This is probably the furthest back our Throwback Thursdays have gotten, going all the way back to 1964 with this jazz classic from Herbie Hancock, who at the time was a hot young upcoming jazz artist just fresh from starting out with the great Miles Davis. I have always had a strong affinity for jazz, especially classic jazz like this and this is one of my favorite examples, and also one of the most revered. This album of course features probably Herbie Hancock’s best known standard “Cantaloupe Island”, which was remade as a rap by Us3 in the 1990s to the tune of #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It is a great, creeping jazz number that has a funky kind of back beat to it that was really ahead of its time. The album also features the great “One Finger Snap” which is a more traditional exploration of jazz, with almost exclusively improvisation creating the majority of the song. Both great numbers and really were examples of jazz at its finest form really.

Herbie Hancock – Cantaloupe Island – From Empyrean Isles
Herbie Hancock – One Finger Snap – From Empyrean Isles