Not a blue as in sad note, but as in Blue Note Records, the label of John Coltrane, Chick Corea, Art Blakey, Ron Carter, Marcus Miller, Norah Jones, Mose Allison, and Trombone Shorty to name but a few. Entertainment Cruise Productions is the company that coordinates three jazz cruises; a smooth jazz, straight ahead jazz and the Blue Note at Sea Jazz cruise. This was our second year on the Blue Note cruise, and we’ve signed up for next year already. Yes, it was that good.

Jazz Festivals are great. We’ve done the Newport Jazz Festival on a boat, on land, in blistering sun and pouring rain and certainly enjoyed all of them. We catch jazz shows when they’re in the area and whenever we find ourselves in New York. But having a solid week of amazing music, accessibility to the artists, great seats in no matter what venue on the ship, and Caribbean weather and surroundings, not to mention the staff of Celebrity Cruises, makes for a perfect combo.  And seeing these amazing artists working with each other as well as attending each other’s shows allowed a peek into how close this community is. This years artists included Marcus Miller, Gregory Porter, Christian McBride, Niki Haris, Gerald Clayton, David Sanborn, Robert Glasper, Cory Henry (of Snarky Puppy fame), Emmet Cohen, Joey DeFrancesco, Kamasi Washington and comedian Alonzo Bodden.

If you’re a jazz lover, an aficionado, just a casual listener or know nothing about jazz at all you’ll still appreciate these photos, most taken by Entertainment Cruise Production photographers. You’ll get the vibe. 

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If you’re a jazz lover and haven’t seen Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool on PBS’ American Masters, give it a look. It’s one of the best I’ve seen.

Deborah