Herbie's 🎹 groove (and Freddie's 🎺 solo) on Cantaloupe Island

Reader,

There are 3 jazz standards about fruit we should all know: Tangerine (Jimmy Dorsey), Scrapple from the Apple (Charlie Parker), and Cantaloupe Island (Herbie Hancock).

Cantaloupe Island

This week we're breaking down Herbie's killer keyboard groove over Cantaloupe Island, and the incredible trumpet solo Freddie Hubbard plays.

RSVP For the Cantaloupe Island Workshop

This Friday at 1pm Eastern, May 30. The workshop is free, just please let us know you are coming.

The workshop will hosted by our Community Liason, Martyn, since Josh is out of town.

Yes, I'm coming

Cantaloupe Island is a funky tune with modal harmony. It's built around the groove above as an ostinato, which is played over both the Fm7 and Db7 chords. But, the ostinato breaks for some quartal hits over Dm7, before returning.

It's based around 3 tonalities: F minor (dorian), Db dominant (lydian dominant) and D min (aeolian). Those are great modal sounds to use, they are far from the only ones available. Pentatonic and blues scales work great on this tune too.

Here's the start of Freddie's amazing solo, grab the whole transcription at the link below.

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Download the groove and solo transcription: Cantaloupe-Island.pdf​

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Live at Blue Note

Herbie and Freddie performed this song many times over the years. Don't miss this INSANE live performance which also included the great Joe Henderson.

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This week on my YouTube channel

Ever wish you could play a song by ear after just hearing it once? In this video I share some ear training tips and tricks to learn any pop or rock tune quickly.

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