Notes from the Publisher

ALL ROADS LEAD TO Smooth Jazz

Hilton Waikoloa Village in Kona, Hawaii

Smooth jazz has curated the majority of my adult travel.

Over the years, the allure of genre-themed concerts, cruises and festivals has led me to parts of the country and world I’d never been to before. The Great Waikoloa Food, Wine & Music Festival prompted my first trip to Hawaii. In addition to enjoying great musical, culinary and spa experiences at the Hilton Waikoloa Village, I also ventured out into rainforests, waterfalls, volcanoes, lava-laden shorelines and black-sand beaches on the Big Island. With so much to do, I unfortunately didn’t have time to fit in Dolphin Quest, an on-site program that allows guests to swim and interact with their resident marine mammals in the resort’s private lagoon. However, I saw several schools of dolphin swimming alongside the Catalina Express high-speed catamaran I rode to my first outing to Catalina Island. As a native Southern Californian, I’m still surprised that I was in my late 30s before I made the two-hour drive to Long Beach and 26-mile boat ride to Avalon, thanks to an assignment to review the Catalina Island JazzTrax Festival. And, I’ve returned every year since. Waterfront and scenic ocean venues are a large part of the smooth jazz lifestyle, especially cruises. Although I had cruised before, my first voyage to the Caribbean was on Norwegian Cruise Lines’ SS Norway for its smooth jazz-themed cruise. Several more seafaring festivals inspired me to sail on the 2011 Dave Koz & Friends at Sea full-ship charter to Alaska. I had toured Alaska on land during my pre-jazz life, but the experience on Koz’s cruise eclipsed that trip. Nothing compared to waking up to the majesty of Tracy Arm Fjord. Nestled between 3,000-foot-high granite walls, the narrow, twisting slice of sparkling, emerald-colored ocean weaves through the Tongass National Forest for roughly 35 miles. The shoreline is sprinkled with waterfalls created

View of Tracy Arm Fjord in Alaska

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fare to the dining car, where I ate breakfast with the artists and fellow smooth jazz fans. This was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime prelude to a wondrous weekend at The JazzTrax Winter into Spring Festival. With so much travel involved in the smooth jazz lifestyle, regeneration and pampering is always a plus. So, I was pleasantly surprised to discover some of the best spas in the world in Wisconsin and Colorado during my first visits to those states. I booked so many services at the Aspira Spa at The Osthoff Resort in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, that I missed a few shows during Jazz on the Vine. And, while attending Earl Klugh’s Weekend of Jazz at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, I spent most of my non-concert time at The Spa. I indulged in a Swedish massage, a deep-tub soak in coconut milk and mineral salts, an 18-shower-head hydrotherapy, and a lemon and lavender hand and foot scrub. I also left the resort for an afternoon to visit Garden of the Gods, a magical park featuring towering sandstone and red rock by melting snowcaps, with the greenest formations against a backdrop of trees sprouting at odd angles from rocky snowcapped Pikes Peak. outcroppings. The twin Sawyer Glaciers at Although COVID-19 caused the end of Tracy Arm are framed by mountains the cancellation of Klugh’s 2020 on either side and bathed in a light mist that event, at press time, his team was amplifies the blue hue of the ice. I share in the planning stages for his 2022 John Muir’s written observation that it Weekend of Jazz at The Broadmoor. is “one of the most dramatically stunning Koz’s 2020 and 2021 sailings were fjords of Southeast Alaska.” also postponed due to the pandemic, In Skagway, we rode the train through the White Pass & Yukon but he’s back at sea with two, sold-out, full-ship charters to Amsterdam Route Railway, admiring spectacular views of Glacier Gorge and and the British Isles in May. And, Jazz on the Vine, which is also White Pass, while Koz and ukulele master Jake Shimabukuro hopped happening in May, sold out in March. from car to car serenading all of the passengers. Sadly, the Great Waikoloa Food, Wine & Music Festival and However, my first rail adventure was actually on the 2002 Bermuda Music Festival are no longer. The SS Norway was sold for JazzTrax party train to Sunriver, Oregon. I booked a deluxe sleeper scrapping in 2006. And, JazzTrax producer Art Good discontinued car on Amtrak’s Coast Starlight for the 26-hour excursion from his party train excursions and pared down his event production Los Angeles to Chemult, Oregon. The scenery was as spectacular to only the Catalina Island JazzTrax Festival, which is celebrating its as the camaraderie and entertainment. Daytime views encompassed 35th year in October. stretches of the Pacific Ocean and shoreline until the terrain transitioned Back in my hometown, after a two-year hiatus, the San Diego into lush forests, back country meadows and the occasional rustic farm Smooth Jazz Festival returns to America’s Finest City for its fourth house with grazing livestock. annual event in June. This year, it will be held at the Rady Shell at After a gourmet meal in the formal dining car at sunset, gypsy Jacobs Park, a stunning new waterfront venue with an acoustically violin and guitar duo Willie and Lobo boarded the train in Santa engineered stage, terraced seating, permanent restrooms and views Barbara, followed by guitarist Joyce Cooling and keyboardist Jay of the harbor, downtown, yachts, the San Diego-Coronado Bridge Wagner, who joined us in Oakland. After they settled in, we spent the and Coronado Island. evening in the Parlour car listening to them jam and tell stories. With all of the exciting traveling I’ve done, it will be a treat to The next morning when I pulled my curtains open, I was hit with enjoy the beauty of what’s in my own backyard, and share it with the magnificence of Mount Shasta and other snow-covered peaks other smooth jazz-loving friends. I invite you to check out our in the Cascade Range. After absorbing some awestruck moments, Annual Jazz Festival & Cruise Guide in this issue and plan your next I followed the aroma of fresh coffee brewing and decadent morning smooth jazz adventure.

Holland America tour excursion to Tracy Arm Fjord during an Alaska cruise