Do You Remember JP Nadeau?

[GulfCoaster]

During our first cruise on the Veendam two years ago we had the pleasure of spending the evenings in the piano bar with JP Nadeau into the wee hours of the morning. He could play anything you requested and I even had the honor of being able to sing while he accompanied me! Wow!

 

We had been looking for him for some time and had posted months ago about his whereabouts. We were thinking that he might still be on the Veendam or somewhere on a HAL ship when we boarded the Veendam last December 10. That was not to be however and in my opinion he was very much missed.

 

However, being a fan, and with the help on a Cruise Critic friend (thanks Jessemon!) He has been found! He had been over on Celebrity for awhile and now he has been gigging at the Grand Hyatt in Seoul, Korea to great success!! He even has a new album out!

 

So for all the fans of JP I thought you might get a kick out of knowing where he is and what has been going on!

 

Since I won't be going to Korea anytime soon, I can only hope he will come back to HAL one day and we can catch him again onboard. IMHO he's the best!

 

Mike

[obriendan]

We remember him well. He was in the piano bar on our Ryndam Panama Canal cruise in October, 2000. Always enjoyed his crazy rendition of "Piano Man". Have one of his CD's, "Almost Famous". He posted on this board on March 11, 2005 (did a search for "Nadeau"). Wish he would return to HAL.

[elmorejj]

I also remember Jean-Paul with fondness. Wow! Seoul Korea is a long way from New Brunswick Canada!!.....jean:cool:

[jjones]

I've sailed with JP three times and wish he'd get back on either HAL or Princess (my two favorite lines). He's doing great in Seoul and now has a terrific web site - www.jpnadeau.com - with photos, biography, and lots more stuff. IMO he's the best entertainer I've ever seen on a ship with a very large repertoire and wonderful personality. He really adds to my enjoyment of a cruise, and my ordinary excitement and delight are already over the top before adding his bit.

[PathfinderEss]

Glad to see there are other fans of JP Nadeau still wanting him back on Hal. We have traveled with JP maybe 8 times, on three different cruise lines but its a bit far us to go to S. Korea. Like the rest of you, we are hopping JP will be back entertaining us on another cruise soon, and again like the rest of you, we think he is one of the best entertainers we have ever run into on or off a cruise ships.

[jessemon]

Hey Gulfcoaster,

Yes JP is live and well. Wife and I do the E-mail thing often with him. We even get a call once in a while. Even from Korea.

I will try to make this post as short as I can.

We met JP on the Ryndam in 2000 on the 2nd night of the cruise. We walked in to the piano bar after the main show and there were quite a few people there. At tables and the piano. There were two seats left right at the left of JP at the keyboard. When we walked in he was just finishing a tune and looked up and greeted us. He asked our names and introduced us to everyone else at the piano and then some. We sat and had a fun night. The next night my wife went to bed after the show (she gets up early, I don't) so I thought I would see if anyone was in the piano bar. Walked in and there were most of the same faces from the night before. JP looks at me coming through the door and says "Hey Jeff, where's Elaine?" Then again proceeds to introduce me to everyone again. Amazing that in two days he had learned everyones names. If someone new came in he'd do the same thing. The next night he remembered their name too.

He has been to our home several times in Tampa and we have done more than one outing when he was here on the Veendam. WE EVEN BOOKED ANOTHER CRUISE WITH HAL BECAUSE JP WAS ON IT...

I look at these posts to this point and see one thing in common. They all say, "JP IS AN ENTERTAINER."

At my age of 51, I have seen Old Blues Eyes, Wayne Newton, Sammy Davis Jr., Kenny Rogers and more. The thing you can always say about them is they entertained the people.

HAL is missing the boat. This is the type of entertainer you want on their line. Especially the Smaller ships. He plays well to the people.

