Beach days are here, even in Northern California. And with it arrives the first of our beach playlists. Imagine you get to the beach, set up, maybe have a swim. Now you head back to the blanket and put on the headphones, and gradually you start to feel … mellow and relaxed. This playlist follows that progression.
- Allegro vivace (movement 1) from Symphony No. 4 (“Italian,” Mendelssohn); Vienna Philharmonic, Sir John Eliot Gardiner conductor.
- “Perpetuum Mobile,” Penguin Club Orchestra.
It’s been featured in an ad campaign, but it’s still great beach listening. - “Song for a Young Queen” (from the album Not All Who Wander Are Lost); Chris Thile.
One of the great instrumentalists of our day. - Bolero (Maurice Ravel); Pink Martini
Ever wish that Ravel’s Bolero was eight minutes shorter? Thank you, Pink Martini, this is just enough. - “Promenade (Walking the Dog)” (Gershwin); Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Great short instrumental from the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers movie musical Shall We Dance. - “Hello, My Baby” (Joseph E. Howard/ Ida Emerson), Phish.
On their concert album, The Clifford Ball, the band Phish does a credible barbershop rendition of this 1899 Tin Pan Alley classic. - “Bouncing Around the Room” (from the album Lawn Boy), Phish.
And on to one of Phish’s own classics. - “Magdalena” (from the album O’o), John Zorn.
And we end with a track from the unclassifiable John Zorn.