My wife has been bugging me since we first got married 28 years ago to go on an Alaska cruise. Ugh! What company do we take? Mullet Cruises? Anyway, I succumbed to the 6 day trip, and then we overlanded it there for another 10 days, and WE NEVER SAW THE PALINS! Believe it or not, there is a cooking little jazz scene to be had, and some of it was on our ship, the Holland American Line Statendam. Here’s a list of music available if you hit the 49th state:
1) On the cruise, we had a cooking little trio (called The Neptunes) lead by pianist Bill Beach, from Portland no less. There’s NO scene there, so he makes a living on the ships. A voice like Chet Baker, and a piano style that is light and hip. He specialized in Brazilian, but played every obscure tune I threw at him.
2) Also aboard was a guitarist name Dave, and a “piano man” named Jamm. He had a Lisztian style of modern music, and also hit just about every song I could think of.
3) Tiffany and the HALCats was lead by a lovely vocalist who had the power of Aretha Franklin and the chops of Donna Summer. I don’t know why she’s not a bigger name, but try to google her.
4) Comedian Jeff Burghart did some impersonations ranging from Tom Jones to Rodney Dangerfield that had you rolling in the aisles
5) On the main land, just about every town had some sort of jazz/music dive. in Juneau there was a bar and grill called Timberline that featured keyboardist Tom Locher, as well as saxist Wayne Norlond.
6) In Seward and Ketchikan, there was a roving jazz/folk fest, and while there were no big names, the guitarists and saxists had some pretty impressive chops.
7) In Anchorage, Sullivan’s Steakhouse has a nice little jazz lounge, and there’s Chilkoot Charlies and Platinum Jaxx out there as well.
8) Of course, if you like the outdoors, you’re going to be in hog heaven. We hiked along the Exit Glacier with special shoes, whitewater rafted during a snowstorm on the Nenana River, and kayaked along the coast in Seward. We hiked an average of 5-6 miles a day, even on the ship as 4 laps equaled one mile.
9) Lots of history as well. Ketchikan was the focal point of the Klondike Gold rush, and the story, a very old one, was of people spending years of their lives looking for the “pot of gold” that was already all gone by the time they got there. Some things, in this day of Ponzi schemes, never change.