Cantaloupe Island

Last updated
"Cantaloupe Island"
Song by Herbie Hancock
from the album Empyrean Isles
Released1964
Studio Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey
Genre Modal jazz
Length5:33
Label Blue Note Records
Songwriter(s) Herbie Hancock
Music video
Cantaloupe Island (Remastered) 1999 on YouTube

"Cantaloupe Island" is a jazz standard composed by Herbie Hancock and recorded for his 1964 album Empyrean Isles [1] during his early years as one of the members of Miles Davis' 1960s quintet. Hancock later recorded a jazz-funk fusion version of the track, as Cantelope Island, on his 1976 album Secrets.

Contents

Musicians

The musicians for the original 1964 recording were: Hancock (piano), Freddie Hubbard (cornet), Ron Carter (bass) and Tony Williams (drums). [2] The 1976 recording featured Bennie Maupin (saxophone), Wah Wah Watson (guitar), Paul Jackson (bass), and James Levi (drums).

Samples

The jazz rap group Us3 sampled "Cantaloupe Island" in their song "Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)", from their album Hand On the Torch (1993). "Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)" was recorded as a demo a year before the group's first release. but in the US, "Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)" reached, No. 21 on the R&B Single Sales chart No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the group's only top 40 single. [3] It did not chart initially in their native UK, but after its US success, it was subsequently re-released in UK where it peaked at No. 23. [4] "Cantaloop" was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on March 25, 1994, for selling over 500,000 copies.

Awards

In 2000, "Cantaloupe Island" placed at #19 in the Jazz24.org "Jazz 100: One Hundred Quintessential Jazz Songs". [5]

The track is featured in the Woody Allen's film Coup de chance released in 2023. [6]

Related Research Articles

<i>Head Hunters</i> 1973 studio album by Herbie Hancock

Head Hunters is the twelfth studio album by American pianist, keyboardist and composer Herbie Hancock, released October 26, 1973, on Columbia Records. Recording sessions for the album took place in the evening at Wally Heider Studios and Different Fur Trading Co. in San Francisco, California. The album was a commercial and artistic breakthrough for Hancock, crossing over to funk and rock audiences and bringing jazz-funk fusion to mainstream attention, peaking at number 13 on the Billboard 200. Hancock is featured with woodwind player Bennie Maupin from his previous sextet and new collaborators – bassist Paul Jackson, percussionist Bill Summers and drummer Harvey Mason. The latter group of collaborators, which would go on to be known as The Headhunters, also played on Hancock's subsequent studio album Thrust (1974). All of the musicians play multiple instruments on the album.

Us3 is a British jazz rap group founded in London in 1992. Their name was inspired by a Horace Parlan album, titled Us Three, produced by Alfred Lion, the founder of Blue Note Records. On their debut album, Hand on the Torch, Us3 exclusively used samples from the Blue Note catalogue, all originally produced by Lion.

<i>Hand On the Torch</i> 1993 studio album by Us3

Hand on the Torch is the debut studio album by British jazz rap group Us3. It received much attention because of its mixture of jazz with hip-hop music, with material from popular jazz musicians of the 20th century being reimagined. All samples used on the album are from old Blue Note Records classics: the most famous was Herbie Hancock's "Cantaloupe Island", which Us3 used on the track "Cantaloop ". It came out as a single having two different music videos.

<i>Dis Is da Drum</i> 1994 studio album by Herbie Hancock

Dis Is da Drum is Herbie Hancock's thirty-ninth album and his first solo album since leaving Columbia Records. Guests include saxophonist Bennie Maupin, trumpeter Wallace Roney and flautist Hubert Laws.

<i>Secrets</i> (Herbie Hancock album) 1976 studio album by Herbie Hancock

Secrets is a jazz-funk fusion album by keyboard player Herbie Hancock. It is also Hancock's seventeenth album overall. Participating musicians include saxophonist Bennie Maupin and guitarist Wah Wah Watson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)</span> 1993 single by Us3

"Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)" is a song by British jazz-rap group Us3, originally released in October 1992 by Blue Note Records as the lead single from the group's debut album, Hand On the Torch (1993). The song was recorded as a demo a year before the group's first release and features a sample of Herbie Hancock's song "Cantaloupe Island". Another sample, the announcement by Pee Wee Marquette, is taken from the Blue Note album A Night at Birdland, Vol. 1 by The Art Blakey Quintet. "Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)" did not chart in the group's native UK, but in the US, it reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the group's only top 40 single. It was subsequently re-released in UK where it peaked at No. 23. The song was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on March 25, 1994 for selling over 500,000 copies.

<i>Empyrean Isles</i> 1964 studio album by Herbie Hancock

Empyrean Isles is the fourth studio album by American jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, recorded on June 17, 1964 and released on Blue Note in November later that year. The quartet features trumpeter Freddie Hubbard and rhythm section Ron Carter and Tony Williams.

