Suppose you need a playlist for an important cocktail hour. This cocktail hour could make or break you. Quickly you head home and select your favorite songs, burn them onto a CD and create an hour long mix. Content with your mix, you put it on full blast and subject everyone to your secret love of death metal. People look at each other with unease as you sing “And the liars with be thrown into the funeral pyre” both ruining your chances at impressing others and ripping off The Doors’ lyrics.
Cocktail hours consist of people pretending to like jazz, a genre they otherwise avoid. Usually you hear endless renditions of a few jazz musicians’ greatest hits as the audience nods in agreement. None of them will ever be exposed or even willing to check out jazz outside of these various social functions.
What function this playlist serves then is twofold:
To serve as an acceptable group of songs that you can get “buzzed” or “politely intoxicated” to. Being “politely intoxicated” takes a lot of skill, and generally means avoiding any potentially awkward situations while remaining coherent. I can’t teach this talent, but it requires hours of practice.
Secondly, it should show off some classic artists and some that otherwise would remain unheard. It packs a punch in the right places and presents an eclectic, yet tasteful, mix. This is not intended to shock, but it is intended to increase interest in whatever it is you’re trying to steal (yourself, your personality, your brand, and your product/project/book/etc.)
1. Wes Montgomery – West Coast Blues
This is probably the best opener I could find. Wes’s clean guitar playing and energetic (yet restrained) is a good way to open the quiet talking as the person with those sweet foods walks around. You sip a mixed drink of varying degrees of strength as you look for your favorite.
2. Red Norvo Trio – Night and Day
Vibraphone is one of those instruments made for YUPPIEs. Meeting the demand for an emotionally distant yet technically precise instrument, it is ideal for any cocktail hour. Besides, Red Norvo does a pretty good job with it, showing off his considerable skill with the instrument and is one of the few who tries to make it feel something.
3. Mulatu Astatké - Ené Alantchi Alnorem (I Can't Live Without You)
After the energy of the first two, this is the “beginning to get comfortable” song. Usually when you go to these things that first 8-10 minutes is what will make or break you. What Mulatu does is bring out those happy vibes and feelings of familiarity, that’s what he specializes in. Plus, if there’s a music snob there, you get some indie cred.
4. Jean-Claude Vannier - Danse Des Mouches Noires Gardes Du Roi
Vannier’s piece is pure confidence. You should be confident. That indie snob, if they’re a real indie snob, will probably give you a hug for this. It is a purely perfect song.
5. Washboard Rhythm Kings - Just Another Dream Of You
One of the most underrated artists I’ve ever had the pleasure to hear. Yes, those are actual washboards.
6. Henry Hall BBC Dance Orchestra - Waiting For A Call From You
I never get to mention this guy. Close to impossible to find any of his stuff, this is happy music. Giddy butterflies come out in the song, as he waits for a call from you. Yes, they had phones back then.
7. Art Tatum - Tea For Two
Art Tatum tends to impress. This is actually the only pure piano song on here; most are groups, duos, etc. No one notices, as the amount of work he puts in is equivalent to a small trio.
8. Duke Ellington – Warm Valley
Sure, Duke Ellington is an obvious choice. Whatever, you should be able to have one or two artists on here that people can say “Hey that sounds familiar”. Having the familiar near some of the lesser known artists makes the listener believe that they are either learning or already know a lot.
9. Os Ipanemas – Consolacao
This begins our “Bossa Nova” section. I know not everyone is a fan of this, but if those you’re trying to impress are either Bossa Nova freaks or Brazilian, this couldn’t hurt.
10. Antonio Carlos Jobim – The Red Blouse
Practically screaming cocktail hour, this defines the slight giddiness cocktail hour tries to achieve. The drum work is persistent, fast, but not intrusive.
11. João Gilberto, Stan Getz, Antonio Carlos Jobim - Desafinado (Off Key)
Here’s that other one that people are bound to know. By now the Brazil theme should be in full effect.
12. Walter Wanderley - Minha Saudade
Sure, Walter gets tagged as elevator music. I find that categorization grossly unfair. His music has a sense of fun and playful unique to him. Really, no one else does what he did half as well.
13. The Penguin Cafe Orchestra - Zopf: From the Colonies
Give these guys a chance. I realize that they aren’t from Brazil but their sunny music fits in well. It is a shame about the Englishness.
14. Novos Baianos - Brasil Pandeiro
What can I say, this is a celebratory song. The song breaks into pure colorful joy song in Portuguese.
15. Luiz Bonfa e Maria Toledo - Whistle Samba
Actually, there’s a good reason for putting this on. Each time I hear it I think about wandering around in Central Park, getting hopelessly lost. Some of my friends live up there, but they have more money than I do.
16. Sergio Mendes Trio - Vivo Sonhando
Most of the time Sergio Mendes specialized in cheesy Bossa Nova ‘pop’ covers. This is one of the few times I’ve heard him attempt something more serious. It is a real shame too, because it is an absolute wonderful song.
17. João Gilberto - Milagre
João has been on here before. In fact, so have most of the great Bossa Nova people (I wanted this to be an hour, so Astrid Gilberto, my apologies. But as much as I wanted to, “the Girl from Ipanema” is far too cliché a choice). The build on this song is great, and it sort of leads into a wonderful fade away of the music as the voices get closer and closer.
Overall, this would work in the following scenarios:
-Your boss is from Brazil
-You have somebody who used to work with Henry Hall when they were a kid. That would mean that person has lived an extremely long life.
-No one is a Sociology major (Sociology majors usually point out how Bossa Nova evolved from the Favela to more upscale neighborhoods and thus is a gentrification of sorts of more traditional music. Uff that)
Hopefully this will go over well at your next cocktail hour. I want to know how this works in a larger setting as well, so hopefully I can play it at a party. We’ll see.