Ableton Live Deconstruction: Herbie Hancock - Chameleon (FFL!) 

I grew up with this track (I'm from 1972) and it has always followed like you guys say. Lovely to see this deconstruction. The Head Hunters book is on its way in the post too. Being a drummer I truly enjoy the pocket of Harvey Mason, who is killing it in this track. Many falsely believe its Mike Clark, but to me his grooves are not as solid. So thank you for taking you time to make this and share it. Really appreciate it! I love and cherish this whole album, which to me is still Herbie's best work.

29:44 At last! The chords! Thank you so much!

I love the deconstruction videos in general, but this one is on another level! I wish there were more analysis videos to this depth! So good!

Tom's seriously good on the keys

Chord progression wise you could think of it as a ii-V in Ab with no resolution (which would be Bb dorian/Eb mixo).

Watch this video from the start! And count how many times they both say "yeah" if I had shot for every time they said "yeah" I be dead! Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

Thanks for pointing us towards the Bremen video. I had never heard of that performance. It was truly incredible! 😁

Did you guys say that the personnel is 4? This is not true, there is also percussion by Bill Summers on this track - if you listen hard you can hear him play congas (and other drum like things) in some parts. Some parts are very very faint, like just bleeding into the track, but its there - like during the sax solo.

I am thinking about trying to write a big-band arrangement of "Chameleon". This video was somewhat helpful, thanks guys!

I love those herbie transcriptions. i play guitar and those were a ton of fun to work through!

Ah so it's the guy who plays along to the Chameleon solo on RU-vid. Very informative. Cheers.

I'd love to hear the full 23 min version

Ski does it again - a very inspiring vid! great playin by Tom. and I'd been wondering what that "Extract Groove" did... In the Flood album Herbie said he wanted the instruments to interact with each other rhythmically the way African drummers do - cool stuff! Yeah! Yeah yeah!...

Yay, More Ski deconstructions.

Thanks for the clav parts Tom, beats trying to see the old film footage that’s mirrored for some reason.

yea,...yea..yeayea...yeaaa...yeaaah..yeayea. yeayeayea...oh yea..yea!....yea?...YEAH...

Another great deconstruction from Ski. Great Job as always... when's the next one?

Yah !!!

more like this please .... and yes, do a broken beat tune ...or two :)

29:15 Lol! Yes, I'm with you on this. I laughed out loud when you said that. I still listen to this album as a whole, every time. Nice to know that we all feel it the same! :-)

Would it be possible to do some Liquid DnB deconstructions? Netsky uses some really nice techniques in his composition, a deconstruction of Netsky- Eyes Closed would be incredible, such a beautiful track.

i don't think i've heard the phrase dorian funk before, but i like it :)

Great vid thanks. It would be great if you could do a reconstruction of Axel F. I've never heard a really accurate reconstruction of the lead synth sound.

That Live was excellent, as usual :)

deconstruction of nirvana's lithium would have taken less yeahs than this

Great video. Thank you

I have started my EMC course today..but wow.. these guys are playing chords beyond my simple knowledge right now haha

that was awsome.

Why would Herbie himself say it was a moog? or I misunderstood maybe...

How do you set up vmpk to show note you play please?

Some Deconstruction Suggestions: Five More Hours by Chris Brown. Headlights by Robin Schultz. Ghost Town by Adam Lambert.

What does Tom say at 10:40? "The outer xxxx of the drums were off"

Whyy

There is no swing in funk music