{"id":23265,"date":"2023-10-11T10:19:28","date_gmt":"2023-10-11T09:19:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.londonpianoinstitute.co.uk\/?p=23265"},"modified":"2023-10-11T11:30:06","modified_gmt":"2023-10-11T10:30:06","slug":"watermelon-man-by-herbie-hancock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonpianoinstitute.co.uk\/watermelon-man-by-herbie-hancock\/","title":{"rendered":"Watermelon Man by Herbie Hancock"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-1 fusion-flex-container nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling\" style=\"--awb-border-radius-top-left:0px;--awb-border-radius-top-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-left:0px;--awb-flex-wrap:wrap;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row fusion-flex-align-items-flex-start fusion-flex-content-wrap\" style=\"max-width:1331.2px;margin-left: calc(-4% \/ 2 );margin-right: calc(-4% \/ 2 );\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-0 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-flex-column\" style=\"--awb-bg-size:cover;--awb-width-large:100%;--awb-margin-top-large:0px;--awb-spacing-right-large:1.92%;--awb-margin-bottom-large:0px;--awb-spacing-left-large:1.92%;--awb-width-medium:100%;--awb-spacing-right-medium:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-medium:1.92%;--awb-width-small:100%;--awb-spacing-right-small:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-small:1.92%;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-justify-content-flex-start fusion-content-layout-column\"><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-1\"><h2>In a Nutshell:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Watermelon Man&#8221; is a jazz standard by Herbie Hancock from his 1962 debut album, &#8220;Takin&#8217; Off.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>The original version featured Freddie Hubbard and Dexter Gordon in a grooving hard bop style.<\/li>\n<li>Mongo Santamar\u00eda&#8217;s Latin pop rendition reached No. 10 on the pop chart and was Grammy Hall of Fame inducted.<\/li>\n<li>Hancock later reworked it with funk influences for his 1973 album &#8220;Head Hunters.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>The song&#8217;s structure is a sixteen-bar blues drawing from R&amp;B, soul jazz, and bebop.<\/li>\n<li>Over two hundred artists have recorded the song, including David Bowie&#8217;s band and live renditions at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.montreuxjazzfestival.com\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Montreux Jazz Festival<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>About the Piece:<\/h2>\n<p>&#8220;Watermelon Man&#8221; is a jazz standard composed by Herbie Hancock for his debut album, &#8220;Takin&#8217; Off&#8221; in 1962. Hancock&#8217;s original version was a grooving hard bop record featuring Freddie Hubbard and Dexter Gordon. It gained popularity when Cuban percussionist Mongo Santamar\u00eda released a Latin pop version, which reached No. 10 on the pop chart and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Hancock later reworked the tune in a funk style for his album &#8220;Head Hunters&#8221; in 1973.<\/p>\n<p>Hancock wrote the piece with commercial intentions, as it helped pay his bills for several years. The song has a sixteen-bar blues form and draws from R&amp;B, soul jazz, and bebop influences. The piece features a bluesy piano riff, with Hancock on piano, Butch Warren on bass, Billy Higgins on drums, Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, and Dexter Gordon on tenor saxophone.<\/p>\n<p>Mongo Santamar\u00eda&#8217;s version of &#8220;Watermelon Man&#8221; originated when Hancock filled in for pianist Chick Corea in Santamar\u00eda&#8217;s band, leading to the recording of a lively Latin cha-cha version. Hancock&#8217;s composition is often considered a precursor to Latin boogaloo.<\/p>\n<p>Hancock&#8217;s 1973 re-recording of &#8220;Watermelon Man&#8221; for &#8220;Head Hunters&#8221; introduced synthesizers and a funk influence, making it a fusion of different musical elements. The tune also featured beer bottle blowing imitating Central African singing\/whistle-playing.<\/p>\n<p>The song has been recorded over two hundred times by various artists, including a ska version by Jamaican trumpeter Baba Brooks and performances by David Bowie&#8217;s band, David Benoit, and a live rendition at the Montreux Jazz Festival featuring Fourplay, George Duke, Boney James, Kirk Whalum, and Rick Braun.<\/p>\n<h2>Listen to the piece of music:<\/h2>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ppJQKfqhFfE?si=vEZg85wNm2HBVfAL\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23270,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[257],"tags":[291,294,139,293,292],"class_list":["post-23265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-suggested-listening","tag-herbie-hancock","tag-jazz-music","tag-jazz-piano","tag-jazz-piano-composition","tag-watermelon-man"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonpianoinstitute.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonpianoinstitute.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonpianoinstitute.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonpianoinstitute.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonpianoinstitute.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23265"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonpianoinstitute.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23272,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonpianoinstitute.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23265\/revisions\/23272"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonpianoinstitute.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonpianoinstitute.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonpianoinstitute.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonpianoinstitute.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}