{"id":16,"date":"2026-09-08T18:05:50","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T18:05:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chicagojazzcruises.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/08\/how-our-musicians-build-a-set-list-for-the-water\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T18:05:50","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T18:05:50","slug":"how-our-musicians-build-a-set-list-for-the-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chicagojazzcruises.com\/index.php\/articles\/how-our-musicians-build-a-set-list-for-the-water\/","title":{"rendered":"How Our Musicians Build a Set List for the Water"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A set on the river is not the same as a set in a club. Nobody is dancing, the room is moving, and every few minutes something spectacular happens outside the music. Here is how our bandleaders plan around that.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Start in the middle<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The first tune is almost always a medium swing standard, something like &#8220;Just Friends&#8221; or &#8220;There Will Never Be Another You.&#8221; It is familiar, it is relaxed, and it gives the band a chance to hear how the deck sounds that night before committing to anything delicate.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Play to the bridges<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The river section has a rhythm of its own: a bridge every couple of minutes, each with its own echo. Bandleaders save the ballads for the stretch between Michigan Avenue and the lock, where the walls are tall and a single horn line can hang in the air for a full bar.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Let the lake have its moment<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The band stops when the boat clears the lock. It is a rule. The skyline reveal is the one thing on the cruise that music cannot improve, so the musicians put their instruments down and look too.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Finish warm<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The last set builds to one or two uptempo numbers and then lands softly, usually on a tune everyone knows. The boat comes back under the bridges with the band playing something quiet, and more often than not the deck sings the last chorus along with them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A boat is a strange stage. Our bandleader explains how tempo, bridges and the lock all shape what gets played and when.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-onboard-jazz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chicagojazzcruises.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chicagojazzcruises.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chicagojazzcruises.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chicagojazzcruises.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chicagojazzcruises.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chicagojazzcruises.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chicagojazzcruises.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chicagojazzcruises.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chicagojazzcruises.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}