"nice" unchallenging (but non cheesy) piano music to be played during a wedding dinner.

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i have to make up a playlist of piano music, ideally of a couple of hours or so, to be played during a wedding dinner.

i'm thinking some light classical and instrumentals of jazz standards would be best but i'm kind of drawing a blank on artists etc. something to loosen things up a bit, nothing "challenging" please and, to be honest, i'll probably get most of it from p2p as i'll most likely never listen to any of it again!

suggestions much appreciated.

the party music will come along later when everyone has loosened up a bit.

― jed_ (jed), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 20:19 (eighteen years ago)

Bill Evans Trio, 'Sunday at the Village Vanguard'

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 20:22 (eighteen years ago)

Bach Prelude 1 in C from the WTC book 1

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 20:23 (eighteen years ago)

this might sound like shite to some, but i have really been enjoying Christopher O'Reilly's recent tribute to Elliott Smith (Home to Oblivion, I believe its called?)...most of the tracks seem like they would work for your purpose

― J. Grizzle--Here Comes Treble (trainsmoke), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 20:24 (eighteen years ago)

Brahms Intermezzo in A Major Opus 118 no. 2

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 20:26 (eighteen years ago)

Ahmad Jamal at the Pershing: But Not For Me

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 20:30 (eighteen years ago)

i have really been enjoying Christopher O'Reilly's recent tribute to Elliott Smith

I heard him do Speed Trials on All Songs Considered. It was nice in a nice way, y'know? Is it actually a worthwhile album? He has a Radiohead one too right?

++Oscar Peterson - On the Town (with Oscar Peterson)
He got some racist abuse there recently at his home, sad.

++Erroll Garner - Concert by the Sea

― Major Alfonso (Major Alfonso), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 20:50 (eighteen years ago)

Duke Ellington and Coleman Hawkins "Limbo Jazz"

― bendy (bendy), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 21:01 (eighteen years ago)

great suggestions, thanks! the bill evans suggestion led me to a guy who seemed to have alot of this kind of stuff.

some of the bill evans itself seems a bit ...mournful? which i'm trying to avoid but thanks, jordan - it's led me to other thiings.

steve i havent checked yours out yet but - are you sure they are unchallenging? the WTC ref makes me think it might be sad-sounding, correct me if i'm wrong.

also listening to this makes me realise it should be opened out a bit from just piano music, maybe even vocal stuff (i've just added nat king cole's "Aquellos Ojos Verdes" to the playlist as well as Vince Gauraldi's "the pumpkin waltz" if that gives you any ideas!).

― jed_ (jed), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 21:06 (eighteen years ago)

also, can i say, if you're recommending live stuff i'd prefer it to be light on audience applause etc.

― jed_ (jed), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 21:07 (eighteen years ago)

steve i havent checked yours out yet but - are you sure they are unchallenging? the WTC ref makes me think it might be sad-sounding, correct me if i'm wrong.

Sorry, WTC = Well-Tempered Clavier. This is Bach and Brahms we're talking about. Quite beautiful and unchallenging and wedding-ish.

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 21:09 (eighteen years ago)

scratch concert by the sea in that case, silly of me, plenty of clapping

Erroll Garner - The Original Misty
or Body & Soul

― Major Alfonso (Major Alfonso), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 21:11 (eighteen years ago)

hahaha, i feel like a fool! i thought it was something that was played at a memorial or something.

thanks.

― jed_ (jed), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 21:12 (eighteen years ago)

xpost

just checking errol :)

― jed_ (jed), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 21:14 (eighteen years ago)

Also try any of Bach's inventions. Stick to the major keys if you like. Lovely counterpoint, but not as dense and difficult as his fugues.

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 21:25 (eighteen years ago)

Floyd Cramer "Last Date" = supremely romantic honky tonk kissin' time music

― Drew Daniel (Drew Daniel), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 21:30 (eighteen years ago)

may be too jazzy, but i'd check out Brad Mehldau

― nerve pylon (flat_of_angles), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 21:37 (eighteen years ago)

M. Alfonso--

In my opinion, Chris O'Reilly made a very pleasing and melancholy album. I have been really saddened by the flood of horrid Elliott Smith covers since his death, but O'Reilly renders them in a way that i think Elliott would enjoy (being somewhat of a pianist himself).

I suggest purchasing it. It is great to listen to while falling asleep. (Waltz #1 is amazing..)

― J. Grizzle--Here Comes Treble (trainsmoke), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 21:38 (eighteen years ago)

Thelonious Monk - Alone in San Francisco

― Mark (MarkR), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 21:39 (eighteen years ago)

i'll most likely never listen to any of it again!

great suggestions and, i'm glad to say, i'm wrong on this point!

― jed_ (jed), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 21:44 (eighteen years ago)

Also check out Beethoven's Bagatelles.

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 22:44 (eighteen years ago)

Satch and Josh - Oscar Peterson and Count Basie - to paraphrase Bob Wills, "I bet you think that's TWO pianos playin! ... Well it is!"

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 22:56 (eighteen years ago)

was gonna recommend the ahmad jamal album that jordan did. "ahmal's blues" is also good.

― oops (Oops), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 23:31 (eighteen years ago)

Saint-Saens.

― The Mad Puffin (The Mad Puffin), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 23:41 (eighteen years ago)

Debussy - Claire de Lune

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 23:42 (eighteen years ago)

what about satie?

