{"id":15998,"date":"2013-01-23T01:02:37","date_gmt":"2013-01-23T09:02:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cruisingdoneright.com\/?p=15998"},"modified":"2013-01-23T01:02:37","modified_gmt":"2013-01-23T09:02:37","slug":"wednesday-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/?p=15998","title":{"rendered":"A Peek Inside a Slam Show"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the first of his two 90-minute sets that evening, "The Soul Working Man" kneeled before a cruise passenger, took her hand and sang a moving tribute. Before returning to the stage to continue his rollicking, impromptu show he explained to the other passengers that this woman wasn't supposed to be there.<\/span><\/p>\n

"She's been walking with Mr. C," Slam Allen said. "I know what that's like because my father walked with Mr. C before he died."<\/span><\/p>\n

His defiant challenge to cancer was a touching moment in what is otherwise a show that jump-starts passengers into singing and dancing on the Norwegian<\/a> Epic, twice every evening, six nights a week, eight months a year. Slam Allen is the headliner at Fat Cats <\/em><\/span>Jazz & Blues Club<\/em>, and has been since the Epic<\/a> arrived in June 2010.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most nights, his shows are standing room only.<\/span><\/p>\n

Allen is not sure why, but he has an idea, just like he's not sure what each show is going to be like…but he has an idea.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Everything's all improv," he explains. "I have a set list of about 200 songs and I pick and choose. When I feel the mood is right, I throw in a song. I learned to do that from research. When I play, I ask myself what would make people feel good, and that's what I do. When I see the crowd is starting to get a little down, I play something a little fast. Every night is different."<\/span><\/p>\n

Over more than two decades of doing this, the 46-year-old native of Monticello in upstate New York has slowly realized why people come to see him and his four-man Slam Allen Band.<\/span><\/p>\n

It's Slam, being Slam.<\/span><\/p>\n

"I'm packing that room every week and sometimes it amazes me — how do I do it? Pack this room every week, with different people and have the same result? Finally, bing, 'It's you. It's who you are, who you always wanted to be.' That's the truth. The person you see on that stage, that's me. Come to my house and you'll see. I'm the same. I like to laugh."<\/span><\/p>\n

As much as he laughs, there's a serious side to what made him — and continues to make him — Slam Allen<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

"I had a spiritual awakening," he says. "The short version is it opened me up, to be able to feel, to feel other people's energy, and be able to take mine and give it back to people. As recently as a few weeks ago, it gave me a better understanding of what I was doing and how I was doing it, how I was affecting people. I had it all my life but I just realized it. Since I was a kid, people just liked me…and I didn't understand why. People always gravitated to me, always wanted me around and as I got older, I realized I have this gift to make people happy and feel good around me. It comes from up above and comes through me, goes through my music. That's how I broadcast, through my music."<\/span><\/p>\n

Spawned by listening to legends George Benson (jazz) and B.B. King (blues), his music has also been influenced by Ray Charles and Sammy Davis, Jr.<\/span><\/p>\n

He puts it into focus this way:<\/span><\/p>\n

"My style is a combination of both blues and jazz. I say blues is the father of it. Jazz came along and sophisticated it. Ray Charles put the gospel influence into blues and made people go nuts. Some people were very angry with him, because blues was always known as the devil's music. Jazz made it acceptable, cleaned it up and sophisticated it. Lot of people loved that style. That's what really defined Ray Charles.<\/span><\/p>\n

"Sammy Davis Junior…when I saw his passion, it brought tears to my eyes. He sang, he danced, he did impressions, he twirled a gun. He did so many things that you could tell this is what he was made to do. It was his passion. That's what I put in my mind…all-around entertainment that just makes people happy.  I'm one of the last of a breed of live entertainment with the true original form of music, which is the blues. Blues spawned a lot of music, like soul, rhythm and blues, funk, rock 'n roll. I try to cover it all."<\/span><\/p>\n

Tomorrow: Where is this Epic legend heading?<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\tNorwegian Pearl<\/a>
\n\t7 nights
\n\tSeptember 21, 2013
\n\tSeattle<\/a>, Juneau<\/a>, Skagway<\/a>, Ketchikan<\/a>, Victoria<\/a>, Vancouver<\/a>
\n\tInside: $499
\n\tCost per day: $71<\/strong><\/span>
\n\twww.ncl.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the first of his two 90-minute sets that evening, "The Soul Working Man" kneeled before a cruise passenger, took her hand and sang a moving tribute. Before returning to the stage to continue his rollicking, impromptu show he explained to the other passengers that this woman wasn't supposed to be there. "She's been walking… Continue reading A Peek Inside a Slam Show<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[45,912,72,204,35,29,1156,126,425,1157],"class_list":["post-15998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stories","tag-alaska","tag-cruise-bargains","tag-cruise-deals","tag-cruise-ship-entertainment","tag-cruises","tag-epic","tag-fat-cats-jazz-blues-club","tag-norwegian","tag-norwegian-pearl","tag-slam-allen","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15998\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}