Another "please help with a dinner playlist" request!!

December 6, 2021 9:18 AM

I'll try not to add too many snowflakes even though it's December!! ;) I'm in need a playlist. It's for my wedding this weekend (yes, I know...nothing like last minute, right?) so thank you for any suggestions! I've looked at previous "dinner playlist" questions and I was able to cull some ideas.

I'll try not to add too many snowflakes even though it's December!! ;)

I'm in need a playlist. It's for my wedding this weekend (yes, I know...nothing like last minute, right?) so thank you for any suggestions! I've looked at previous "dinner playlist" questions and I was able to cull some songs, so here are some clues/snowflakes/parameters...for whatever they're worth...

1. has to be from I-tunes
2. sunset wedding into night party
3. being held in our backyard and indoors/outdoors, fire pits, screened in porch, etc.
4. around 45 people, youngest 16 yrs and oldest is 90
5. for ceremony, we are having a string quartet (from a local high school - yay!) who are playing mostly well-known classical pieces
6. will switch to iPod playlist after musicians are done
7. looking for instrumental only - along the lines of jazz, dinner party-ish, cocktail hour-ish, although I don't want anything that gets screechy and will make us have to run for the volume button!!
8. looking for chilled cool music but I don't want to put guests to sleep (the music I love to listen to would put them to sleep)
9. can be anything ranging from smooth jazz (i guess that is what I'm looking for?) or ambient, chilled grooves
10. prefer instrumental over lyrics


I know these are all over the place, but here are some samples of tunes that we LOVE.

1. Khruangbin - specifically Como Me Quieres and Texas Sun - LOVE the vibe; their other songs were ok
2. Lana Del Ray - Salvatore
3. Shigeru Umebayash - In the mood for love (LOVE LOVE LOVE)
4. LOVE Emancipator, specifically older stuff and Time for Space (again, chilled groovy groove)
5. Van Morrison - Moon Dance is always a good go-to


Any suggestions, comments, ideas? Too scattered? HELP! I could be thinking about this too much..

Thank you all so much - you've really come through for recommendations for me on other stuff in the past!

posted by foxhat10 to Grab Bag (3 answers total)

Instrumentally, Grant Green's music is great for this sort of setting, IMO. Check out albums like Feelin' the Spirit, Goin' West, Idle Moments, and Street of Dreams (among many others).

"Chill, but lively" is how I'd describe it.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 12:40 PM on December 6, 2021

Gotan Project (some of their stuff is instrumental, some is not) - I particularly love their version of Paris, Texas but it might be a little too chilled for the event
Ibrahim Ferrer is some of my favorite dinner party music but is vocal
Thievery Corporation was standard for chilled groovy music for a long time

Six Degrees Records has a ton of stuff in this genre.

Due to Metafilter word censorship, I can't recommend the actual search string, but if you go to the Wikipedia page for "jazz manouche" you'll find the commonly used term for a genre that I would recommend that you look into.

Also, per the comment about Thievery Corporation being a standard, just searching for compilations that they're on or "bands like" will turn up a ton of related music.
posted by Candleman at 1:26 PM on December 6, 2021

I've always considered the Bill Evans albums Explorations, Waltz for Debby, and Sunday at the Village Vanguard to be perfect dinner party music. Beautiful, melancholic piano jazz.
posted by saladin at 2:42 PM on December 6, 2021 [1 favorite]