, Allen

Gordon shifted with ease between trombone, gritty vocals and slide trumpet throughout the night in this, his first appearance at a concert by the South County Jazz Club, which co-produced the event with the Venice Institute for Performing Arts. 

Allen is a premiere ambassador of mainstream swing tenor sax. His finest moment was sharing a beautiful original ballad," Old Joe," which he later said was inspired by reading a short story. Allen has evolved into a fine composer as well as interpreter of jazz standards and Brazilian jazz.

New Orleans on parade - and other surprises

Singer Lisa Kelly and trumpeter JB Scott had a few surprises up their sleeves for their return performance at the Charlotte County Jazz Society on Monday, February 13. The Jacksonville-based musicians spent about one-third of their two-hour concert digging deep into music associated with New Orleans. They also.brought a larger band than anticipated and featured Scott on several vocal numbers in addition to his solid trumpet artistry.

Jane Monheit digs Ella - and plans to keep on digging

Jazz singer Jane Monheit's musical home is the Great American Songbook. She showed a Naples, Florida audience on Friday, February 24, that with sensible bits of personal redecorating, it is still in very good hands.

Jane Monheit

She performed two 75-minute sold-out shows at Artis Naples' Daniels Pavilion, sharing her love for "First Lady of Song" Ella Fitzgerald. Material from Monheit's recording Songbook Sessions: Ella Fitzgerald (released last year on her own label, Emerald City Records) made up half of the night's repertoire. The other half consisted of Ella-related songs that Monheit has not yet recorded as part of this project.

A jazz singer's heartfelt return to familiar territory

Toronto-based singer June Garber delivered a superb - and superbly programmed - performance on Friday, January 13 as part of the South County Club's matinee concert series in Venice FL.

June Garber

It was the first area appearance in nearly two years for Garber, a vocalist whose art crosses the border between jazz and cabaret with ease. The occasional cabaret-style gesture or expression is nearly forgotten, however, when she immerses herself in the jazz feeling and is surrounded by ace instrumentalists.

Reaching out to casual jazz listeners

Guitarist and singer Tony Boffa has an easy-going way of drawing listeners to jazz, whether they realize it - or not.

Tony Boffa

While he was working in the Portland, Maine area as a music educator for many years, he also had his own in-demand band that played weddings and jazz gigs dating to the mid-1970s. Since retiring to southwest Florida in 2014, Boffa, 65, has been playing jazz exclusively, but drawing on his immense repertoire to build a musical bridge for casual listeners.

He's the Saturday night headliner at JD's Bistro in Port Charlotte FL, an upscale gourmet restaurant that features jazz six nights a week. It has an atmosphere rivaling the finest New York City supper clubs. He also performs on Fridays at the Roadhouse Cafe in Fort Myers.

You'll hear a few jazz chestnuts or standards from the Great American Songbook - rarely repeated from week to week or even month to month. Scattered among them, and just as prevalent, are songs drawn from the pop, rock and blues repertoires.

Mac Chrupcala, Tony Boffa

Examples? A couple of Saturdays ago, Boffa included the Harry Belafonte hit "Jamaica Farewell," Delbert McClinton's "Got To Get It Worked On" and two classic TV theme songs: one from "I Love Lucy" and "Those Were The Days" from "All in the Family."

Listeners are familiar with the original versions, but have never heard them in this context - arranged as jazz instrumentals and featuring extended, improvised solos. Even the members of his backing trio have never played a lot of these gems in a jazz context before. 

That concept keeps the band fresh and lively in the same way that Boffa has made jazz more accessible and interesting for a wide range of listeners. He delivers his music with an engaging but not overbearing vocal style, and excellent mainstream guitar chops. And the band stretches out mightily.

Bravo.

Jazz Legacy Big Band hits the mark

David Pruyn

The calendar added interesting twists to bandleader David Pruyn’s top-flight Jazz Legacy Big Band return visit to the Charlotte County Jazz Society’s concert series. The Monday, December 14 event in Port Charlotte fell two days after the centennial of Frank Sinatra’s birth – and 11 days before Christmas.

Pruyn is one of Florida’s most versatile musicians. He sings, he plays trumpet and plays drums, although he left the time-keeping on this gig to drummer Barry Smith. He spent more time than planned on the microphone due to the health-related absence of Sinatra vocal doppelganger Walt Andrus.

The Sinatra centennial

If you are going to have a vocal doppelganger, who better than Frank Sinatra?

