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Published: 2010/01/20
by Jeffrey P. Dupuis

Jam Cruise 8
January 3-8, 2010

“International waters – the land that law forgot” – Homer Simpson

Jam Cruise…Music festival? Luxury cruise? Floating zoo of music freaks? All of the above. For five days and nights, the good people at Cloud Nine Adventures created a musical playground, which was as much a playground as it was musical. This by no means captures all of the experience, or even all of my experience. Here are a few artist shots as well as a few “only on Jam Cruise” moments that I’d love to share with you. After all, Jam Cruise really is about the Jam Cruisers.

For New Orleans’ Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes’ Dirty Johnny (aka Andre Bohren), a birthday suit and sailor suit appear to mix-and-match somehow.

Karl Denson has performed on every Jam Cruise to date, and made multiple appearances on JC8, most notably in his resurrection of the smoother-than-fiction band “Sexual Chocolate.” Where else are you gonna hear Christopher Cross’ “Sailing” and the theme from “Love Boat” in the same set – and done well!

Drummer Adam Deitch brought his mix of drumming onboard with Break Science, a live drum-and-bass set, as well as providing a strong funk backbone for Chapter 2 (with Eric Krasno, Nigel Hall and Louis Cato).

Jam Cruise might as well be called Funk Cruise, or even George Porter Jr’s Funk Voyage. It’s a great place to see legends hang and play off each other’s energy like nowhere else. Hiding under Maceo’s jacket is a shirt that reads “Got Funk?”