After a good experience on my first cruise (the coast of Alaska and British Columbia in 2023), I was open to cruising again. Such an opportunity appeared on the back page of this paper for many months: JazzFest at Sea. The cruise advertising referred to a review in this paper a few years ago by Frank Farbenbloom, which I had read at the time but paid no further attention to it. I checked out the musician lineup and sent in my deposit. Of the 17 performers listed for 2025, I knew nine personally and had seen five others so I figured the odds were in my favor for a great nine days.
It turned out that there were three late substitutions, of whom two were new but not unknown to me. They were: Duke Heitger for Jon-Erik Kellso on trumpet, Bob Leary for Jake Jones on banjo/guitar, and Phil Flanigan for Paul Keller on bass. Phil was the only one who had not crossed my radar but he did a fine job. In all, there were three pianists, two each on clarinet, tenor, bass, drums and vocals, and one each on trombone, guitar/banjo, trumpet and cornet. The cruise began Friday, January 17 and ended on the morning of Monday the 27th—ten nights and nine days in all.
