Jazz Cruises Conversations

Lee Mergner has been one of the more prominent jazz journalists working in America for decades, and Jazz Cruises Conversations gives him an unusual setting to conduct interviews: aboard The Jazz Cruise, Blue Note at Sea, Botti at Sea, and The Smooth Jazz Cruise. The logistics matter because they change the dynamic. When an artist is sailing somewhere warm with no other obligations, the conversations tend to be more relaxed and candid than your average press-cycle interview conducted in a hotel room. Across 100 episodes released between 2019 and 2025, Mergner has sat down with jazz royalty. Emmet Cohen, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and dozens of other artists have given interviews that reflect the informal atmosphere of a floating jazz festival. Episodes run bimonthly and clock in at varying lengths depending on how deep a conversation goes. The audio captures some of the ambient energy of the cruise setting, which adds texture rather than detracting from clarity. The 5.0-star rating from 16 reviews suggests the niche audience this show reaches finds it thoroughly satisfying. What makes the show interesting beyond the novelty of the setting is how the cruise context reveals different sides of artists. Performers who have given hundreds of interviews often seem genuinely at ease here, willing to talk about their relationship with specific repertoire, their collaborators, and what they're actually listening to when nobody's asking them about it. If you're a jazz fan who has ever wondered what it would be like to have a real conversation with a working musician rather than a promotional one, this podcast approximates that experience fairly well.