Cantaloupe Island

Recorded on June 17, 1964 at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, the session featured Herbie Hancock on piano, Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, George Coleman on tenor saxophone, Ron Carter on bass, and Tony Williams on drums. Released on Blue Note as the opening track of Empyrean Isles, the composition exemplified the post-bop modal approach Hancock was developing within the Miles Davis Quintet, and the album was widely acclaimed as a landmark of mid-sixties jazz. The track became one of the most sampled jazz recordings in history, most prominently through US3's 1993 acid jazz hit Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia), which brought the composition to a global pop audience and triggered a wave of renewed interest in Blue Note's back catalogue.