The Halloween Jazz Playlist
From Eartha Kitt to Marvin Gaye to Louis Armstrong and everything in between, get your spook on
Hits from Stevie Wonder, Eartha Kitt and Louis Armstrong to mark your Halloween celebrations. Photos: UCLA digital library/CC BY 4.0/Wikimedia Commons (Wonder), Apple TV+ (Armstrong)
Come end October the spooks, ghosts (real or imagined), goblins, witches and the like have their day! October 31st is observed as Halloween Day and children in many countries have a great time celebrating with dark, weird costumes, and getups and go trick or treating. In the name of the nether world and its nefarious creatures, kids have a ball.
In this spirit of “celebration”, we have compiled a playlist, mainly of Jazz songs and some closely associated with jazz for you.
Cautionary note: Don’t listen by yourself. Enjoy it and company and shiver together!
“Superstition” by Stevie Wonder
When you believe in things you don’t understand…..you suffer! So says the creative Stevie Wonder. These are the lyrics from his big hit, “Superstition”
“Halloween Spooks” by Lambert, Hendricks & Ross
This is one of the most exciting jazz vocal groups ever. They always conveyed a lot of fun and tongue-in-cheek humor. Here is a great example of their having a ball – and sharing it with us listeners.
“I Want To Be Evil” by Eartha Kitt
A video from some years ago. She wants to be evil and has picked the right day for it! Enjoy the lyrics.
“Bourbon Street Parade” by Heartbeat Dixieland Band
This has an interesting throwback into the years of early jazz. In New Orleans from around 1910 onwards were funeral bands that accompanied the funeral to the graveyard and played fast paced music to scare away any evil spirits lurking. Typically the saxophone, trumpet and trombone would blast away, but would do so rhythmically. The Dixieland style of jazz has come from these funeral bands and this sound is still popular, mainly in New Orleans and the American south.
“Black Magic Woman” by Carlos Santana
This is a big hit from Santana. It is perhaps on the fringe of jazz but a great sound is a great sound. And apt for the occasion.
“Mack The Knife” by Louis Armstrong
This song has become a jazz classic, sung also by Ella Fitzgerald and Bobby Darin. The grand old man of jazz, Louis Armstrong is seen here in a live performance, singing about the knife-wielding “Mack”.
“Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead” by Emmet Cohen w/ Tierney Sutton & Julian Lee
This is a performance from the new rising star of jazz, pianist Emmet Cohen, who will play in Mumbai in November 2023!
“Reverend Lee” by Natalie Douglas
A wicked song about a church minister who is courting the Devil’s Daughter! The lyrics are very clever and sung very nicely by an otherwise little-known vocalist.
“Thriller” by Michael Jackson
This is again, on the fringes of jazz but quite a classic from MJ with arrangements by Quincy Jones, and a spooky video to boot.
“What’s Going On” by Marvin Gaye
When we are done with the fun and the frolic of the Halloween event, let’s look at the real horror in our midst. From the Russia-Ukraine war to the Israel-Gaza horror with many Manipuris and Syrians in between, the horrors of war and greed are around us. In this famous song from the time of the Vietnam war, Marvin Gaye asks the very pertinent question, “What’s Going On.” Any answers?
