Bonerama at Jam Cruise 7, Photo by Dave Vann
Jam Cruise 7: First let me get it out the way and say that we (Bonerama) highly recommend Jam Cruise to every one. With that said, I’ll try and remember what we did and who we did it with ( you know what I mean, right?). The ship, MSC Orchestra, was huge. 14 decks tall and really nice, except for the food. People go to Jam Cruise (2,800 people I think it was) for the music and the non stop partying, not the food. Sunday Jan. 4 was the first day of cruising. There were 23 artists on the boat and 4 stages so the music started right away. The stage that lots of people on the boat love the most is called the Jam Room. Its the after hours stage that starts around midnight and is the place where all the jamming between many different artist takes place. There was also the big stage on the pool deck, the Savannah bar, the theater. We did not have to play a bonerama set that day so later that night some of us made our way to the Jam Room and played. The next day was our set in the Savannah Bar, which started at 5:30. It was a good set with lots of people there. After our set Porter, Batiste & Stoltz (PBS and Bonerama are under the management of Phil Steppanian and Highsteppin) played later where the Bonerama horns came up and played a few songs with them. Later that night most of us made it to the Jam Room where we either hung out, played or danced. Mostly all three. It was a very late night that led into about 7:00am when the jamming concluded. Let me say that the Jam Room is the place where anything goes (musically). Lots of musicians from many of the bands are there and it causes plenty of spontaneous musical magic. The next day was a boat stop in Belize. I went on a trip into the jungle to an animal sanctuary with a group called the Green Group. They were donating school supplies to a very needy school and also helping to bring some of their expertise to this very needy community. They also donated some drums to a drum school in the next village. The drummers were there and they played and had every one dancing in the jungle before you knew it. It was big fun wit a bunch of people I just met. Later that evening as the ship set sail, the music started One really cool stage is the outdoor one where they cover the pool with some plexiglas so the people can have a huge dance area. Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe started at 6pm and they sounded great. Later that night Ivan Nevilles Dumsptaphunk played a hot set in the Savannah Bar where Mark, Greg and I jumped up for a few songs. After that Mark and I made it over to the Galactic set in the main theater where we sat in on a couple of songs. One thing I forgot to mention is that one of the guys from Leftover Salmon heard our set and asked us to come and play with them. We made plans with Greg, Mark and Myself to meet at the outside pool stage for 2am. Mark and I quickly made it there after sitting in with Galactic. Greg was feeling a little boat sick so he crashed. Leftover Salmon is a great band that is more bluegrass with a rock and zydeco vibe mixed in. We sat in on one song before the set ended around 3 am and they asked us to stick around and play a couple more on the beginning of the next set which ended up being a Stones and a Dylan song. It was one of the highlights of the cruise for me and the Salmon fans who never saw them with horns before got a big surprise. After that I made it to the Jam Room again for more music madness, till sunup. The next day was a stop in Costa Maya. Lots of people get off the boat, but have to be back on by 4:30. At 5 we started our set on the pool stage and played till 7. It was really a cool spot play while the ship takes off from the port and so most people are on the deck checking out the music. On our set we had George Porter, Brain Stoltz, Walter “Wolfman” Washington, Ivan Neville and Robert Walter sit in with us at one time or another. It was a really hot set and every one really enjoyed it, especially us. Later that night PBS played and all 4 of the trombones sat in with them. Again the Jam Room was jamming till very late with some of the Bonerama’s playing with every one. Bert played with Grace Potter and some of her band, Eric jammed with them and almost everyone else. All the folks there were dancing like crazy. The last day, Thursday, had music starting again at 11:30am (I’m glad we never had to play that early). Mark and I did sit in with Robert Walter’s super jam that after noon. After the Super jam on the Pool deck Stanton Moore had a brass band called the Midnight Disturbers do a parade around the ship. Mark and Big Sam played trombone, Trombone Shorty played trumpet (that sounds funny, but Troy is a bad MF on trumpet too), Skerik and Ben Ellman played saxes I played tuba and Stanton and Kevin ODay played drums. It was fun except for when we got to the top deck and the wind, which was blowing really strong, caught the bell of the sousaphone and almost blew me over board. That would have been a hell of a way to go. Blown off the boat with a sousaphone wrapped around me. LOL (not). There was an awards show after that where they give out different awards for many crazy things like the person who went with out hardly any sleep or the person who came the furthest or the person who hooked up the most. One cool award for the musicians is the Golden Microphone award. It’s for the musician who sits in with the most bands. Last year Ivan Neville got it and Stanton Moore from Galactic has gotten it before. They called Mark and I up and presented us with this very prestigious award (the actual award was a High School musical i[pod alarm clock-LOL). We didn’t sit in with all those people to try and win the award, but we truly wanted to play with those bands and add what we could to their music. After that we went down and jammed with the New Mastersounds, who are a funk band from England who we met on New Years eve when we did a show together at City Lights in Del Ray, Fla. Jam Cruise 7 was one of the highlights of the last few years. We made lots of new friends and fans and will look forward to hooking up again with them for many more years to come. The motion of the ocean was felt like never before and it caused big gushing feelings to all of us that were involved. It’s hard to describe here how it really went down. It was one of those in the moment kind of things, you had to be there, but the moment lasted for 5 days. It was over with in no time and the memories linger on forever. C Ya, ck
