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"Watermelon Man" is a jazz standard written by Herbie Hancock, first released on his debut album, Takin' Off (1962), in a grooving hard bop version that featured improvisations by Freddie Hubbard and Dexter Gordon.
A single of the tune reached the Top 100 of the pop charts. Cuban percussionist Mongo Santamaría released the tune as a latin pop single the next year on Battle Records, where it became a surprise hit, reaching #10 on the pop charts. Santamaría's recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998. Hancock radically re-worked the tune, combining elements of funk, for the album Head Hunters (1973).
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This track is taken from Cantaloupe Island and is not the funky version from Headhunters. It is a very simple number with only 3 chords in it, which makes for some really laid back soloing. Unusually for jazz of the time, the piano plays a funky riff which continues throughout, except of course where Herbie needs both hands for his own solo! It is a milestone piece from one of the world's most influential jazzers.
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