I hope JP gets a chance to see this thread. I also hope that whoever checks these sites for HAL Notices what we are saying and listens. SIZE]

[PianoOrnament]

It was October 2003 and my first cruise. He made everyone that walked in the Piano Bar feel welcome. I don't know what I was doing the first night... I didn't discover the Piano Bar until the second night, from then on I was a fixture at the bar and on the piano (it's where I got the nickname). He let me live out my "Michelle Pfeiffer in The Fabulous Bakers Boys" fantasy -- minus the singing -- or I surely would have cleared the bar in an instant with my voice! I had such a fabulous time on that cruise that I book another HAL cruise 6 months later on the Maasdam. J.P was on it at the time I booked. But when cruise time came around he had been replaced. What a dissapointment! His replacement knew about 1/8 of the songs J.P knew and wasn't able to perform at a level even close to J.P. I've been on three more cruises since then, and none of the Piano Bars can live up to the level of entertainment that J.P provides. HAL needs to get him back! He is truly gem.

[GramaFran]

We met JP on our 2002 cruise through the Panama Canal. 18 nights of drinks in the piano bar. He does know every song I could think of and then some.

We really enjoyed our before dinner drinks listening and talking to him.

[PathfinderEss]

It was October 2003 and my first cruise. He made everyone that walked in the Piano Bar feel welcome. I don't know what I was doing the first night... I didn't discover the Piano Bar until the second night, from then on I was a fixture at the bar and on the piano (it's where I got the nickname). He let me live out my "Michelle Pfeiffer in The Fabulous Bakers Boys" fantasy -- minus the singing -- or I surely would have cleared the bar in an instant with my voice! I had such a fabulous time on that cruise that I book another HAL cruise 6 months later on the Maasdam. J.P was on it at the time I booked. But when cruise time came around he had been replaced. What a dissapointment! His replacement knew about 1/8 of the songs J.P knew and wasn't able to perform at a level even close to J.P. I've been on three more cruises since then, and none of the Piano Bars can live up to the level of entertainment that J.P provides. HAL needs to get him back! He is truly gem.

Thanks for posting the pictures, very nice. We totally agree with you he is truly a gem. It is to bad that Hal doesn't read these boards because I could give them an ear full about the really lousy piano players they have hired since JP. Not one has make me want to spend anytime in the bar, yet when JP was playing we spent the whole night drinking and listening to him. Seems like they have spent a lot of money upgrading bedding in the rooms, etc. but can't spend any money on good piano players. It really is a shame because Hal is one of the better cruise lines, but not when it comes to entertainment.

[GulfCoaster]

Jessemon:

 

I'm 53 so I'm 2 years older then you and have also seen the greats in person as well! IMHO JP really is an entertainer, no an Artist who ranks right up there with the best. And like the best, you just feel so great after listening to him do his stuff. You know you are in the presence of something special. He really does know just about every song there is and he NEVER USES A FAKE BOOK!

 

Like you guys, JP always remembered our names and when it would be real late and Christy had gone to sleep it would be JP, myself and a few passengers who would STILL be in the Piano Bar with him into the "wee" hours of the morning where he would do some of his own stuff (which is incredible to say the least). He was never in a hurry to "leave" and he sings in key, unlike what we just experienced on the Veendam 3 months ago in the Piano Bar. That was a very sad experience to say the least.

 

A short JP story: around the 3rd or so night of our first Veendam cruise I got the chance to sing in the Piano Bar and he accompanied me. It became a nightly request from other passengers for us to sing a duet or two. I'd challenge him with song choices and he knew them all. We'd sing songs that were not orginally meant to be a duet. We'd split parts and lyrics and harmonies and never miss a beat. We were so locked into what we were doing you'd have thought we'd worked together as a duo for years. When I knew I was going to go up on a lyric, I would just give him "the look" and he would feed me the words. Nobody ever caught this little ad-lib trick. He made me look like a star.

 

One night he sang the original version of "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do" and then had me come around the piano and sing something. I asked him to do the "slow version" of the same song and without missing a beat he played the exact same arrangement note for note that Neil Sedaka did when he covered his same song years later. Amazing! Here again, JP's an Artist so you wouldn't expect anything less from him!

