St. Louis, Missouri (Top40 Charts/ Great Scott P.R.oductions) Three weeks of sold-out Caribbean cruises showcasing dozens of the biggest stars in contemporary and straight-ahead jazz established Jazz Cruises as the preeminent jazz promoter on water, but a full slate of concert sponsorships on land in 2011 has made the St. Louis-based company one of the world's top jazz promoters on land and sea.
This year, Jazz Cruises, the largest private music ship charter company in the world, quietly adopted the 'Love It Live' manta, a philosophy with a specific purpose. 'Our goal is to make sure that jazz continues to be a vital and vibrant part of the national music scene,' said Jazz Cruises executive director Michael Lazaroff.
With that goal in mind, Jazz Cruises aggressively placed themselves wherever jazz music is played live. Either under the company name or their contemporary jazz cruise brand, The Smooth Jazz Cruise: The Greatest Party At Sea, they became the title sponsor of the Seabreeze Jazz Festival and three October festivals: Rehoboth Beach Jazz Festival, JW Desert Ridge Jazz Festival and Sedona Jazz on the Rocks. Lazaroff conceived the highly successful summer concert tour by a super group of legends -
George Duke, Marcus Miller and
David Sanborn - that toured under the DMS moniker on a coast-to-coast trek sponsored by Jazz Cruises.
Jazz Cruises also sponsors the
Chicago Smooth Jazz Series, St. Louis Smooth Jazz Series, Vail Jazz Festival, Jazz St. Louis, and a land tour by the Vista All-Stars comprised of a collective of musicians who perform on the company's The Jazz Cruise excursion. On
September 15th, The Smooth Jazz Cruise: The Greatest Party At Sea will sponsor an all-star benefit concert in Newport Beach to support guitarist Jeff Golub, the only musician who has performed on every sailing of The Smooth Jazz Cruise. Golub recently lost his sight, but was given hope by doctors that his vision may be restored through an expensive series of medical tests and procedures.
On sea, Jazz Cruises produced two sold-out sailings of The Smooth Jazz: The Greatest Party At Sea in January followed by a sold-out 10th anniversary sailing of The Jazz Cruise, the latter of which is already sold-out for 2012. The seven-day floating festivals sail in luxury aboard Holland
America vessels to exotic Caribbean destinations while featuring stellar live jazz performances in theatre and more intimate club-size venues. The cruises are experiential musical vacations allowing passengers passage behind the velvet rope to interact with the musicians in unique settings. The luminous talent lineups that perform aboard The Smooth Jazz Cruise and The Jazz Cruise include Grammy winners, legends, chart-toppers as well as rising stars.
For Lazaroff, his passion for jazz came naturally. 'I grew up in household where music played all the time, with jazz and the standards reigning supreme. My father was a very good amateur alto saxophonist and my mother (Jazz Cruises founder Anita Berry) was the first person in the world to charter an entire ship for a jazz cruise, so my love for the music and interest in cruising is genuine. �Love It Live,' is how music should be played and heard, and as a company, Jazz Cruises will do anything that we can to insure that live music - particularly jazz - prospers, grows and is heard and understood by as many people as possible.'
