Chef Jonathan Waxman's Go-To Playlist
Chef Jonathan Waxman's go-to playlist
Chef Jonathan Waxman, owner of the long-running, beloved New York restaurant Barbuto and the newly opened Adele's in Nashville, was a professional musician before trading his in trombone for a set of knives. His playlist runs the gamut from classic jazz to old-school soul with a nod to the Tennessee whippersnappers he teamed up with for the Music City Food + Wine Festival last month.
① "Maiden Voyage," by Herbie Hancock
"The most prolific, cool and adventurous jazz pianist of all time. His music is mesmerizing, especially on vinyl."
② "What Is Hip?" by Tower of Power
"When I played in Berkeley in the '70s, Mimi and Doc would let me sit in and jam on stage. It doesn't get better than that."
③ "I'm So Glad," by Cream
"I saw them at Winterland stoned on heroin (Clapton, not me). Still, they were better than anyone except The Who and Jimi."
④ "Every Little Thing She Does," by The Police
"I had a strange summer in 1983. I was on the cusp of opening my own joint, falling in and out of love and driving my Ferrari around Europe. I played this a lot to soften the strangeness."
⑤ "Notion," by Kings of Leon
"I love Caleb [Followill, Kings of Leon frontman]. He is unique—a young man with an old soul. He and the boys have unearthed a wellspring of hidden stuff and for that I am happy!"
RELATED Jonathan Waxman's Holy Trinity "
⑥ "Sexual Healing," by Marvin Gaye
"At La Varenne cooking school in Paris, I lived with two fashion photographers and two models. The girls and I would play this endlessly."
⑦ "In a Silent Way," by Miles Davis
"In college, the world was totally topsy turvy: race riots, the Vietnam War, out-of-control dictators, the threat of nuclear annihilation, massive amounts of drugs and alcohol and the suicides of two of my dearest friends. In the midst of all this came Miles, who summed it all up in this album. It sounds better today than ever."
⑧ "Birdland," by Weather Report
"Wayne Shorter is special. Better than almost anyone else, he and Joe Zawinul changed the jazz landscape. The two, along with Jaco Pastorius, created a new genre of toe-tapping, badass jazz."
⑨ "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away," by The Beatles
"This got me through my first heartache when I realized that disappointment would ever be constant."