Following an afternoon of exploring, beaching, and hanging with the local donkeys on Grand Turk on Monday, Jam Cruisers returned to the MSC Divina and donned their brightest neons for day three performances by Medeski Martin & Wood, Jazz Mandolin Project ft. Jon Fishman, GEOLEO (The Meters’ George Porter Jr. and Leo Nocentelli with Ivan Neville and Stanton Moore), Lettuce, Lotus, Grace Bowers, Lachy Doley, Octave Cat, and Dizgo, plus Atrium sessions by Aron Magner (The Disco Biscuits) and Mihali, a guest-filled Grateful Dead tribute set led by Lebo, a Kanika Moore-hosted Jam Room, and a Galaxy Disco late-night set by Flying Mojito Bros.
With several sets running simultaneously throughout the night, it was impossible to catch all the music played on the ship on Monday. Below are just a few of the memorable moments from day three of Jam Cruise 22:
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Medeski Martin & Wood Rise Again
Chris Wood had already played two sets aboard the ship with The Wood Brothers prior to Monday evening, but his third performance of Jam Cruise 22 was among the most highly anticipated of the week: his reunion with John Medeski (keys, organ) and Billy Martin (drums, percussion) for the first live performance by “avant-noise” trio Medeski Martin & Wood since Brooklyn Comes Alive 2022.
Whether they were rifling through each of their earliest albums, daring the crowd to lean in and listen closely with enthralling low-volume motifs, jerking them back from dream states with patches of disorienting dissonance, or draping funk grooves with their vast palette of sounds and tones, Medeski Martin & Wood showed that a few years away couldn’t possibly diminish the singular chemistry this group has honed over 30+ years of probing the ether together.
The rare nature of this reunion wasn’t lost on anyone in attendance—including The Wood Brothers’ Jano Rix, who was grinning in the center of the crowd during the performance like the rest of the fans around him. I think I speak for the Jam Cruise 22 majority when I say, “Whoa…”
Catch them again in the Pantheon Theater tonight. In the meantime, revisit the interview Live For Live Music conducted with Martin ahead of MMW’s last show in 2022 here.
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Forever Grateful
Virtually every band in the Grateful Dead’s generational downstream has paid tribute to Bob Weir in some form since he passed away last month, so the lack of Dead music on the boat over the first two days seemed notable in itself. On Monday, that classic songbook finally came into play around the ship, from Aron Magner and Kanika Moore’s show-stealing, heart-melting duet on “Looks Like Rain” in the Atrium to Lebo’s Grateful at Sea set in the Black & White Lounge, where a long list of guests including Magner, Jon Barber (The Disco Biscuits), George Porter Jr. (The Meters), Tim Palmieri (Lotus), Peter Levin, Sarah Elaz, Tony Hall (Dumpstaphunk), Taylor Galbraith, and all of Eggy cycled in to celebrate the good ole’ Grateful Dead.
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GEOLEO Takes Jam Cruise to New Orleans
GEOLEO, the pseudo-Meters ensemble featuring the foundational NOLA band’s guitarist, Leo Nocentelli, and bassist, George Porter Jr., alongside Galactic’s Stanton Moore and Dumpstaphunk’s Ivan Neville, that launched at last year’s Daze Between New Orleans festival, powered through a set of classic Meters funk in the Pantheon Theater. Highlights included a “Just Kissed My Baby” assisted by the Dumpstaphunk horns and an extended ride through what Leo referred to as the “song that started all this madness,” ubiquitous funk instrumental “Cissy Strut”.
Leo also took a few moments to build anticipation for this year’s New Orleans Jazz Fest season, when these two originators will reconnect with founding drummer Zigaboo Modeliste in their home city for their first two shows under the Meters banner in years, with Ivan filling the role of his late uncle/The Meters co-founder Art Neville.
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Lachy Doley is the Truth
Australian singer, keyboardist, and bandleader Lachy Doley‘s performance in the Black & White Lounge on Monday was among the night’s biggest highlights. Holding court from behind his Hohner D6 Whammy Clavinet, Doley and his funk-rock trio’s raucous showmanship and enthusiasm quickly rubbed off on the crowd and carried over into the rest of the busy evening. This guy is a monster. If you don’t know him—I didn’t before this set—it’s time to get familiar.
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Jon Fishman Has Entered the Chat
The Jazz Mandolin Project, featuring mandolinist Jamie Masefield, bassist Danton Boller, trumpeter/keyboardist Michael “Mad Dog” Mavridoglou, and drummer Jon Fishman (a.k.a. the guy in the dress from Phish), boarded the boat in Grand Turk as they continue their first tour together in more than 20 years.
At the end of the experimental jazz fusion ensemble’s Pool Deck set, Masefield applied some distortion to his mandolin (creating a notably Languedoc-like tone) and led the group into a cover of Black Sabbath classic “War Pigs” sung by Fishman—or, as Masefield introduced him, Igor Shitspewski. They’ll hit the stage again in the Atrium on day five for what promises to be a uniquely Jam Cruise experience.
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Kanika Moore Commands the Jam Room
A classic Jam Cruise scenario: You’re totally spent after three long days of music and an afternoon in the sun on a tropical beach, you think, “It’s 3:00 a.m., maybe I’ll call it ‘early’ and go to bed,” you pass the Jam Room on your way back to your cabin, Kanika Moore and a murderer’s row of funk and soul musicians is tearing the place to shreds, so you stay and get down for another full hour. Sleep is for land.
Performers included DJ Williams (guitar); Sam Fribush (organ); The New Mastersounds’ Pete Shand (bass), Simon Allen (drums), and Eddie Roberts (guitar); Dumpstaphunk’s Ian Neville (guitar), Alex Wasily (trombone), John Michael Bradford (trumpet), and Rebekah Todd (vocals); Lettuce’s Eric “Benny” Bloom (trumpet) and Adam Deitch (drums); and more.
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