 

Those are happy memories and what an honor it was to sing with him. As you can tell I am a big fan!! Seeing him again on a ship would be great but after the Korea gig, couldn't you just see him singing at a venue like Cafe Carlyle or Feinstein's At The Regency in NYC. Now that would be a show!

 

Mike

[jessemon]

Hey Mike,

I will try to be short. I didn't know JP painted. (I'm sorry...you ment musically) Just kidding. When we met him on the Ryndam he was usually playing piano still when the Crows Nest was slow late at night. That was fun.

Just a note...if you look at the set-up of the piano bar on the Ryndam as opposed to the Veendam you can actually see the piano player when walking past the piano bar. The piano faces the entry. On the Veendam it sets to the right of the entry. It seems if you want to put people in a room to spend their money, let them see what's going on. You again were right about the last piano player on the Veendam...she was not good or pleasent. IMHO.

I really think they need to rethink the set-up of this types of venue on this line. On other lines Carnival, RCCL, NCL, & Celebrity you can actually see them from the corridors. And hear them. Holland wants to bring down the age group of their line but they think the only way to do it is to put a disco on the new ships or turn up the music in the Crows Nest at night. They really have to focus on talant and location. Talant really helps.

OK...I'm done with my rant.:p

 

PianoOrnament...Please do me a favor...the next time you take a pic with JP, get the compact out and powder his forehead. I'm sorry...I meant his head.:D

Jeff

[adammahoney]

I actually hold the privelege of being best friends with JP's youngest daughter, nathalie. I go over all the time and when JP's home, he loves to play us any tune any time (free of charge, of course). JP's not just a great entertainer, he's a really cool guy too to know personally. Perhaps a little on the crazy side, but hey, it happens. He's loving it in Seoul, to give everyone an update. He's become quite the star there. He's planning on taking a wee break from the cruises for a while, just to switch things up a bit... but i'm pretty confident that he'll miss it before too long.

 

If you're reading this JP, can't wait to see/hear ya back in Woodstock this summer.

[PathfinderEss]

All of your experiences with JP sound very similar to ours. We met him the first part of Jan 2000 on a Mexico cruise. We had already been sailing with Hal for quite a while and it seemed like we kept running into Perry Grant at the piano bars. I really enjoy listening to him but DH was not as happy as I was. When we got on the Ryndam, I ask who the piano player was and someone told us he was a "new guy." That first evening, I went into the bar and said something smart ass like, "I love piano bars and if your any good, I will be here every night"... .. guess what I never left. I drag my husband in and then some new friends we met early on in the cruise and no one left the piano bar, we had such a great time, and as they say the rest is history. We've always tried to catch up with JP at least once a year on a cruise. Over the years he has introduce us to many other friends that were or have cruised with him and we have become good friends with several couples, that we still cruise with even now.

 

We love to cruise but JP has add so much more to the cruises we have been on together, he is such a talented, personable kind of guy, who makes everyone feel special, welcomed into his bar and he is not to shabby on those ivories either and can he ever sing, he has wonderful range ability.

I have no idea what these cruise lines are looking for in their entertainers, certainly it is not talent, maybe just a warm body who is cheap, but they are missing a bet not having JP on their ships. How many piano players do you know that have over 450 songs committed to memory and can acually carry a tune!

[JPNadeau]

Wow, Guys 'n' Gals! I am SO flattered and excited by your additions to this thread. I may be land-locked for a bit; getting spoiled in 5-star accommodations for the "help" here at the GRAND HYATT SEOUL. I know...it doesn't float... As Adam said, I know I'll miss cruising after a while and via my website that Judi told you about at jpnadeau.com I can keep you all informed as to when and where whatever is coming down for me. Melodie, you're SUCH a trooper! Jeff, just make sure you've got YOUR compac to powder my head next time, Marion will be too busy just sitting there on the piano, lookin' GOOD!... Thanks, Mike! This was quite the ego-boost. Toodles, y'all! JP:)

[laslo]

