The Floating Jazz Festival
In 1983 our production company, HOSS, Inc., produced the first Floating Jazz festival aboard the legendary S/S Norway, then the largest ocean liner afloat. Overnight this festival became the largest and most prestigious jazz festival at sea. For the next fifteen years the S/S Norway set sail every fall for periods of two to four weeks filled with thousands of jazz fans and the most astounding group of musicians ever assembled on an ocean liner. The Floating Jazz Festival transferred to the equally legendary Queen Elizabeth 2 in 1998 and continued to its 20th Anniversary sailing in 2002.
In the twenty years of the festival I had unfettered access to all the musicians on board, most of whom I’d worked with for many years. My camera was always ready and I took advantage of every opportunity for spontaneous and structured photographs. The photographs presented here are but a tiny fraction of the many thousands that exist from two decades of music on the high seas.
