BOB JAMES' "SHOWBOAT CRUISE" : January 2005

DAY 1 -Monday 3. Departure 5 p.m.
The weather was awful in San Diego as we were leaving : wind, rain, cool, not the California we all dream of !
We all embarked in the late afternoon and our first night was not really smooth ; the Captain woke us in the morning, explaining he had received emergency calls from a vessel and that he had to rush to their rescue ! But luckily it was only a sailboat which was running out of fuel but they had no big damages, we can imagine they must have been very scared by this weather.

Like on all cruiseships, we had to take part to the "drill" with the safety jackets on, and it was my first opportunity to spot Robben Ford and his wife, wearing their jackets like anybody else. And later, I saw Robben and his wife again waiting in line in front of the dining-room, he was talking to a group which I assumed were other musicians on board..

The first show was The Gregg Rolie Band, ex-lead singer from Santana and from Journey : So we started with a latino type of music with all the classics of Santana and also some of the hits from Journey as another of this group Joe Retta joined in, whose distinctive voice reminds us of this group. Excellent performance for this band, even without Santana himself, their guitarist made a very good job !.
We went then to the Crow's Nest which is the ship discotheque where they had a band called the Bay Area All-Stars.

In the evening, we could see a show with the organisers of this cruise : Bob James, Harvey Mason and Nathan East all 3 members of "Fourplay" ; unfortunately Larry Carlton the 4th was not available. Robben Ford and Tom Scott joined them. All excellent "smooth jazz" performers : I discovered that Bob James was indeed a piano virtuose; Nathan East at the base guitar : such a charming personality, always smiling ! Harvey Mason : we know that he has played with so many stars in his career, and in fact I saw him last July with James Taylor in Paris.

Day 2 - Tuesday 4:
I attended to the various rehearsals in the afternoon,(Tom Scott, Robben Ford, etc..) Ellis Hall joined them, he sat at the piano and started to sing even without a microphone, like if it was just for himself, and I was immediately impressed by his talent, and at the end, I could ask Robben Ford to sign one of his CDs that I had with me, and I asked him who this singer was, that I had never seen before and he told me what a great artist Ellis was.
I went in the afternoon to the Crow's Nest to listen to Rosie Butler who sings soft jazzy songs. In the evening Tom Scott and Robben Ford perfomed then later Bob James .

Day 3 - Wednesday 5:
The next day, I saw Ellis Hall perform ; his voice, his looks, the fact that he is blind, his singing remind everyone of course of Stevie Wonder, (http://www.ellishall.com) he used to be the lead singer of "Tower of Power". He has given us several performances and joined Michael McDonald on the organ and did some great back vocals.

In the evening we had another show with the Gregg Rolie Band and then later with Bob James.

Day 4 - Thursday 6 :
After several days at sea, we reached our first Port-of-Call : Loreto, small city which used to be the capital city of this mexican California, but its fate declined due to many hurricanes and earthquakes. So the touristic interests are some missions with churches, and some old official buildings.
The weather was still rather cool. The ship departed at 4 pm already.
Shortly after, we were able to attend the soundchecks of Michael McDonald and his friends : Robben Ford, Harvey Mason, Tom Scott, and then Ellis Hall came along at the organ. I was surprised to see that Bernie (Chiaravelle) also was here ! I did not expect him as he told me last summer none of the band was supposed to come, but he explained me that they asked him at the last minute !
It was such a privilege to assist to these great artists rehearsals ; anybody from the cruise could come without a special pass, it was very interesting to see how they prepared themselves according to the acoustic of the room, and although some of these performers had already played these songs many times, (the setlist consisted in the "classics" of Michael's repertoire) they still had to work on them and of course as it was not Michael 's usual band (except for Bernie) and they had to adapt to each others. No wonder that this lasted about 2 hours.
They all came down from the stage and the few people watching rushed to talk to them and so we did and greeted them, I asked them when they were coming to Europe and Bernie said : end of March, he even asked his manager (at least I think he was) and he confirmed ! Regarding Paris, Mike and Bernie told me that Richard Bernheim (the producer who had organised the show in October 2003) seemed to have a hard time to find an available venue, so I understood the hope was dim to see them this time !
So in the evening (at 11 pm) we had the first of Michael's show : He was wearing a nice black shirt.
They start with Peace, as usual since Sept. 11, mentionning that it was still relevant ; then a Doobies classic with Keeps you runnin', then Sweet Freedom, Keep forgettin’, Grapevine, All is fair in love, You belong to me, Minute by minute, What a fool believes, No mountain high, Nothing like the real thing, Takin’ it to the street .and What’s going on; with the backing vocals of Ellis Hall of these last ones. In the middle the concert, on the song "All is fair in Love" there was an unpleasant sound problem and we saw Tom Scott nodding his head meaning : "I really don't like that ! "
In spite of their serious rehearsals, these incidents can always happen, but it did only once and it was afterwards perfect.

