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10 Of The Best Things We Saw On Jam Cruise 20: Days 4 & 5 [Photos/Videos]

March 4, 2024

Time is a funny thing on Jam Cruise. As the week goes on, the sunrises and sunsets begin to blur together, the atmosphere gets looser, the constant stream of eye-popping moments becomes harder and harder to track. Now that we’re back on dry land, Day 2 seems like an eternity ago while Days 4 and 5 felt like they flew by in an instant. From the moment the MSC Divina pushed off from Grand Cayman on Wednesday until the ship finally docked back in Miami early Friday morning, the final two days of Jam Cruise 20 felt less like two distinct chapters and more like one long sprint to the finish line.

Day 4 of the festivities at sea featured performances by The New Mastersounds, Everyone Orchestra, Franc Moody, Galactic, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, Keller Williams and The Hillbenders‘ Grateful Grass, Purple Party: A Tribute to Prince, Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country, Shira Elias, Próxima Parada, J & The Causeways, Atrium sets by Big Richard and Alric “A.C.” Carter (TAUK), a DJ Logic birthday bash in at the Galaxy Disco, an Eggy Choose Your Own Eggventure whodunnit, and a Jam Room hosted by Duane Betts and Cris Jacobs.

Day 5 brought the 20th edition of Jam Cruise to a close as Thursday night flowed into Friday morning with Lotus, Galactic, Cimafunk, Cory Wong, Diggin Dirt, Perpetual Groove, Big Richard, Cris Jacobs, Ryan Montbleau, Eggy, Ivan Neville & Friends and Everyone Orchestra’s Acoustic Aquarium in the Atrium, all-hands collaborative sets like Lebo‘s Yacht Rock and a Mike Dillon Super Jam, a disco set by Keller Williams DJ alter-ego Hobby Weird, and a final hurrah in the Jam Room led by Chali 2na and Marc Brownstein.

While we all attempt to trickle back into the real world, hold onto a little of the Jam Cruise glow with just a few of the memorable moments from Day 4 and Day 5 of Jam Cruise 20 below.

Eggs Go With Everything (& Everyone)

After making its Jam Cruise debut on Day 1, Connecticut four-piece Eggy continued its big maiden voyage on Wednesday afternoon in the Atrium with the first-ever live edition of Choose Your Own Eggventure, a pandemic-era streaming project inspired by the popular book series that lets the audience decide what direction the performance goes next.

The Jam Cruise Eggventure: The wheel of the ship has been stolen and the Captain (played by Cosmic Country bassist Will “Mustang” McGee) has recruited Eggy and the gathered audience to sort through the list of suspects. Bassist Mike Goodman served as the lead detective, reading dossiers on the suspicious characters two at a time and asking the crowd to choose which one to “interrogate” next. Each dossier corresponded to a song and a suspect, with each suspect portrayed by a different one of the set’s dubious guests including Sammi Garett (vocals on ABBA’s “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!”), Tim Palmieri (guitar on Eggy original “Smile”), Kanika Moore (vocals on Stephen Stills’ “Love The One You’re With”), and Daniel Donato (guitar on Eggy’s “One Stop Shop”).

“Have you enjoyed this Mixolydian improvisation over song form today?” Captain Mustang asked when he returned to close the case. After helping reveal to the crowd that Eggy drummer Alex Bailey was the scoundrel who stole the ship’s wheel all along, the Cap’n rounded out the Eggventure with Tony Clifton-tinged lead vocals on a cover of Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young classic “Southern Cross”. Aye aye!

On Day 5, Eggy was back at it for the final set of the week on the open-air Brews at Sea Stage. With the ship’s stolen wheel displayed behind the guilty drummer (credit for spotting that Eggventure Easter Egg goes to motivational speaker Matt Foley), the band delivered a thrilling performance featuring sit-ins by moe. guitarist Chuck Garvey (on Phil Collins’ “Sussudio”) and Cory Wong (on Steely Dan’s “Green Earrings”).

Speaking of Everyone…

Everyone Orchestra—a project all about collaborative improvisation—is a reliable highlight of Jam Cruise year after year. The Day 4 edition of Everyone Orchestra on Jam Cruise 20 was no exception with Ivan Neville (Dumpstaphunk), Adryon de León, Kanika Moore, Duane Betts, Marc Brownstein (The Disco Biscuits), Jake Brownstein (Eggy), Mikey Carubba (Cool Cool Cool), Nikki Glaspie (The Nth Power), The Horn Section, Jim Loughlin (moe.), Mike Dillon, Brett McConnell (Threedom), Aniana, Tuck Ryan, Cliff Porter (Jelly Bread), and more getting in on the action.

