Herbie Hancock jazz standard "Watermelon Man" performed by Guthrie Govan on his signature Charvel guitar and Zak Barrett on saxophone live May 15th 2022 in Southend-on-Sea, UK. Rick Beato has recently named Guthrie Govan as the best guitarist in the world that he has witnessed. Is he the best guitar player ever? Watch and decide!
"Watermelon Man" is a jazz standard written by Herbie Hancock for his debut album, Takin' Off in 1962. Hancock's first version was released as a grooving hard bop record, and featured improvisations by Freddie Hubbard and Dexter Gordon. A single reached the Top 100 of the pop chart. Cuban percussionist Mongo Santamaría released the tune as a Latin pop single and it became a surprise hit, reaching No. 10 on the pop chart. 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). Hancock wrote the piece to help sell his debut album as a leader, Takin' Off (1962), on Blue Note Records; it was the first piece of music he had ever composed with a commercial goal in mind. The popularity of the piece, due primarily to Mongo Santamaría, paid Hancock's bills for five or six years. Hancock did not feel the composition was a sellout however, describing that structurally, it was one of his strongest pieces due to its almost mathematical balance. The form is a sixteen bar blues. Recalling the piece, Hancock said, "I remember the cry of the watermelon man making the rounds through the back streets and alleys of Chicago. The wheels of his wagon beat out the rhythm on the cobblestones." The tune, based on a bluesy piano riff, drew on elements of R&B, soul jazz and bebop, all combined into a pop hook. Hancock joined bassist Butch Warren and drummer Billy Higgins in the rhythm section, with Freddie Hubbard on trumpet and Dexter Gordon on tenor saxophone. Hancock's chordal work draws from the gospel tradition, while he builds his solo on repeated riffs and trilled figures.
Hancock re-recorded the tune for Head Hunters (1973), combining synthesizers with a Sly Stone and James Brown funk influence, adding an eight-bar section. Hancock described his composition "Chameleon", also from Head Hunters, to Down Beat magazine in 1979: "In the popular forms of funk, which I've been trying to get into, the attention is on the rhythmic interplay between different instruments. The part the Clavinet plays has to fit with the part the drums play and the line the bass plays and the line that the guitar plays. It's almost like African drummers where seven drummers play different parts"; "Watermelon Man" shares a similar construction. A live version was released on the double LP Flood (1975), recorded in Japan. On the intro and outro of the tune, percussionist Bill Summers blows into beer bottles imitating hindewhu, a style of singing/whistle-playing found in Pygmy music of Central Africa. Hancock and Summers were struck by the sound, which they heard on the ethnomusicology album The Music of the Ba-Benzélé Pygmies (1966) by Simha Arom and Geneviève Taurelle. This version was often featured on The Weather Channel's Local on the 8s segments. It was also played in the 2018 movie mid90s.
Guthrie Govan live tour is underway in America with his band The Aristocrats. Guthrie Govan is an English guitarist and guitar teacher endorsed by Charvel Guitars with his own signature model. His guitar music can be heard on major Hollywood films from X-Men to the lastest Dune movie thanks to his work with Hans Zimmer. Guthrie is a guitar player known for his work with the bands the Aristocrats, Asia, GPS, the Young Punx and the Fellowship, as well as his solo project Erotic Cakes. More recently, he has collaborated with Steven Wilson and Hans Zimmer. He is a noted guitar teacher, working with the UK magazine Guitar Techniques, Guildford's Academy of Contemporary Music, Lick Library, and formerly the Brighton Institute of Modern Music. Govan was named "Guitarist of the Year" by Guitarist magazine in 1993. Guthrie Govan guitar lessons have taught guitarists from all over the world who could see a guitar lesson on sites like Lick Library.
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17 окт 2024