<i>A Night at Birdland, Vols. 1–3</i> 1954 live album by the Art Blakey Quintet

A Night at Birdland, Vols. 1–3 are three separate but related 10" LPs by the Art Blakey Quintet recorded live at the Birdland jazz club on February 21, 1954 and released on Blue Note later that year, in July, October and November respectively. The quintet features horn section Clifford Brown and Lou Donaldson and rhythm section Horace Silver, Curly Russell and Blakey.

<i>Mwandishi</i> 1971 studio album by Herbie Hancock

Mwandishi is the ninth album by jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, released in 1971. It is the first album to officially feature Hancock’s ‘Mwandishi’ sextet consisting of saxophonist Bennie Maupin, trumpeter Eddie Henderson, trombonist Julian Priester, bassist Buster Williams and drummer Billy Hart.

<i>Thrust</i> (album) 1974 studio album by Herbie Hancock

Thrust is the fourteenth studio album by American jazz-funk musician Herbie Hancock, released in September 1974 on Columbia Records. The album reached No. 2 on the Billboard Top Soul Albums chart and No. 13 on the Billboard 200 chart. It is the second album featuring The Headhunters: saxophonist Bennie Maupin, bass guitarist Paul Jackson, drummer Mike Clark and percussionist Bill Summers.

<i>Magic Windows</i> 1981 studio album by Herbie Hancock

Magic Windows is the thirty-second album by jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, released on September 29, 1981, on Columbia. This album continues his collaboration with associate producer Jeffrey Cohen, who co-wrote four of the tracks on the album. Additionally, the track "Satisfied with Love" was co-written by his sister, Jean Hancock. Musicians involved in this album include guitarists Wah-Wah Watson, Ray Parker Jr. and Adrian Belew, vocalist Sylvester and percussionists Sheila E. and Paulinho da Costa.

<i>Mr. Hands</i> (album) 1980 studio album by Herbie Hancock

Mr. Hands is the twenty-fourth album by Herbie Hancock. Unlike the preceding album, Monster, which was conceptualized as a dance album, Mr. Hands is a collection of different musical styles with distinct groups. It features bass guitarist Jaco Pastorius on the track "4 A.M.," plus multiple guests including Bennie Maupin, Sheila E. and Ron Carter, plus an all-synthesizer track ("Textures") performed entirely by Hancock. "Shiftless Shuffle" was recorded by the members of the Headhunters quintet in 1973 during the sessions for the album Head Hunters. This album was the first on which Hancock used a computer, this time an Apple II. He would continue his relationship with Apple Computer for many years.

Cantaloupe is a fruit.

<i>Man-Child</i> 1975 studio album by Herbie Hancock

Man-Child is the fifteenth studio album by jazz pianist Herbie Hancock. The record was released on August 22, 1975 by Columbia Records. It was the final studio album to feature The Headhunters, and a number of guest musicians including saxophonist Wayne Shorter, a full brass section, three different guitarists, and Stevie Wonder on harmonica.

<i>Takin Off</i> 1962 studio album by Herbie Hancock

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<i>Search for the New Land</i> 1966 studio album by Lee Morgan

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<i>VSOP</i> (album) 1977 live album by Herbie Hancock

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Herbie Hancock discography</span>

The discography of the American jazz artist Herbie Hancock consists of forty-one studio albums, twelve live albums, sixty-two compilation albums, five soundtrack albums, thirty-eight physical singles, nine promo singles and four songs not released as singles, but that charted due to downloads. This article does not include re-issues, unless they are counted separately from the original works in the charts, furthermore because of the enormous amount of material published, this discography omits less notable appearances in compilations and live albums. The discography shows the peak weekly main chart positions of eight selected countries: United States, France,[a] Germany, Japan,[b] Netherlands, Sweden,[c] Switzerland and United Kingdom. Positions also listed on United States are R&B / hip hop, dance / club, jazz[d] and bubbling under charts.[e] The peaks do not refer necessarily to the position that a record reached when it was first released. Also included are certifications from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)[f] and the Bundesverband Musikindustrie (BVMI).[g]

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<i>Wynton Marsalis</i> (album) 1982 studio album by Wynton Marsalis

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References

  1. Ouellette, Dan (2005). "Hancock goes beyond Jazz". Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. p. 43. ISSN   0006-2510.
  2. Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 641. ISBN   978-0-141-03401-0.
  3. Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record Research. p. 599.
  4. "Official Charts Company: Us3". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 2016-08-30.
  5. "The Jazz 100". jazz24.org. 2000.
  6. Gleiberman, Owen (4 September 2023). "'Coup de Chance' Review: Woody Allen's Drama of Upper-Middle-Class Murder Is His Best Movie Since 'Blue Jasmine' (or Maybe 'Match Point')". Variety . Retrieved 3 February 2024.