Mongo Santamaria: " Watermelon Man" (1963), Herbie Hancock: "Watermelon Man" (1962) (1973)

                                                       Herbie Hancock

Here is the story of a great instrumental that changed three times and has been covered by over 200 artists!

According to an article by Mike Hobart:

When the American pianist Herbie Hancock was composing the soul jazz classic “Watermelon Man” for his 1962 Blue Note debut album Takin’ Off, he realised that he had presented himself with a problem.

On the one hand, the then 22-year-old wanted to mesh experiences from his own life into his work, and the rolling, rackety sound of a watermelon seller’s horse-drawn wagon doing the rounds of Hancock’s Chicago South Side 1940s childhood was a powerful memory refracted into the tune’s core.

On the other, the image of a grinning piccaninny happy with his watermelon slice was then a horribly dominant racist caricature, and in the rising civil rights temperature of the times Hancock knew the song could misfire.

“So . . . I asked myself two questions,” Hancock later recalled in his autobiography, Possibilities. “Is there anything wrong with watermelons? No. Is there anything inherently wrong with the watermelon man? No . . . By naming my song ‘Watermelon Man’, I wanted to reclaim the image.”

Herbie was asked to fill in for Chick Corea who was leaving Mongo Santamaria's band. and according to Hancock: "Donald Byrd came to one of the gigs and Donald had a conversation with Mongo about the link between African American music and Afro-Cuban music since the roots from Africa were pretty much the same. And Donald asked me to play the song Watermelon Man. So I started playing it and Mongo said, keep playing it. So then he got up on the conga drums. Soon as he started playing, that Afro-Cuban sound fit like a hand in a glove. And one by one, the people in the supper club who had been sitting at the tables talking, one by one, they got up. Pretty soon they were all dancing and screaming."

                                                      Mongo Santamaria

Watermelon Man was released as a single from Herbie's first album Takin' Off. The album did not chart, but the single reached #121. His 1973 remake contained on the now famous Chameleon album never charted.

Mongo's Album charted at #63 in 1963. This version of Watermelon went to #10 in the Hot 100, #8 in R & B Singles, and peaked at #3 on the Adult Contemporary charts.

In the opinion of Monahan's Song's staff, we love Herbies original but, nobody remembers hearing it growing up. "Take Five" by Dave Brubeck, yes. "The In Crowd" by Ramsey Lewis? Sure! But mostly we all remember the Mongo Santamaria version which got constant play on mega radio stations like WABC in New York.

As for the 1973 remake of the song on Herbie's celebrated album Chameleon, the synth does not hold up and as stated before, we prefer the original. Another problem is that it takes 1:40 into the song before the slightest hint of a melody shows up.

But decide for yourself. Here are all three versions for your consideration and enjoyment:

Dave Brubeck Quartet: "Take Five" (1959)

A self-effacing product of a Swiss cattle farmer and an English pianist, Dave Brubeck did not grow up outside of San Francisco thinking he was going to be a musician. He had several brothers who were already pursuing that vocation. He had taken lessons from his mom, but (supposedly due to bad eyesight) faked the notes as he could barely read the sheet music in front of him.

Still assuming he was going to work on the ranch, he attended what is now the University of the Pacific.  He was nearly kicked out of school when it was exposed that he could not read music, and later (eyesight problems or not) served in the U.S. Army. He played in a Red Cross show and was such a hit that he was told to form a U.S. Army band. In what would be characteristic of him, he formed the first interracial armed services band.

He was now finding his musical groove and went back to college for more formal musical learning.

Brubeck joined an octet and had a trio as well. His first recordings were for a label that went belly-up, but when the same material was handed to the Weiss brothers who were forming Fantasy Records, things took off and everyone started making money.

Brubeck had run into saxophonist Paul Desmond in the army, and Desmond continued to play in most iterations of his bands. He joined The Dave Brubeck Quartet and they generated three popular albums while touring colleges.

Brubeck had the wrong impression of how much of Fantasy Records he owned when he signed as an artist (which was zero). He then, upon finding this out, jumped to Columbia Records.

A story that endears:  Brubeck made the cover of Time Magazine in 1949, and was the second jazz musician ever to do so (Louis Armstrong was the first). Instead of being gleeful, he felt embarrassed as he believed Duke Ellington deserved it more and that he received the honor over Duke him because he was white. He told this to Ellington's face...

In 1959, Desmond was playing some original licks that caught on with the band. This would be part of the album "Time Out", which was another Brubeck project aiming to try new times other than the standard 4/4. This song would be called "Take Five" and was recorded with the rest of the album over three months in New York City. Brubeck put a 5/4 meter on the song which is brilliantly matched by Desmond's sax. This also included a legendary drum performance by all time great Joe Morello who was formerly with one of the most important female jazz performers ever, Marion McPartland, whom this blogger met and deeply admired.

The opening riff in 5/4 on piano by Brubeck has been used everywhere and is easily recognizable, perhaps mostly as a ringtone today. 

The album was a leap of faith for the label but they released it anyway to huge acclaim. "Take Five" went to #25 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #5 on the Easy Listening Chart.

So there you have it, a harmonic convergence of the right musicians at the right time (maybe a little ahead of their time), to create a signature piece of modern jazz.

Desmond died in 1977. He left his song rights to the American Red Cross, who had sponsored the U.S. Army gig so many years ago that united Desmond with Brubeck. According to records, the national nonprofit still earns about $100,000 from that bequest annually.

And Brubeck? We were fortunate to catch him several times, the last in 2009 where he came out of an extensive heart rehab stint to play the Jacksonville Jazz Festival.  He would go on to live one day short of his 92nd birthday.  He left behind a staggering 120 albums, and this wonderful song among many for our eternal enjoyment.