Dinner Music 96: The weekly lineup
songs that take their time, psychedelic jazz-rock, experimental ambient
If you’re in San Francisco, I’ll be DJing as 1/2 of Horse Opera at Mothership on Friday. Come say hi!
This week we’re listening to songs that take their time. A few weeks ago, Bill Callahan released a new album and most of the songs were long, six minutes or more. I like the way long songs shift and break down, they become new songs, morph back into the familiar, re-invent themselves again. They are inherently unfriendly to the algorithm, something I generally avoid talking about, because so many people do it much better than me (like Shawn Reynaldo who writes First Floor). I don’t think a track or album has value specifically because it is unfriendly to the dominant forces of our time, but I do think it reveals a certain way of saying fuck you that can correlate with making really good art. What do you think of first when you think long songs? Jazz? Disco? House? We’ve got all of those, plus experimental, groove, funk, psych rock, highlife, indie folk.
We begin with Ron Everett, who was featured last summer. The album embodies that fuck you ideal as a DIY jazz album released at the height of disco in 1977, with low-grade grit and a controlled, yet frenetic energy that bounces the sound around. The cover was xeroxed and he sold the album on the streets of Philly himself, a true artist. It’s been a while since my jaw dropped while listening to a new song, but I found myself picking my mouth up off the floor when I first heard No One in the World from Locust’s album Morning Light. An amnesia surrounds the moment, too — I don’t even remember how I found it. The album is a tour de force through ambient, experimental music of the late 1990s. A little bit melancholic, with a lot of texture and sounds pulled from all genres, it’s a great album for a long drive. We move into the “fantastic, funky jazz sound” of Hilton Felton, Washington DC-native and Hammond B3 master. The sounds are in-between — pulling from the late sixties and foreshadowing the late seventies, with cool pulsing rhythms and a rounded-out, big-band feel, as if the tracks were too big for the recorded realm, begging to be let free. With Yussef Dayes, we get the modern version of this feeling. Black Classical Music is Dayes’ debut solo album and sprints toward a vision of sound that is encompassing, decidedly anti-genre, while paying homage to the greats before. Really good jazz isn’t jazz at all. It’s something entirely new. We end with the aforementioned Bill Callahan record, Resuscitate! A fellow Austinite, Callahan has long been a must-listen for me.
Enjoy.
The playlist:
Monday
The Glitter of the City - Ron Everett (1977)
Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Tuesday
Morning Light - Locust (1997)
Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Wednesday
A Man For All Reasons - Hilton Felton (1980)
Bandcamp / Spotify / YouTube / Other streaming services
Thursday
Black Classical Music - Yussef Dayes (2023)
Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Friday
Resuscitate! - Bill Callahan (2024)
Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Pair with
Eggplant parm. You need many long songs to make eggplant parm well, from the drying out of the eggplant to the frying to the baking. A long recipe, but a rewarding one.
Tomato martini. Lately, I feel like everyone is saying fuck it to traditional or sensical flavors and why not? No idea if this is good but I’m interested.
Listening party for Chuck Johnson’s upcoming album. If you like the pedal steel, you’ll like Chuck Johnson.
The Swimmer by John Cheever. I’m in denial that we’re mid-way through August, that the end of summer is visible on the horizon.
Thank you, thank you.
Like I mentioned, I’ll be in San Francisco this week. Send me your recommendations! Looking for great record and vintage stores!
shout out to yussef dayes' "pon di plaza." one of my most played songs since it came out.