Holland America has always been a cruise line with great music but they have stepped up their game for this grand voyage.  My favorite improvement over recent cruises is the reintroduction of the Zaandam show band.  Guest performers are playing with real musicians instead of the high end karaoke that we had last year on the Pole to Pole.  When the show band isn’t on the main stage, backing up other performers, it is in the Ocean Bar as the Dance Band.  But that’s a mislabel.  They are a jazz combo.  In this afternoon’s set we heard a bossa version of Coltrane’s Giant Steps and an upbeat variation of Miles’ So What along with other standard jazz classics like C Jam Blues.

Another addition this year was Amanda on guitar who does folk and pop vocals. 

The Classical Piano Trio is back and playing to well attended houses. 

There is Nick, the piano bar entertainer and the DAM Band that plays at parties and for nightly dancing with Matty on vocals.

The World State company of four singers and four dancers is tight, and as Holland America polishes the shows, they get better.  These regulars are the staple joined by evening performers who get on and off to present different shows.  Most recently we have had two Broadway performers, who have been in shows like Cats, Les Misérables and Jersey Boys.  For them booking ships is a good gig between shows on Broadway or the West End.

In a conversation with the World Stage Company someone asked if they aspired to reach the West End (they are all Brits of some sort).  They weren’t sure.  To work in London, you need to live there and the only place you can afford is a lengthy commute from the theatres.  When you get home you must shop and cook.  You are always going out for auditions.  On the ship there is no commute, you don’t need to shop for food, someone else does your cooking and laundry and you have a steady gig for the length of the contract in community with other musicians who like to jam.  Plus, you get to travel to cool places.  One of the singers said that when he got tired of singing, he would have a leg up on getting a job as a cruise, entertainment, or production director on a ship.  That’s a job that could carry him for many years.  He used Rebekah, our current Cruise Director, as a role model.

With so many musicians on board they naturally jam together.  It started with the cellist, Adi, jamming with the jazz players.  Rebecka had an earlier career as a singer on both cruise ships and in Nashville.  She joined the jams, as did the ballroom dance instructor Amy, who is also a flutist and singer.  Rebekah dueted with the Johnny Cash tribute performer singing June’s half of a duet. 

By the end of the cruise it was mix and match, with, for instance, Amanda along with David from the Main Stage Company doing a set of Irish and Scottish folk songs, Amy joining the classical musicians to add some flute pieces and Bruno, from the piano trio, presenting a show of his own, Latin tinged classical compositions along with other musicians. 

By the end of the cruise, we could never tell who would be joining whom.  That made this cruise special for people like me who like all genres of music.