Shades of Soul EP 1.5: The Cocktail Hour by Oliver Wang on Mixcloud
I would have had this up earlier but ironically, for a set based around the cocktail hour at weddings, I was too busy getting ready for two different wedding gigs to knock this out until now.
The cocktail hour is this blurred zone in a typical wedding, it lacks the symbolic import of the ceremony that proceeds it but the music you play isn’t as innocuously background as during dinner. The fact that it tends to fall towards twilight only enhances its liminality. As such, the music I like to program tends to also fall between zones – not necessarily straight up slow jams but you don’t want to rock things out too uptempo either. I always use this time to play midtempo soul and jazz, something that has some pizzaz but is gentle in its ministrations rather than attention: grabbing. Here’s the playlist and be sure to visit Radio Sombra to hear my next show, this Friday at 2pm.
- Art Farmer: Soulsides
- Weldon Irvine: I Love You
- Bobby Caldwell: Open Your Eyes
- The Starlight’s: Going Out Of My Head
- Amerie: One Thing (Siik Remix)
- Menahan Street Band: Every Day A Dream
- The Peddlers: On A Clear Day
- Michael Jackson: We’ve Got a Good Thing Going
- Billy Stewart: I Do Love You (Live)
- Sly, Slick and Wicked: Confessin’ A Feelin’ (Live)
- RAMP: Daylight
- vKarkey and Woodward: Dirty Old Bossa Nova
- Ray Barretto: Pastime Paradise
- Bettye Swann: Make Me Yours
- Julie London: Our Day Will Come
- Aretha Franklin: You Send Me
- Sharon Jones & The Dap: Kings: Summer of Sound
- Bill Withers: Lovely Day
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