The Blue Band:
Andre Berry - Basses
Randy Jacobs - Guitars
Ron Reinhardt - Keys (Welcome Back Ronnie!!)
Ramon Yslas - Percussion
Jay WIlilams - Drums

This year the cruise was a whirlwind for me. My lifelong, best friend, Darryl Ricardo Johnson, passed away on January 11th, 2010 and from that moment on, I have been walking in a daze. Coincidentally, the cruise this year was dedicated to the memory and music of Wayman Tisdale, and so the heartfelt perfomances and compassionate feelings that were going around, had extra meaning for me. At times it was hard to hold my bass.

Darry and I met at 6 months olds, lived as next door neighbors and best friends all the way thru high school, were college roomates, and along with friends Dana Anderson and Rick Marks started a band after one year of college named Gratitude that became very popular in Cleveland up until the time I moved to LA. Darry played trumpet & keys and was a really good songwriter. We watched 3 of the last 4 super bowls on my couch and I stayed at his mothers house when I last went to my hometown of Cleveland. Darry was a good good person. A kind, gentle soul. He will be missed more than words could ever express....Every note out of my bass was and will be dedicated to my buddy and his family...Maybe notes can express my feelings better than words.

The music for the cruise started rolling in to us sidemen in December, with most artists doing a fantastic job of getting us accurate charts and recordings to learn their music from. Peter Whiteís charts were immaculate, Jeff Golubís charts were good, Brian Simpson is always on top of his game, but of course their were a few exceptions. A few of the artists didnít have accurate charts and we had to spend vast amounts of time, transcribing their complicated live arrangements. I only mention this to show you the tough side of your job. It makes it even worse, when they don't have charts and they look at you like "you don't know this stuff??! I sent you a recording so you could transcribe it!!" I count it as inexperience. When you only have one 3 hour rehearsal to pull your entire live show together, it pays you back in the end to have accurate charts for the musicians, especially when they are learning 80 songs or so from 8 different acts. One artist didn't even have live recordings for us to transcribe from. This makes is incredibly hard to do a good job because, we had to learn all the complex arrangements in the 3 hour rehearsal, remember it for showtime and not have anything to listen to to remind us of what we learned in rehearsal. Whew! Of course, then before showtime, they are the ones all in a panic about how things are going to go and want to try do extra rehearsal on the ship...while the artists that came in prepared are relaxed and have a great time. Makes sense eh?

The upside of our job is the good times when the music is clicking, and the people feel the vibration coming off the stage. In my opinion the highlight this year was the Wayman Tisdale tribute show. It featured each artist aboard the ship, participating on one of Waymans songs, with Marcus Miller as the ring leader. Each song was heartfelt and passionate with the climax being Wayman's signature song "Ain't no Stoppin' us Now" The boat was rockin' in rhythm. The added beautiful touch was that Wayman's wife Regina was on board along with his son, daughter and longtime friend and drummer Arthur Thompson. I imagine it was hard to hear all of his music, but at the same time to see how he was celebrated must have been special too. I hope so...

I have to take a moment to talk about Marcus Miller. I think we all know he is a great, great musician, but not only is he great, he is cool too. He ís relaxed and fun onstage. To me, he is the Michael Jordan of the bass world. I got a real kick out of hearing him and playing along with him and it was good for me. I got to really see his patient execution, his finesse and his confidence. I can honestly say he is the most talented musician I have ever been around. On this cruise he seemed even more relaxed than he did on the previous two cruises. I have a theory. A lot of jazz musicians have a slanted view of Smooth Jazz musicians, because Smooth Jazz is really instrumental pop and R&B. There are Jazz inflections here 'n' there, but it is more Pop than Jazz and so musicians that are heavy in the jazz world come into Smooth Jazz not thinking very much of it. But the thing with Smooth Jazz is the live performances, not the radio. The radio falls short and people always tell me,"Wow! the music has so much more energy live!! why are the records so tame?!" Well that ís because Clear Channel controls the programming on Smooth Jazz radios and it won't play a song if it stands out too much. They need it to be watered down. As they told Warren Hill about the song "Still in Love"..."It has a high note in the solo and it will distract people in the work place and make them pay attention. We need it to be a flatline and not draw attention to itself" Thats a novel thought...make music nobody will pay attention to...hmmm. That seems like the opposite of what you are supposed to do to have a career right? Well that's the game of Smooth Jazz radio. But live, the musicians make up for it. We make up for it in our energy, in our performance, in our stage antics, within our grooving, and within our relating to the people. We make the music come alive with passion and fire and that ís what keeps the people coming back for more, (so I am told by fans.)

So Marcus Miller, George Duke and David Sanborn hear the radio and go..."This stuff is watered down".. but then they get on the boat and see that we are having fun live. We are reaching the people and I really do think they have fun along with us. It seems that way anyway. Marcus came in and seemed to have a good time. His vibration just added into the height of the whole thing and in my opinion capped it all off. It was great to have him.

And so even thru my pain, the cruise was a success. From Peter White, to Jeff Golub, to Ledisi, to Eric Darius, to Brian Simpson, to the passenger Star Search, to playing in Waymans' ( and for me, Darry's) memory, we had a inspirational, heartfelt time.

As I sit and think about the loss of my friend and Wayman this past year, it shows me, life is fragile and life can be short. This tells me to make sure those you love, knowthat you do. Express yourself. Make sure they know. Play music and live life like it could be your last breath or someone's close to you. In the blink of an eye it could all change...
God bless,

Andre

Darryl Ricardo Johnson 12/24/60 - 1/11/10. R.I.P.