Walt Andrus

Such is the case for singer Walt Andrus, who puts his uncanny  vocal similarities to the test Monday, March 16 at the Naples Jazz Orchestra's Sinatra centennial concert - and passed with flying colors. The event drew more than 3,000 people to Cambier Park in downtown Naples FL.

Andrus is a veteran big band singer, whose most notable work included 15 years (from 1988-2004) with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra conducted by Buddy Morrow. His forte is the Sinatra repertoire. He doesn't sound like an imitator. He's just blessed with very fine pipes and an ability to deliver on the repertoire in his own convincing way.

The very fine Naples Jazz Orchestra put the swing in the charts, pushed and prodded by musical director Bob Stone's hard-driving drums. The evening's two sets included a wide array of Sinatra-associated material, from his early big band days to more saloon-style material.

Treats included their explorations of "Yellow Days," "Witchcraft," "One More for the Road"  and "The Best is Yet to Come." Sinatra's Chicago tribute "My Kind of Town," was a perfect fit for the evening given Stone's long big band association with the Windy City. It set up the delivery a few songs later of the Sinatra staple "New York, New York." "Strangers in the Night" was the evening's encore.

With the 100th anniversary of Sinatra's birth coming on December 12, there is an audience hunger for events such as this during 2015. This is a powerhouse band, with Andrus in tow, that ought to capitalize on that momentum.

Jazz to hang your hat on

Judi Glover

Judi and Alex Glover worked the cruise ships and the casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City for more than two decades. Eighteen months ago, without any job prospects lined up here, they decided to take a gamble on Florida. They haven't looked back.

For most of those years up north, Alex was in the spotlight as vocalist and leader of Alex Glover & Company, which ranged from small groups to larger ensembles and even a big band. His wife worked out of the limelight as the group's pianist and as a music educator.

In Florida, the tables have turned. Alex sings when opportunities permit, but mostly, he's content to sit back and listen to Judi's marvelous skills at the keyboard. She's been busy from the time they moved from the Atlantic City area to the Gulf Coast, as an occasional leader but more often as a  rhythm section member or as an accompanist. This year, she signed on as the pianist of the highly regarded Naples Jazz Orchestra.

Alex & Judi Glover

Thursday, March 12 brought one of those rare opportunities to hear them working together. They performed in the finale of the South County Jazz Club's 2014-2015 matinee series at the Venice Art Center.

Supported by three standout area players - bassist Don Mopsick, reed player Tom Ellison and drummer Johnny Moore, they explored a wide range of jazz and Great American Songbook staples. They managed to sidestep virtually all of the so-called tired tunes, the standards that have been done ad nauseum.

Glover, Ellison

Favorite moments: the quartet's Latin-tinged take on "Night and Day," and Alex's versions of tunes of long-standing quality that don't seem over done. They included "Nevertheless I'm in Love With You," "A Kiss to Build a Dream On," and the Rosemary Clooney hit "You'll Never Know."

Alex Glover

Alex noted that much of this material dates back 50 or 60 years and passes the test of enduring quality. Then he asked rhetorically if the same could be said down the road for much of what passes today as pop music."In 50 years," he asked the audience, "will anyone be asking to hear anything Beyonce recorded" (in this decade)?  "or Justin Bieber?," Ellison chimed in.

It's a point to ponder.

The hipster returns

Giacomo Gates, Mac Chrupcala

Jazz singer Giacomo Gates is full of surprises - for his audience, and his bandmates. His performances are richer for it.

Such was the case Saturday night when he closed out February with a South County Jazz Club concert at the Glenridge Performing Arts Center in Sarasota FL. Gates' band for the night, and a pair of jazz bistro concerts scheduled Sunday, March 1 at JD's in Port Charlotte, included pianist Mac Chrupcala, bassist Don Mopsick and drummer Patricia Dean.

He built an instant rapport with the band and the audience, putting each song in context as he blended straight-ahead vocals; scat solos in which he uncannily sounded like a trombone, a double bass and even a flute; and vocalese. The latter technique involves singing words to a classic instrumental solo. Eddie Jefferson pioneered vocalese, Jon Hendricks popularized it, and Gates is one of today's great vocalese ambassadors. 

As for the surprises sprinkled among his many gems.

Dean, Gates

• Gates brought Dean out from behind the drum set to share the vocal spotlight for two tunes. She's one of Florida's finer jazz singers but finds her timekeeping in steady demand. Their vocal duet on "All of Me" was followed by an interesting vocal twist. Gates layered bits of Thelonious Monk's "Straight, No Chaser" over Dean's version of the Lambert, Hendricks and Ross classic "Centerpiece."

