Jamcruise Pics...

[Rossolee]

A friend of mine (Brad from Charlotte) was down this years Jamcruise. Some great pics...

check them out at:

http://www.pbase.com/ratsnest74/jam_cruise_5

[StoneMtn]

Well, as long as we're on the topic, my good friend Garth wrote the world's-longest-review of jamcruise; well worth the read:

JC 5 took off on jan. 2 so we hung in lauderdale & south beach for a couple of days (and hughie & i caught garaj in seattle before we left, GM were fantastic as usual, alan talked about just having been in south america w/ scott henderson's Tribal Tech, high end fusion).

the first morning we're in lauderdale we hit a classic diner, lester's, & immediately ran into mark brown (Admiral Brown) & annabel lukins. JC was mark's idea (langerado is his as well). annabel is our JC host & is generally known as Julie McCoy (love boat etc.). the stoke begins. these guys are always thankful to the patrons of the cruise (more on that later).

NYE day & evening on closed off Ocean Beach rd. the lovely mutli-coloured w/ neon accent hotels extend their lounges/eateries into the street a lane. just the people watching was a gas. seeing palm trees decorated for the season, being in shorts & sandals on that day. we found a reasonable eatery, met up w/ hughie's friend from calgary, kirby, had a great time watching & listening to the action (blaring music competing was a bit of a pain). kirby sings in a blues band & was hoping to get a chance to sing w/ some of the players on the boat. i was skeptical but it happened!

south beach has the wildest array of bling cars i've ever seen anywhere. lambhos/ferraris/high end beamers/MB's, most w/ spinners. the next day tracey & i returned & went to Miami Ink & took a few pics. no stars there that day. small place w/ great art. must be making a mint. later that day cruising down Washington Ave. w/ traffic bumper to bumper we saw an old guy driving an old Rolls Royce w/ two little ratdogs on his lap hittin' a tambourine while he drove & having a great time. all he needed was a babe in a bikini beside him to fill out the image.

JC's a blast for me cause i know so many folks. we weren't in the port before getting on for a minute before the visitin' started. we hung in the waiting area w/ martin & nina from east sooke & stoked (and said we missed barney from north van this year). they come to the occasional UPS show. will introduce when it fits.

watching the musicians began (there's oteil, stanton, donna jean, jeff, karl d!). getting on took awhile cause the cruise line's computers were down. tracey & i spent a good half hour talking to an 80 yr. old greeter. he & his wife work for the crusie line for 6 months & then hightail it to the Hudson Valley outside NYC for the other 6 months of the year. they guy told us about the sell out of booze on last year's JC. he was BIG fun. then his wife checked us in & put him down (jokingly). just the way ya hope you could be when you hit 80 yrs & still have life in ya.

watching them set up JC is always a trip. they pick a full truck on a crane & lift it onto the deck w/ tons of music equipment. each year they decorate differently & this year the stage & the dancefloor (built over one of the pools) was lovely & also fit w/ the designs that jeff wood used on the 3(!!) JC posters. greeny turquoises w/ the JC symbol & groovin' mermaids swimming upside down serving drinks etc. they also used a lot of stuff from swedish artists who did these groovy ameoba like things strung above us & swinging in the breeze. the same artists did some of the most amazing black light otherworldly (spacey seahorses & grasshoppers that glowed in the dark) creatures from ancient times. (will try to get my pics on a site so folks can see. also go to the jamcruise forum. folks will link to their sites. also pro Dave Vann & Julie Wolf were there & should have the real stuff on their sites). the black light art was mostly in the inside theatre looking fabulous at night. artist jonah smith told me that their goal is to just get as much stuff as possible & keep changing it when they can. best art i see at any fest all year (suppose the HH cheese night time displays rival).

THE MUSIC - finally i get to the music. this was the best musically balanced JC yet.

N'awlins was represented by ivan neville's dumpsatfunk, dirty dozen BB & by the star of the cruise, George Porter (George Matters, Ait Porter!) of the Meters, all new cruisers. ivan neville & his crew were (are now) a fave of mine. hadn't seen them before. what a band. ivan/nick daniels/tony hall all singin', two basses, n'awlin's TODAY! they got us going. George Porter played on so many stages (even the karoke gig!) that he got the Golden Microphone for being everywhere (previously known as Gig Slut). his wife said she hadn't seen him smile sooo much in 40 yrs! george's bass sound is so PHAT. every bass player that played before or after him in the Jamroom sounded thin (except oteil who's a jazzy virtuoso) and anchoring yet again was galactic. so ready for them to return here. and stanton was EVERYWHERE yet again w/ Gal./his trio/garage a Benevento & anchoring karl d.'s funk jam!

the southeast was represented by the derek trucks band & their various bands (the yonrico scott band/scrapomatic) & kofi's brother oteil on board as a guest. susan tedeschi joined the band for both performances. what a band. each performance was sooo much fuller & soulful than the DTB show some of us saw in b'ham last february. helps when oteils joins for a few tunes & susan's golden blues pipes scat against her husband's guitar. have become totally enamored of yonrico scott's drumming & stage presence.

