Dinner Music 62: Friendsgiving edition
erotic funk, waterscape jazz, easy listening afro-latin soul
The sounds this week are about giving. I’m hosting Friendsgiving on Wednesday and wanted to craft a playlist that was the right blend of upbeat, funky, folk, dreamy, Americana and global groove. The order of the albums is meant to match what you might be doing this week, to pair well with relaxing, preparing or hosting.
We begin with a simple, jazzy album that sounds like adult contemporary music in the early 2000s in the best way — think Norah Jones or Gillian Welch. It’s easy listening for easing your way into the holiday week. The next album has been described as ‘a slow cooker of unbridled lust that teases and passes each beat, and flicks and licks each chord.’ Betty Davis may be the second wife of Miles Davis, but that is perhaps the only arena in which she’s considered second. Her eventual separation from Davis was spurned because he thought she was having an affair with Jimi Hendrix, but Davis did concede in his memoir that Davis was responsible for an entire era of his musical explorations. A firecracker, sure as shooting. Luiz Melodia’s album Maravilhas Contemporâneas takes samba and injects it with soul and funk to build something both listenable and surprising. The Brazilian native was largely a recording industry outsider, so his sound is untainted and original, meant to evoke his own interests and predispositions. We move onto the opposite — recording industry legend Herbie Hancock’s album with Kimiko Kasai, Japan’s first lady of jazz. The music is sexy and crisp, diegetic Hollywood party scene sounds. This album first appeared in Dinner Music last year and is one that people still bring up to me from time to time. If you’re looking for something that might change your life, start here. We end upbeat, with Humble B Flat’s album inspired by his time teaching music in Uganda and traveling to countries along the Mediterranean. It’s fun. Trust me.
Enjoy.
The playlist is here.
Paid subscribers have access to the full Dinner Music archive — 75 hours of groove, soul, samba, disco, electro, post-punk, funk and more. It’s the perfect companion to hours of prep and hosting for the holidays.
Monday
Blissful, easy sounds to ease out of the work week and into holidays
Escondida - Jolie Holland (2004)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Tuesday
Sexy sounds to listen to while drinking wine after you slam your laptop shut
Betty Davis - Betty Davis (1973)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Wednesday
Funky, upbeat sounds for Thanksgiving prep or Friendsgiving
Maravilhas Contemporâneas - Luiz Melodia (1976)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Thursday
Easy, breezy album that is equal parts unassuming and crowd-pleaser
Butterfly - Kimiko Kasai, Herbie Hancock (1979)
Friday
Dreamy, fun sounds for good times with friends on a blissful Friday off
Source of the Nile - Humble B Flat (2022)
Bandcamp / Spotify / YouTube / Other streaming services
Pair with:
Melissa Clarke’s Gratin. This is the best gratin recipe on the internet. It’s a crowd pleaser, everyone likes potatoes and cheese. It’s traditional thanksgiving family friendly and inventive enough for a casual friends giving free of expectation.
Frito pie. Trust me, everyone loves this!! Buy the 1oz frito bags and this is just fun as hell to do for friendsgiving. It goes with everything, is easy to make, serves a lot of people. For vegetarians, sub in chickpeas, cucumber and curry powder or garam masala and you have a great indian-style alternative.
Swedish cardamom buns. I had one of these for the first time in Copenhagen and my life was forever changed. They are just… so good. Cardamom? So good, underrated. They are moderately easy to make, just watch videos on how to do the twisting. Supposedly in Kansas its a thing to put chili on cinnamon rolls, so… you could put it on this?
Pumpkin goat cheese wontons. I love a non-traditional thanksgiving dish, because my honest opinion is that most holiday food sucks. These are a really nice homage to thanksgiving, without actually being that, and being something so, so much better.
Tempura green beans with curry mayo. Green beans, but make them good.
From The Tank box wine. A natural box wine that is a really good table wine. There’s a lot of it, it’s like $35 bucks a box.
Boy Smells' Banana Pudding candle. The perfect conversation starter!
This banger of an article on our obsession with self-care. ‘We’re sedating women with self-care’ and ‘Wellness is ever present in lives increasingly lived in crisis.’ Woof.
Visual musings
Thank you, thank you. Have a great week.