― NAPSTER 0F PORN (xave), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 23:44 (eighteen years ago)

for dinner music?
psch

i say get some George Shearing on too but no album title is coming off the top of my head.

― Major Alfonso (Major Alfonso), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 23:47 (eighteen years ago)

steve goldberg you hack the book II c major prelude and fugue wipe the floor with the ones outta book I

I'VE KILLED MEN FOR LESS

― bernard snow (sixteen sergeants), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 23:51 (eighteen years ago)

Well I like that one. And I was going for unchallenging. Admittedly I thought he meant unchallenging to play at first.

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 23:53 (eighteen years ago)

actually, I'm gonna level with you: the only reason I prefer the second is that I like the fact that it's on the golden record

have you heard shostakovich's 24? the closing fugue (in D minor, since he moves by circle of 5ths and uses relative minors instead of parallel) is one of my favorite musical works of all time

― bernard snow (sixteen sergeants), Thursday, 3 August 2006 00:00 (eighteen years ago)

(not that I'm suggesting that one here, way too emotionally draining to be called "unchallenging")

― bernard snow (sixteen sergeants), Thursday, 3 August 2006 00:02 (eighteen years ago)

I may have heard it, but can't recall. I'm not much of a Shostakovich buff. I'm partial to Rachmaninoff where Russian composers are concerned.

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Thursday, 3 August 2006 00:03 (eighteen years ago)

well, to be fair, it doesn't really sound like any of his other stuff. not as angsty as the string quartets, but still fairly reflective and much more subtle than his symphonies.

― bernard snow (sixteen sergeants), Thursday, 3 August 2006 00:07 (eighteen years ago)

nice big fat chords on rachmaninov. I was listening piano concerto 2 I think, in the NCH in dublin and I swear to god that i heard the melody from Bowie's Life on Mars in a few bars. Does anyone know if this is more than my imagination? I haven't gone back to my recording of it figure out where it is in the work, I should do.
Also I'm not recommending Rach for the purposes of this thread, but weren't parts of his works adopted/stolen by big bands and given librettos in the 40's?

― Major Alfonso (Major Alfonso), Thursday, 3 August 2006 00:10 (eighteen years ago)

(about what I said) hey, he did say "light classical"

― xavier mcshane (xave), Thursday, 3 August 2006 00:20 (eighteen years ago)

Gonzales' "Solo Piano" album is nice.

― Telephonething (Telephonething), Thursday, 3 August 2006 00:35 (eighteen years ago)

scarlatti's sonatas are very "nice" for music of his period as well as being extremely beautiful

― xavier (xave), Thursday, 3 August 2006 00:38 (eighteen years ago)

Keith Jarrett's done a lot of pleasant music. Maybe Solo Monk by Thelonious too.

― Ogmor Roundtrouser (Ogmor Roundtrouser), Thursday, 3 August 2006 00:48 (eighteen years ago)

I dunno I'd imagine Satie being too impressionistic, maybe that's me.

I just pulled said Piano Concerto out and in the second movement there are a few variations on the central melody that get picked up by the strings towards the end and they soundd exactly like Life on Mars. My ear is in no way trained though. Very off topic, sorry.

Yeah I was thinking about The Melody, At Night, With You but that's a mite too somnambulant.

― Major Alfonso (Major Alfonso), Thursday, 3 August 2006 00:51 (eighteen years ago)

Life On Mars is brilliant, anyway.

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Thursday, 3 August 2006 00:53 (eighteen years ago)

Oh I know, I love it to bits. Wikipedia has some story about the origins of it.

― Major Alfonso (Major Alfonso), Thursday, 3 August 2006 01:04 (eighteen years ago)

I like Monk the best, but he may be a little too quirky/eccentric to be considered "nice" and "unchallenging."

I would recommend Teddy Wilson: "Solo Piano: Keystone Transcriptions 1939-1940."
If you're looking for something a little more hi-fi, try "Evolution," by John Lewis.

― Jim M (jmcgaw), Thursday, 3 August 2006 12:00 (eighteen years ago)

Another vote for Gonzales 'Solo Piano'. Great great light classical lp.

― Das Spiel ist aus für Baaderonixx (baaderonixx), Friday, 4 August 2006 08:36 (eighteen years ago)

And another vote for Ganzales. As soon as I saw this thread that album leapt to mind. I often put it on of an evening. It's very nice (in agood way).

― Ned T.Rifle (nedtrifle), Friday, 4 August 2006 11:06 (eighteen years ago)

I'd also agree with the Oscar Peterson choices. There's a terrific solo/live but it's got you know, clapping and that...

How about Herbie Hancock - Piano?

― Ned T.Rifle (nedtrifle), Friday, 4 August 2006 11:15 (eighteen years ago)

Not to derail the thread, but here's a link about the racist abuse that Oscar Peterson was on the receiving end of:

Legendary Canadian jazz pianist Oscar Peterson says he is being subjected to racial taunts and slurs at his Toronto-area home. "A bunch of idiots have been driving by in a car yelling obscenities at me," Peterson told CTV News. "They said... dash dash dash dash you Oscar Peterson, fill it in for yourself. First word starts with an F."

The 81-year-old said he is disheartened and stunned that the insults include racial remarks.

I think the jazz community ought to be able to find five, six big guys to take turns doing a 24-hour stakeout outside his home, wait for the kids in question to come by again. And then when they do...well, fill it in for yourself.

― lurker #2421, inc. (lurker-2421), Friday, 4 August 2006 14:14 (eighteen years ago)

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