"Cantaloupe Island" is a jazz standard composed by Herbie Hancock and recorded for his 1964 album '' Empyrean Isles'' during his early years as one of the members of

Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of musi ...

' 1960s quintet. Hancock later recorded a jazz-funk fusion version of the track, as Cantalope Island, on his 1976 album ''Secrets''.

Musicians

The musicians for the original 1964 recording were: Hancock (piano), Freddie Hubbard ( cornet), Ron Carter ( bass) and Tony Williams (drums). The 1976 recording featured Bennie Maupin (

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...

Wah Wah Watson Melvin M. Ragin (December 8, 1950 – October 24, 2018), known professionally as "Wah Wah Watson", was an American guitarist who was a member of The Funk Brothers, the studio band for Motown Records. Career A native of Richmond, Virginia, Melvi ...

(guitar),

Paul Jackson Paul Jackson may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Paul Jackson (bassist) (1947–2021), American jazz fusion bassist * Paul Jackson Jr. (born 1959), American jazz fusion guitarist * Paul Jackson (poker player), English professional poker player ...

(bass), and James Levi (drums).

Samples

The

jazz rap Jazz rap (or jazz hip hop) is a fusion of jazz and hip hop music, as well as an alternative hip hop subgenre, that developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s. AllMusic writes that the genre "was an attempt to fuse African-American music of th ...

group Us3

sampled Sample or samples may refer to: Base meaning * Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set * Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal * Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of so ...

"Cantaloupe Island" in their song "

Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia) "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 b ...

", from their album ''

Hand On the Torch ''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 s ...

'' (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. 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. "Cantaloop" was certified

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

by the

Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

(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".

References

External links

* 1960s jazz standards Modal jazz standards Hard bop jazz standards Songs written by Herbie Hancock {{1960s-jazz-composition-stub