• Digging deep into the jazz archives, Gates sang the rather obscure tune "If I Were You, Baby, I'd Love Me." Nat Cole recorded it first in 1950 and it is rarely heard anymore.This was the first time Gates' band mates had ever played it. He also rolled out Babs Gonzalez' ode to romance gone wrong, "When Lovers They Lose."

This was Gates' third annual appearance in the area, though it was his first for the South County Jazz Club. No doubt he'll be back.

Chrupcala, Mopsick, Gates, Dean

Florida meets jazz singer Tess Collins

Tess Collins

Tess Collins took a circuitous route for her first concert before a Florida jazz audience. It began in her native Maine, wove through several major cities in China where she appears regularly (including Beijing and Shanghai) and her new home base, London. 

The Southwest Florida stop coincided with a vacation visit with relatives on Florida's east coast. She came to the Gulf Coast on Thursday, February 26, to perform as a special guest of pianist Mac Chrupcala's trio at the Venice Art Center. The concert was part of the South County Jazz Club's matinee series.

The band's music was exceptional all afternoon - and Collins stole the show - earning standing ovations at the end of each set. This young singer has great chops, a very strong ability to engage her audience, and a wide-ranging jazz repertoire. 

When jazz is a family affair

The South County Jazz Club's matinee concert at the Venice FL Art Center on Thursday, December 18 showed how much fun jazz can be when it's a family affair.

Hod O'Brien

It doesn't hurt to have had a family with considerable chops. Hod O'Brien, a fine bebop pianist  since the 1950s, led the trio that backed his wife, singer Stephanie Nakasian. They brought along a special musical treat - their 20-year-old daughter, Veronica Swift - who is blossoming as a fine singer in the jazz, rock and electronica worlds. 

Jazz standards and Great American Songbook  material were blended with a bit of stride piano, and material associated with singers Billie Holiday, Helen Humes (the blues "Million Dollar Secret"), Ethel Waters and Lee Wiley. Nakasian's engaging lyrical treatments were enhanced by O'Brien's keyboard mastery.

A generations-leaping jazz adventure

I’ve spent the last few days listening closely to Cheek to Cheek, the ambitious new recording by Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga. It debuted September 23 and soared to #1 on the Billboard 200 list. It also topped the Jazz Albums and Traditional Jazz Albums charts. Cheek to Cheek sold 131,000 copies in the week ending September 28, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Bennett is 88 and Lady Gaga is 28, yet they found common ground in exploring the Great American Songbook, which has always been Bennett’s forte. Gaga has also loved it, to a larger degree than most of her fans knew or appreciated.

Moving from the disco ball to the jazz supper club

Singer Evelyn Thomas, best known for 1980s hit songs in Europe's disco and Hi-NRG dance club genre, is revisiting her roots as a singer. While not abandoning her dance music work, she has gone back to jazz. And she’s loving it.

Thomas made her local jazz debut Saturday night, September 13, at JD’s Bistro & Grille in Port Charlotte FL with her backing trio. She drew an enthusiastic audience for her blend of material from the canon of jazz standards, the Great American Songbook, and what we might call new standard fare: pop-associated material richly deserving of jazz treatments. Last night, JD’s had the feel and temperature of a fine New York supper club, a venue where Thomas and her backing trio plan to be Saturday night regulars.

 

Thomas’s spot-on vocals and her approach to her material reveal her influences from her early years as developing singer: particularly Nancy Wilson. The second set included Murray Grand’s haunting, lovelorn ballad “Guess Who I Saw Today,” which was a jazz vocal hit for Wilson in 1960. Other treats: her takes on the Shirley Horn- and Joe Williams-associated “Here’s to Life,” and one of those newer standards, “When October Goes” a 1984 Barry Manilow hit that combined his music with lyrics by the late Johnny Mercer.

Chicago-native Thomas has lived in southwest Florida for the past 21 years, using Port Charlotte as home base for her occasional disco-related tours to Europe as well as U.S. gigs. But she hadn’t immersed herself in the rather healthy local jazz scene – until now.

 “I still love that world (disco and Hi-NRG),” Thomas told me. “When they call, I’ve got to go (back to the world of dance clubs and disco balls), but I’m loving this too. I never left jazz, but now I’m doing more of it."

Thomas’s trio included her husband, Anthony Simpson (piano), Mark Fitzpatrick (electric bass) and Bob Ryan (drums). Their support was excellent.