Dinner Music 95: The weekly lineup
cool jazz fusion, bossa nova pop, folk nostalgia
This week we’re listening to songs that feel a little like nostalgic bliss. What’s bliss to you? To me, these songs and albums are like listening to records with a glass of wine, alone, enjoying it, letting your heart wrench, just a little bit, and feeling as though you are in the exact right place, right then. We move through jazz standards, bossa nova, folk-funk, acid jazz, tropicalia, avant-pop. All a little bit soft, all a little bit oddball, in their own right.
We start with the internet’s darling of neoclassical jazz, Laufey. Bewitched is like listening to the Great American Songbook in your dreams. The songs romp through small town girl arrives in the big city kind of feeling — it’s hopelessly romantic and romantically hopeful. If you are in the mood for daydreaming, start here. We take those romantic feelings and travel back in time over half a century to Look to the Rainbow, Astrud Gilberto’s stylish and smooth album, a honeyed bossa nova classic. The sweetness of Gilberto’s voice soaks into the sonic atmosphere of each arrangement, giving the tracks a wistful catharsis, with the exception of “Bim Bom,” which acts as the albums dance sequence, breaking up the winding feelings for a moment of pure joy. We move into Laura Allen, a Bay Area musician, best known for her string instrumentation, primarily playing the zither and dulcimer. Allen also made instruments, both for herself and others, including for David Crosby and Joni Mitchell. Her self-titled album blends yacht rock, new age, avant-folk, chamber pop, building a sense of sentimentality and softness with each track. Her vocals drip with a sense of searching, that California longing for the soul. Don’t miss this one. One of the best things about jazz is session recordings. Putting a few masterful musician in a room, just to see what happens. In Green We Dream is the result of a three day session between Tim Carman, Jimmy James and Adam Scone, three mastercraftmen in jazz. This organ-forward session is all killer, no filler. If you like your jazz with a little bit of psychedelia, start here. We end with an album recorded by California professor James Benson, who wanted to capture the spirit of his students in 1973. Taking inspiration from a recent trip to Africa and blending with the radical jazz of the time, the album is “a unique foray into the enthusiastic mindset of up-and-coming jazz musicians.”
Enjoy.
The playlist
Paid subscribers have access to the full Dinner Music archive (via Spotify, Apple Music coming soon!), an after hours playlist, a “New York Grooves” playlist and more — hundreds of hours of groove, soul, jazz, folk, samba, hi-life, disco, electro, post-punk, funk and more, thoughtfully curated.
Monday
Bewitched - Laufey (2023)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Tuesday
Look to the Rainbow - Astrud Gilberto (1966)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Wednesday
Laura Allen - Laura Allen (1972)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Thursday
In Green We Dream - Parlor Greens (2024)
Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Friday
The Gow-Dow Experience - Prof. James Benson (1973)
Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Pair with:
Spaghetti and Ramps. Simple and very good!
Anjou Blanc. 100% Chenin Blanc, crisp and summer, through and through. Pairs with pretty much anything in my un-educated opinion.
These color block taper candle holders. I think the easiest thing you can do to make any night or day more romantic is add taper candles.
Eli Escobar’s Romance Thursdays playlist. This is a great late-night pairing for the music this week. Plus, if you’re in New York, go to Gabriela on Thursday (or any day!).
A read of Eat The Document. Love a novel with an ear tuned to the way music is part of the atmosphere of our lives. “As I sat at Gage’s feet—black light hurting my eyes, listening against my will to the perverse whispers of Bryan Ferry—I wondered if my life was going to be one immersion after another, a great march of shallow, unpopular popular culture infatuations that don’t really last and don’t really mean anything.”
Thank you, thank you. Have a great week.