Jam Cruise 13- Day 4 Photos & Highlights – Snarky Puppy Kills It

Glide’s Andrew Bruss is providing day to day coverage of Jam Cruise 13 as it makes its way around sea over the course of five days.  Here are the highlights and photos from day 4 aboard the ship.

While Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid was sitting-in with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band in the Divina’s theater, the weather up top took complete control of the nights programing. A storm forced the full and complete closure of the Pool Deck for the rest of the night, canceling the last performance from John Scofield and Umphrey’s Mcgee’s only Pool Deck set of the week. Umphrey’s keyboardist Joel Cummins could be overheard commenting that the group was very disappointed. With that said, the weather turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

JamCruise is already overflowing with powerful musical energy, and forcing the Pool Deck’s vibes indoors created a combustion of the most technically proficient, in-pocket instrumental improvisation we’ve heard all week

Snarky Puppy was scheduled to host the Jazz Lounge from 11-2am and without Umphrey’s McGee to compete against, the Jazz Fusion collective found themselves playing host to the largest crowd the JamCruise Jazz Lounge has ever seen. Tons of the finest performers on the boat were on hand to take in Snarky Puppy’s third and final JamCruise performance and plenty of them traded off between audience member and participant.

After about forty five minutes of Snarky Puppy holding down the stage with originals, they took the Superjam concept into overdrive, coordinating a rotating door of elite musicians that seemed to leave the stage with a whole new lineup every five minutes. Practically every member of Kung Fu found themselves onstage. Keyboardists from Umphrey’s McGee, Lettuce and The Motet took turns at the console and behind the drum kit, beat-keeping duties swiftly rotated from The Nth Power’s Nikki Glaspie to Kris Myers from Umphrey’s McGee and on to Lettuce’s Adam Deitch.

As of 3:26am EST, Charles Bradley is belting out James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” in a Roosevelt Collier hosted Jam Room with the support of Papa Mali and Karl Denson.  Tomorrow is our last day on the MSC Divina and we’ll be spending it at sea. With a full day and night of music ahead of us before we cross the finish line, tonight would be a good time to rest up for the grand finale. Fortunately, the Mojo on this boat isn’t going to let that happen.