As always, Matt Butler served as the jam conductor, pulling various members of the one-off ensemble to the spotlight or pairing two instrumentalists for a breakdown with impressive fluidity. The set seemed to produce more fully realized “songs” than usual, from the calypso number fronted by Josh Schwartz (The Horn Section, Cool Cool Cool, JOSCH) to a cathartic sing-along based around a simple yet resonant Jam Cruise question: “How lucky are we?”

[Video: Steve Guion]

Shira Elias & (Lots of) Friends

While touring artists often pass each other like ships in the night, Jam Cruise gives its performers a rare opportunity to settle in and reconnect with their many talented peers. Though Shira Elias (Cool Cool Cool, Remain in Light) was billed for a solo Jazz Lounge session on Wednesday, she used the performance to gather the homies for a feel-good set of sing-alongs, throwbacks, and slow jams.

In addition to a backing band comprised of her Cool Cool Cool bandmates Craig Brodhead (guitar) and Digo Zambrano (bass), TAUK cohorts Alric “A.C.” Carter (keys) and Isaac Teel (drums), and keyboardist Paulie Philippone (Ryan Montbleau), Elias featured different friends on each song. Special guests on the Shira Elias set included Dumpstaphunk horns Alex Wasily and John Michael Bradford, Cool Cool Cool horns Chris Brouwers and Greg Sanderson, vocalists Elise Testone, Lyle Divinsky, JOSCH (Cool Cool Cool), Viveca Hawkins, Adryon de León, and Hayley Jane, and more. Shira also coaxed Isaac Teel to the microphone for an Usher impression on “U Got It Bad”, enlisted her Cool Cool Cool running partner Sammi Garett for a rendition of Spice Girls’ “Say You’ll Be There”, and delivered a Donny Hathaway-style reading of Carole King’s “You’ve Got A Friend” with Nigel Hall (Lettuce).

Daniel Donato Is Everywhere

Guitarist and bandleader Daniel Donato seemed to be everywhere during the final two days of Jam Cruise 20. In addition to mounting his Day 4 Cosmic Country set in the Black & White Lounge featuring sit-ins by Cory Wong, Cris Jacobs, Duane Betts, and Lamar Williams Jr., Donato joined in on sets by Perpetual Groove, Eggy, and The New Mastersounds and logged several hours with The Sweet Lillies and more at the nightly starboard pickin’ party affectionately known as The Spot.

More Things I Learned About Franc Moody

More things I learned about English act Franc Moody on Wednesday Night in the Pantheon Theater:

1. Franc Moody may not be a person, but it is comprised of a guy named Ned Franc and a guy named Jon Moody.
2. While they played as a four-piece on Jam Cruise, Franc and Moody have fielded various different live band configurations as Franc Moody, often with additional singers and horns.
3. You may recognize the band’s new bassist Seye Adelekan from his work with Gorillaz.
4. Oboe is a totally viable instrument for a live disco-funk-house band.
5. I need to see Franc Moody live again ASAP.

Grateful Grass vs. Purple Party

The standout Day 4 schedule culminated in a pair of unique tribute sets taking place in the boat’s two main venues: Keller Williams and The Hillbenders‘ Grateful Grass, a bluegrass homage to the Grateful Dead, on the Pool Deck and the all-star Purple Party: A Tribute to Prince in the Pantheon Theater. Both seemed to scratch a lingering itch for a different portion of the ship’s audience.

On the Pool Deck, you could mellow out to the good ol’ Grateful Dead via breezy, rhythmically fluid takes on “Mexicali Blues”, “Sugaree”, “Feel Like a Stranger”, “Bird Song”, “Cassidy”, and more after four long days of funk on the Divina. In the theater, you could gather with your dearly beloved to dance through this thing called Night 4 with a massive ensemble featuring Cool Cool Cool alongside members of Magic Beans, TAUK, Dumpstaphunk, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, Cory Wong‘s band, and more running through Prince hits and deep cuts to a packed house with featured vocals by Adryon de León, Kanika Moore, Ivan Neville, Tony Hall, Shira Elias, Sammi Garett, JOSCH, Lyle Divinsky, Brittany Beckett, and others. The party came to a climax with a celebratory “1999” accented by purple confetti cannons from the crowd. Whether you went with Grateful Grass or Purple Party (or both), there were no wrong answers on Wednesday night.

