Ed Metz Jr. has had a multitude of varied experiences since he was given a set of drum sticks by the drummer in his father’s Dixieland band at the age of three. He was a member of the New McKinney Cotton Pickers at age 14. His summers while in college were spent as a member of the house band at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in Michigan. He went on to be the drummer in Count Basie’s last band and was a staff musician at Disney World in Florida. He was the “Watch Dog” in the infamous Black Dogs Jazz Band during their 1988-2001 run as the rave of the festival circuit. Festivals, cruises, free-lance work, and recordings followed as well as serving as a clinician at youth jazz camps.
Now Ed is off on a new adventure where he is about to become a member of a band playing on a new Viking riverboat plying the Mississippi River. The invitation for this new assignment came from Tom Hook, an old Black Dogs buddy who is the Director of Entertainment and Enrichment for Viking. The ship, which is currently in the final phases of construction, can accommodate 386 guests in 193 outside staterooms, with a crew of 148. The initial 8-day cruise between New Orleans and Memphis is scheduled for late June or early July.
Feature Music of the Region
As the world’s largest cruise company, this is Viking’s first venture into the heartland of North America. As Ed explains, “I’m part of
