Dinner Party Series: Thanksgiving Dinner
To those just planning to search "thanksgiving jazz music" on Spotify an hour before people come over: Let's get you some good music!
Here’s my problem with using whatever music you find after looking up “dinner jazz music playlist” for your Thanksgiving dinner: a lot of the jazz in those playlists feels way too romantic for a Thanksgiving dinner. Thanksgiving music should feel festive. We’re kissing December here, folks, and there is no festivity in a slow song clearly meant for making horny eyes at your date over a table for two.
The playlist contains songs I used during my own Friendsgiving, which I hosted two years ago.
Within this playlist is music that is:
Still traditional jazz music. I’m not getting funky in this playlist. You’ll find Chet Baker, Oscar Peterson, Vince Guaraldi, and Bill Evans. (I promise you will not have a guest drop their silverware and go, “Sorry, what are we listening to?”)
A little more up-tempo—music that trots or swings and does not crawl. I find that this tempo of music stimulates conversation.
Again, this is not distracting music and is very traditional “Ooh, I feel so cozy and jazzy” music! But in each song, there will always be a few instruments going at once. This is good because, if for some reason your Thanksgiving dinner has some awkward silences (God, I really hope this is not happening for you), at least the air around you will feel slightly busy while this music plays.
Two songs with vocals (one from one of my favorite jazz albums of all time), but the rest are instrumental.
If you like some songs more than others on this playlist, I recommend making a playlist of your own using what you find here! If you want more of that Chet Baker sound, grab more songs from that album!
As promised for free subscribers, the first song is free.
“September In The Rain” - The Eddie Higgins Trio (2008)
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Frankly, I’d be surprised if you’ve heard of The Eddie Higgins Trio. I don’t think they’re all that big. But during the pandemic, I gave myself the mighty task of clicking around the internet and Spotify for hours, looking for Christmas music that sounded as close to the Vince Guaraldi Trio as I could get. And I landed on The Eddie Higgins Trio’s Christmas albums. There’s a lot of music on Spotify that tries to emulate the Peanuts Christmas album, and I find none of it matches in terms of actual musical skill—it never quite lands the way Vince does.
To get the entire Thanksgiving Dinner playlist, subscribe to Grace Spelman Music Project for just $5/month or $50/year! It’s tons of specially curated music sent straight to your inbox every week. What’s not to love!