[Video: Lonnie Howell]

[Video: Steve Guion]

Mike Dillon Sets The Day 5 Tone: It’s Gonna Be A Long Night

The atmosphere on the boat was idyllic as the sun began to set on Jam Cruise 20’s fifth and final day. Deep improvisation and funk grooves had been the name of the game all week, and Lebo‘s collaborative Yacht Rock set, a Jam Cruise favorite, had cast a particularly tranquil spell on the Pool Deck. Then, mallet madman Mike Dillon and a wily crew arrived to inject a little mayhem into the proceedings.

Drawing from his vast network of collaborators, Dillon conducted perhaps the most lively set of the week for his Super Jam with collaborators including Chris Spies, Nikki Glaspie, The Horn Section, Craig Brodhead, Stanton Moore, Eric Krasno, Karl Denson, Chuck Garvey, Marc Paradis, Jim Loughlin, Harry Waters, and more.

Highlights of the set included a pair of vastly different Ween covers: First, a beachy take on “Bananas and Blow” featuring Lyle Divinsky, Ryan Montbleau, Sammi Garett, Shira Elias, and Marc Paradis on vocals; then, a bludgeoning “It’s Gonna Be a Long Night” sung in a maniacal howl by Mike D himself. To close the performance, Dillon shouted out one of his most recent touring projects, Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, and threw it to his Frog Brigade bandmate/Pink Floyd kin Harry Waters for a towering “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” featuring backing vocals by Elias and Garett and guitar by Garvey.

With its unhinged energy, invigorating attitude, and broad stylistic range—from go-go to punk to psych rock to Brazilian jazz to whatever you call what Ween is—the Mike D Super Jam was the cannon blast we needed to propel us into Jam Cruise 20’s last hurrah.

Lotus Closes Down The Pool Deck

Lotus had the honor of closing out the Pool Deck with a late-night performance on the final night of the journey. The jamtronica favorites came prepared for duty with a set of thumping, deep-pocket jams that flirted with the pulsing tones of dance music as much as the muscular guitar leads of prog rock. As one fellow Jam Cruiser observed to me during the set, with Tim Palmieri in the band, it sounds something like “EDM Umphrey’s McGee.”

A pair of well-placed homages to classic dance tracks helped put the standout set over the top: a full-blown cover of Fatboy Slim‘s “Praise You” (complete with fiery Palmieri guitar solo) and a live remix of Yeah Yeah Yeahs‘ “Heads Will Roll”.

Cimafunk Just Gets It

Cimafunk had a busy night in the Pantheon Theater on the last night of Jam Cruise 20 with a performance of his own followed by a sit-in with Galactic. While tough schedule decisions largely had me elsewhere during those two sets, Cima was responsible for one of my favorite moments of the day: When I stopped by the band’s rehearsal to interview the Cuban/Afro-Caribbean funk sensation (look out for that piece in the coming weeks), his band was arranged in a circle running some tunes. At the center of the circle was Cimafunk—real name Erik Alejandro Iglesias Rodríguez—doing push-ups while directing the ensemble. After our chat, he shook my hand, said, “Tonight, we get drunk,” and walked away skatting.

Chali 2na & Marc Brownstein Host The Final Jam Room

The Jam Room on Night 5—the last official set of music on the boat—was hosted by the unconventional pairing of rapper Chali 2na and The Disco Biscuits bassist Marc Brownstein. The resulting session wove together hip-hop flows and funk-rock vamps for one of the most unusual and memorable collaborations of the week as the boat docked at the Port of Miami in the early hours of Friday morning.

In addition to a core group featuring Chali 2na and Brownstein alongside DJ Logic (turntables), Paulie Philippone (keys, Ryan Montbleau), Marlon Lewis (drums, Star Kitchen), Jake Brownstein (guitar, Eggy), and Dani Battat (keys, Eggy), the long list of performers who cycled in throughout the late-night set included rapper Kosha Dillz, Adam Deitch (drums, Lettuce), Casey Russell (keys, Magic Beans, Purple Party), Lebo (guitar), Nikki Glaspie (drums), Matt Jalbert (guitar, TAUK), and vocalists Ryan Montbleau, Alex Bailey (Eggy), Elise Testone, Viveca Hawkins, Brittany Beckett, Lyle Divinsky, and Kanika Moore, among others.

Thanks for following along with us as we looked back on the many memorable moments of Jam Cruise 20. We’re already counting down the days until next year. Revisit highlights from the rest of Jam Cruise 20 here: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3.