Day 5 -Friday 7 :
We reached our second port-of-call : Pichilingue, from where we had to take a shuttle bus to the nearest city La Paz; nothing fantastic to visit there but at least a lot of shops, bars, restaurants where it was easy to see they were waiting for tourists !!
We had the second soundcheck of Michael & friends in the afternoon , just after the ship left ; and in the evening I was able to go to see the second show, although I did not have tickets ; because depending on which service in the dining-room : early or late seating ; you were -theorically- only allowed to go to only one show - but actually there were enough seats at this second show and many could go without tickets !
This second show was even better : no sound problem, and having these great musicians together was such a treat : 2 great guitarists with Robben and Bernie, Tom Scott at the sax, Harvey Mason on drums, Niel Stubenhaus on bass, Ellis Hall at the organ, and later Nathan East joined them.
After 2 songs, Michael made the audience laugh when he said how happy he was to play with such great musicians and added : "You know, I used to sell pot to these guys, that 's how I got into this business !" And 2 songs later, he introduced each one by name and he forgot Tom Scott, so several people in the audience reminded him "Hey, what about Tom Scott ?" So Mike answered "Oh ! Sh... ! that comes with age ! (one of his favorite jokes! ) I kept the best for the end ! You know, I not only sold them pot, but I smoked with them !!" and the crowd roared with laughter !! Somebody in front of me added : "But you didn't inhale!!" reminding everyone of President Clinton !!
This second show was so perfect and ended with the fabulous Ellis Hall singing with Michael on the 2 last songs "Takin' it to the Streets" and "What's going on".
Actually the group for which this "early seatings" show was intended probably included some elderly people (who go to bed early) and that 's why there were a few seats available; because some of the passengers were not even aware of the main theme of this cruise ! I spoke to some ladies, who must have been around 65; and when I told them that I had come for the music, they said "Music ? What music?" she must have spent her time at the Casino !! And I met another lady complaining about the noise coming from the theatre : she must have had her room nearby ; and she said she had booked through a travel agency who did not tell her that it was a special musical "smooth jazz" cruise; she expected a more "cabaret style" type of shows ; more common on other cruises.

Day 6 - Saturday :
Arrival in Cabos San Lucas : This was our last stop and the weather was, at last, wonderful : warm and sunny !
We had planned to go on a "Whale-watching" excursion and we were heading to go on shore and on the way we met Michael and Bernie who were also waiting to leave the ship with this small shuttle boat (that they call tender) because our ship was too big to dock at this port and had to stay slightly at large. I took the opportunity to ask them another question that I had forgotten to ask them :about the official release of Motown II in Europe ; which they confirmed being mid-February. We were entering this tender-boat and I saw my table mates making big signs at me, showing the front of the boat and I heard them telling me "Michael is sitting in the front!!" and that 's we were going to anyway and there were just 2 available seats behind them ! I did take 2 pictures !!
We went with our group onto another boat for this whale-watching and from there, we could see that Michael & Bernie were still waiting for the next tender boat for their luggage ! Probably there was not have enough room in the first boat!
This whale-watching was successful : we did see many, some very near our boat, and it was also the perfect place to take pictures of these beautiful rocks in the middle of the sea which make the typical touristic attraction of Cabos San Lucas.
That same evening, we had booked our "wine-tasting meal" at "the Pinnacle", the more-sophisticated restaurant on the ship ; with Bob James and his friends. Bob James, as he explains on his website (http://bobjames.com/) has another passion besides music : he has invested in the wine business and was selling some of his wines selection on the ship. The meal included for each course a different wine of course, mostly from Australia, Italy and South Africa. He also told us that he was happy how this cruise turned out and that they were thinking of working on a second one for the future and probably in the Caribbean this time. It had taken them 15 months to organize this first one and it's a long labour to bring many stars and book them. But everybody was so happy about the results ! Although some might have regretted that a few passengers did not really come for the music, but just for a cruise ; to fill the empty rooms it was probably sold to the usual cruise market.
There was also music on board which probably appealed to an older audience : Rosie Butler and Ann Kerry Ford (Robben's wife) who, I heard, sang "cabaret type" of songs, but there were so many shows that I did not have the time to go and see her ! There was also an hungarian trio playing at a piano bar.
After this very rich meal and the wine-tasting ; we missed the Eddie Money show that evening ! We went straight to sleep ! Those australian wines are pretty strong !

Day 7 : Sunday :
Last full day at sea :
It was that day the performers could sign and dedicate their CDs or posters, but there was such a long line !

The last big show was Eddie Money again ; I went there for about 15 mn but at the same time, I knew Ellis Hall was also performing at the Crow's Nest so I preferred to go there, as his music is more "my cup of tea" !

The only thing which was not so good on this cruise was the weather : it was only perfect in Cabo San Lucas, but we only stayed there a few hours! And on the way back we felt again that the sea was rough ! Our arrival in San Diego in the morning was under the rain, as it had started !
But on the other hand ; we had so many marvellous shows that we totally forgot about the weather !
The choice of this Company was an excellent one : Holland America has nice ships, with elegant fittings and decor such as many antique pieces of furniture and paintings that you would expect in a museum and not on a ship. The room was fitted with flat screen TV and DVD reader; enough storage room, the 2 beds together made a perfect king-sized ; the food was excellent : even the croissants in the morning tasted just like in France ! The service on board was mainly by Indonesian and they were always charming and smiling ! Of course, we could not help thinking that some of these people must have being so worried about the tsunami events that hit their country !
We could see this Dutch Company had high standards of quality that could satisfy world-wide customers.

Regretfull also is that there was no" Meet & Greet " organised for Michael, (luckily we took the opportunity after their soundcheck)
But they only stayed 2 days ; and I knew he had other dates and that is already wonderful that he kept his promise to join his old friends on that ship.