Cantaloupe Island (2004)
February 20, 2008Here is 
Herbie Hancock in a most delicious performance of Cantaloupe Island. Together with Wayne Shorter, Dave Holland and Brian Blade at Jazz a Vienne in 2004, this is one of the most powerful performances I’ve seen yet.
Cantaloupe Island has always been a favorite, and in this video, just the introduction is killer. This is pure talent, and I’m sorry I can’t stop gushing, but it is, it is! At point 1:14 in the video you will simply enter another world, the world where Herbie Hancock is blood, rushing to your head. The moment in his life when he wrote those notes into this piece of music was his gift to the world.
From the site:
Cantaloupe Island is a jazz standard composed by Herbie Hancock. It was first recorded on his 1964 album Empyrean Isles. It was one of the first examples of a modal jazz composition set to a funky beat.
It was sampled by the group Us3 on their song ‘Cantaloop‘, and furthermore has been used as bumper music (or button) on National Public Radio.
Version have been recorded by many artists, including
Pat Metheny.
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This is my favorite Herbie track ever, and I’ve been a fan of his for 30 years. It’s like watching a group of quantum physicists solving the secret of the Universe. Do you know if there is a higher quality audio recording of this track available? I want to burn it on a CD and put it on repeat-1 for about a year…
@coolseattledude: I wouldn’t know. Try scouting your music stores for Herbie’s CD though
That way you can listen to a lot of awesome tracks!