(in the middle of the cruise yonrico officiated a mass wedding between the hot tubs on deck wearing a fab white suit he told me he got in africa). kinda nice when you can shake derek's hand at breakfast the next morning to thank him. shoulda gone to the burnaby blues fest last summer to see susan.

roots sounds were the best represented yet on a JC. love hot buttered especially when they do two sets on a little stage just off the beach on caye levatando (just off the domincan republic) w/ goessling & carbone from RRE guesting first set & greg anton (ZERO) adding percussion 2nd set. floating in the ocean w/ that wafting in the distance.... the walking back to your lounge chair you hear kris myers (drums - UM's) enthusiastically telling mike dillon about how the UM's have been playing w/ adrian belew lately (cause belew's impressed by what they're doing).

two sets of RRE on JC. became tracey's new fave band. was heavenly. really can't get enough of them. on the last day of the cruise they played out on the deck at 12:30 pm n the sun. i was absolutely twirling my exhausted ass around cause to was sooo gorgeous. carbone say their new disc is almost done but they didn't seem to play anything new. increasingly impressed by todd sheaffer's guitar playing, a psychedelic swing to it.

and also roosty was an apparently great set i missed by JJ grey & luther dickinson.

SF was well represented! great set by ALO one night after dinner. danced my ass off & they improvised like hell w/ zach doing a long hilarious "Pirates Rock" singalong w/ us (it was pirate night the next night). dan & zach w/ the hot buttered boys, kimcok, trevor & josh from TLG & donna jean godchaux anchored a truly fantastic GD tribute one night in the theatre w/ the black light art glowing, psychedelic blobs & all. kimock channelling jerry & dan liebowitz totally into playing w/ steve watching him all the way. never seen a gig so well attended on a JC! got to share part of it w/ bob birch from the new mastersounds & the chicky in the white boots that was glued onto him. sweet guy!

ZERO represented SF & psychedelia hey again. hadn't seen them before last summer & have caught them 5 times now. greg anton is one of the most exciting drummers i've ever seen. thought john morgan kimcok was just learning but after hearing him anchor the sound for two hours in the jamroom one night i'm wrong. he's that good at about 17 yrs. wow! ZERO, go into the studio!. don't thing they will though.

Kimock was also everywhere like last year! showed up on so many stages. i spent 4.5 hrs in the Jamroom front & centre one night & kimock was up there for 3.5 hours of it. dominates just about everywhere he plays. though he was just a player when Dumpstafunk arrived at 3:30 AM & blew our craniums against the wall. then the next morning i was told that Ivan's mum died the day before. wondered if that's why they went for it. classy.

kimock gave a totally technical workshop (eg. not like the usual talk 10 minutes, play the rest). he had the participants bring their chairs up close so they could watch his fingers while he talked. dan liebowitz, luther d. & other players were right there taking it in. great to hear though i was clueless.

caught an absolutely glorious UM's set by the pool one night. sometimes i pass on them. not this time. they's just spent 3 days relaxing on the turks & caicos before getting on the boat & were loose & apparently w/ out a setlist. i loved it cause it way more diverse than the prog rock set they sometimes put out. they can play gloriously beautiful music at times & w/ their tongues in their cheeks.

want to like the Biscuits. keep trying but it dosen't work. what is very nice is that marc brownstein always says hello every time i seen him. keep coming back they say in AA.

THE FUNK - all the rest is the funk/jazz/soul. heard a stunning array of cover songs on this cruise. krasno/the two burbidges/yonrico scott & mike dillon by the small pool doing "jesus children" & "the world is a ghetto"> krasno did this kind of stuff w/ the Fantastic Four last year & I was in heaven. thanked hime this time.

loved the greyboy's sets this time. gettin' over the no KDTU. elgin park is so speedy & fun. he sang "Get Back" & we all sung along. robert walter was having so much fun this whole cruise. never saw w/ out a smile.

two brilliant sets by the New Mastersounds. heard more folks saying "they're my new favourite band!". and a big kick for them to be there. eddie roberts sat in a lot of places. pete shand hosted a bass workshop w/ oteil/george porter & todd smallie. they all grooved together at the end of it. imagine that! bob birch told me they've got a backer & are making a push in north america. he made sure i got a copy of their new one, not out of a bit yet. bob says their friend at home in Leeds can't really understand what they're into over here. hope they're asked back.

karl d's Funk Jam was big fun on the last night. two drummers, 5/6 horns, jen durkin singing w/ him. they balsted out "shotgun" & then "can't get next to you", then settled into some serious funk jamming then ended w/ two of my absolute faves, roy ayers "everybody loves the sunshine" (karl "I always wanted to sing that time") & ended w/ bill withers "lovely day". i was hammerin' away on the arms of the chair i was sittin' in watching all manner of lovley pirate clad gals going by.