Our first cruise was an Alaska cruise on the Veendam in 2002. My wife rushed me away from dinner the second night out so we could play "Name That Tune" in the piano bar. We were too late to participate, but sat there and listened anyway. I am a semi-retired musician and had little exposure to JP's repertiore. I had played mostly rock, country, and funk. I was impressed with his musicianship on the little bits he was playing for the end of the NTT game, so, much to my wife's surprise, I suggested we stick around and listen. I was up singing with him by the end of the night. For the rest of the cruise it was "JP Time" after dinner 'til the wee hours. Since that time we've done Mexico, Western Caribbean, and a three day West Coast on Princess with him. PianoOrnament, we too had booked the Maasdam for the Canada/New England cruise expecting to be with JP again, but alas, instead we were subjected to a nasty-tempered amazon who thought that reverb would disguise the fact she couldn't sing. JP has made every cruise even more special. We had lunch with JP in the Lido on the Mexican cruise and were having so much fun that someone complained to the ship's doctor that we were all trashed and it wasn't even noon. Truth of the matter is none of us had imbibed at all. The ship's doctor and his wife then sat down for lunch with us because we were having so much fun. Here's hoping JP hears the call of the sea again sometime soon. We love you ya crazy Newbie!

[jessemon]

Wow, Guys 'n' Gals! I am SO flattered and excited by your additions to this thread. I may be land-locked for a bit; getting spoiled in 5-star accommodations for the "help" here at the GRAND HYATT SEOUL. I know...it doesn't float... As Adam said, I know I'll miss cruising after a while and via my website that Judi told you about at jpnadeau.com I can keep you all informed as to when and where whatever is coming down for me. Melodie, you're SUCH a trooper! Jeff, just make sure you've got YOUR compac to powder my head next time, Marion will be too busy just sitting there on the piano, lookin' GOOD!... Thanks, Mike! This was quite the ego-boost. Toodles, y'all! JP:)

Hope no one gets offended...

Hey JP, I got some cheeks you can powder...:eek:

Glad to see you checked in on this thread. It seems Elaine and I are not the only two cruisers that like you.:cool:

[PathfinderEss]

Nice to see your post Laslo, you've been away from the boards too long. Wonder who is going to be the piano player on your upcoming cruise?

jessemom, I'm not going to ask any questions about that comment, what happens between you and JP, stays between you and JP. I will leave it there.

Well, I can tell we are all in agreement that we love JP and we want him back on a cruiseship soon.

[jessemon]

jessemom, I'm not going to ask any questions about that comment, what happens between you and JP, stays between you and JP. I will leave it there.

Well, I can tell we are all in agreement that we love JP and we want him back on a cruiseship soon.

We'll never tell..:eek:

[JPNadeau]

We'll never tell..:eek:

 

what do you mean, "We..", Kimo Sabe ?

[PathfinderEss]

what do you mean, "We..", Kimo Sabe ?

 

Are you talking JP?

[jessemon]

what do you mean, "We..", Kimo Sabe ?

JP,

You are not wearing a "Kimono" Sabe over there are you?:p

How's the gig going...?

[furgy]

JP is back on the Veendam until Mar 10/07

[jessemon]

JP is back on the Veendam until Mar 10/07

furgy is correct.

Can't wait to cruise with a good piano bar entertainer. Already booked.

Jeff

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks furgy for the update on JP whereabouts......

What a treat to hear he is back on Hal's Veendam. Word is that his bar is the hottest place to be in the evenings! Anyone sailing on the Veendam is in for the best time if they love piano bars.

Furgy what is this I hear, your going on your first cruise? Your going to love it!

[jessemon]

Thanks furgy for the update on JP whereabouts......

What a treat to hear he is back on Hal's Veendam. Word is that his bar is the hottest place to be in the evenings! Anyone sailing on the Veendam is in for the best time if they love piano bars.

Furgy what is this I hear, your going on your first cruise? Your going to love it!

Sailing soon on the "V". Sailed with JP before. Has been to the house in the past I have seen him two or three times for the day in Tampa here recently. Had fun and a few toddies.