Dinner Party - Dinner Party: Dessert (LP) - Red/Yellow Vinyl

Dinner Party was already a dream team. Terrace Martin, Robert Glasper, Kamasi Washington, and 9th Wonder built a sleek little suite of soul, jazz, and hip-hop in July 2020 that felt like balm during a hard year. Then, in October 2020, they came back with Dinner Party: Dessert, a companion set that pulled in friends and heroes, cracked open the songs, and let a wider community speak through them. It landed via Sounds of Crenshaw and EMPIRE and it plays like a house party where the best musicians in the city show up one by one, add a verse or a solo, then pass the plate.

The core sound still belongs to that quartet. You hear Glasper’s Fender Rhodes with that familiar glow, Martin’s alto lines sliding in like conversation, Washington’s tenor lifting the ceiling, and 9th Wonder’s drums laying out a rugged but unhurried pulse. The original record was short and seamless. Dessert is just as concise but it feels more alive, a little looser, like someone opened the windows and the street came rushing in.

“Freeze Tag” remains the center of gravity. The message was sharp to begin with, a plainspoken look at control and fear, and the remix doesn’t blunt a thing. Snoop Dogg and Cordae step in with the kind of verses that nod to Los Angeles history while keeping their eyes on right-now reality, and Phoelix threads the hook like he did the first time around. It’s a smart balance. The beat still floats, the Rhodes still shimmers, but there’s more bark in the voice of the track and that suits 2020 to a tee. They rolled out that remix as a single ahead of the full set, and it set the tone.

The guest list reads like a map of how these scenes overlap. Rapsody glides in with the kind of precise, empathetic cadence she’s famous for, sharpening the writing without ever grandstanding. Buddy drops a verse that moves with West Coast ease. Then you get a moment that feels like a postcard from jazz royalty. Herbie Hancock appears on a “First Responders” rework, trading in quicksilver lines that say, yes, this is a living continuum. Terrace Martin has worked closely with Hancock over the years, so the cameo feels less like a stunt and more like a family photo finally getting printed.

What I love most is how respectful the edits are. 9th’s chops stay dusty, not over-polished. Glasper doesn’t crowd the pocket. Kamasi sits back until it matters, then pushes the harmonies skyward. These are small choices that keep Dessert from turning into a committee project. It still sounds like Dinner Party. It just invites a few more chairs to the table.

The original record hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz Albums chart, which was a tidy way of saying people across lanes showed up for it. Dessert drew the same kind of cross-genre attention. Outlets like Pitchfork and NPR covered the project, but more telling was the way the songs moved through playlists that didn’t usually touch jazz-adjacent records. If you were following the year’s protest music, “Freeze Tag” was in the mix. If you were just looking for late-night soul with backbone, the rest of this set did the trick.

On vinyl, these tracks breathe. The low end from 9th Wonder’s drums rolls out in a warm, round way that streaming never quite nails, and Glasper’s keys hang in the air with a little extra air around them. I grabbed my copy at a Melbourne record store while digging through a new arrivals bin, and it has become one of those reach-for-it-after-midnight sides. If you are crate hunting, Dinner Party vinyl tends to vanish fast, and Dinner Party: Dessert vinyl is no exception. If the bins fail you, you can always buy Dinner Party records online. It’s also worth keeping an eye on shops that specialize in vinyl records Australia, since imports of Dinner Party albums on vinyl can be sporadic.

If the self-titled album was a tight, focused statement, Dessert is the after-hours conversation that follows. The vibe is casual, the musicianship’s ridiculous, the guests fit like old friends. It captures a specific moment in 2020 while still feeling like something you can drop into any year and find comfort in. Put it on, let that Rhodes glow light the room, and you’ll get why this crew keeps drawing people back to the table.