Deep Banana Black Out were a great addition especially since i missed them during the main part of their run. Fuzz is a great player & seems to be a nice guy. they did a phenomenal funk party set on '70s night all geared as was much of the crowd. saw some fantastic pimpin' outfits (like keither's shakedown street get up) & a couple that you woulda swore were sonny & cher.

great tradition is the two autograph signings early afternoon two days where ya get your jeff wood posters ALL signed up & say hello. every band wants to come to vancouver. my goal was to find a discreet way to ask karl d. if kdtu will return. found a way w/out embarrassing myself in front of the greyboys. and the answer is YES (!!) w/ a new album. didn't say when (new greyboys comes out april 3 so they'll have to sell that). ALO boys told us a new on eis coming & hopefully a return to Van. and jeff austin told hughie there's a possibility of a certain band coming here (wow,wow).

there was a hilarious karoke session w/ folks getting to try singing w/ the pros. zach gill/george porter/simon allen form the NM's etc. some were terrible, some pretty good, our friend kirby sang "sittin' on the dock of the bay" & was the best. big ovation. the players oved it. zach gill was a standout there & everywhere he showed up (GD tribure in particular).

THE JAMROOM!! - folks say that the ONLY other place you get this action is a jazz fest in new orleans. has to be why many of the players come. indescribably delicious to stand there for 4.5 hrs. 3 feet from the front while 20 players roll thru playing fantastic funk w/ kimock senior & junior holding it down for long stretches. one night morphed from the blues into reggae into long funk workouts. always two bass players (a real theme for this JC, saw so many stages w/ two bass men). as stated the first night i was there i was finally blown out of the room at 4:00 am by dumpstafunk coming full force w/ kimock. at least i lasted out a couple of my homies that i did the jamroom w/ the last two years.

huge highlight the first night i was there was martin fierro sitting on his stool waiting for the jam to begin. karl d. joined in & they said hello. martin leaned to the mike & quipped "he's gonna wipe my ass". karl repsonded "I will fight w/ no one". martin took both of his hands & kissed them very genuinely. for a second karl seemed pretty humbled. very sweet.

the next night there was raging funk happening w/ andy goeslling (RRE) playing two(!) saxes, tim carbone (RRE) swinging on violin & erik yates (HBR's banjo man) blowing flute. carbone found a spot in the blast & swung come grappeli fiddle, amazing.

honorable musical mention goes to skerik & mike dillon who both also showed up everywhere. some of these guys work it really hard on JC & love it. why so many guests get invited every year. they want to be there!

last little highlight. we're chillin' in jimmy buffett's eatery on turks & caicos. i tell tracey I'm scared & she says go for it so i went up to melvin seals & told him how much i love his "Melting Pot" disc. ask him why he doesn't sing w/ ZERO. he says they want him to but he's scared cause he's just begun to sing. get a picture w/ him. thank you tracey. personally i love melvin' singing voice.

this cruise is incredibly well run. all broken down & ready to leave the ship when we are on the last day. therefore great crew under capt. toast's (mark topazio, also NRPS' road manager) direction.

and oh yeah, it was 80 degrees the whole way, forgot how pleasantly windy it is while you cruise thru the high seas, only rain happened at night, kept the old bar tab to $69 while one young guy spent $5000! am gettin greally good at dancin' while the boat sways. you're taking a dance step & end up doing two more groovy steps to the right before making an elegant turn to the left. practice makes perfect. the food was better this year but it'll never be a Princess Cruise food thing like folks want. theyd never have us, thank god (it's an italian cruise line, MSC).

was a complete gas to have close friends there again. hughie didn't really rip it but seemed to have a great time. he loved having colleen along. and just thismorning tracey said sol are we pre-booking!!! F#^%in' Hooray! 4 jamcruises got me a blue robe w/ the JC boat on the front & "Repeat Offender" on the back.

nice nice, very nice. would love it if a few more UPS's came. about 15 canucks this time in general. excellent.

always come home sore from sitting on the plane after dancing & walking for (this time a total of 11 days), sore right hip & right knee & have an aggravated chest from givin' it (and usually going to florida a little sick).

Jamcruise! Oh man!

... and here's a link to the set from jam cruise by 'The Sounds of San Francisco' including members of Tea Leaf Gree, ALO, and Hot Buttered Rum, doing their tribute to some band from San Francisco of marginal fame.