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Music Spotlight Alex Lu

The song I will be presenting is “Watermelon Man” by Herbie Hancock.

Herbie Hancock - Watermelon Man [1962]
This song follows the genres of R&B and Hard Bop

R&B is a jazz-based type of music that combines parts of electric blues, gospel, and soul music. This
genre originated in African-American communities and often is used to encapsulate the history of pain
and freedom from oppression.

This song fits this genre because of its melodic repetition, improvisation, and the rhythmic arrangement.

The instruments used in this song are piano, drums, saxophone, trumpet, and bass.

This was his first song that he wrote for commercial gain but ended up becoming one of his most
successful ones.

Herbie Hancock is an American jazz musician and composer who plays electric pianos, synthesizers, and
other electronics. He started his musical education as a classical pianist at age 7 and was considered a
child prodigy. In his teens, he never had a jazz teacher, so he trained his sense of harmony by listening to
records of jazz pianists. In 2012, he received a job at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music where he
has been teaching since.

I chose this song because it was one of the first jazz songs that I learned about and played. Additionally, I
helped teach the pianist for Temescal Canyon High School’s jazz band.