A Lazy Groove

Easy groovin' sixties jazz for hep cats from Herbie Hancock on a compilation called Canteloupe Island. All the six tracks have a kind of funky, latin feel made for dancing with tasteful soloing that won't scare the horses. The title track and Watermelon Man are familiar and well known to advertising and continuity arrangers on tv. The personnel varies through the different tracks but with the rhythm section featuring such as Tony Williams, Billy Higgins and Ron Carter, a solid base is assured. Hancock himself maintains a rhythmic pulse too without cutting loose very often into more intricate solos. His contribution is as band leader / composer. Guitarist Grant Green is on two tracks and the horns are by a string of classy performers; Freddie Hubbard and Donald Byrd on trumpet and Dexter Gordon, Hank Mobley and George Coleman on saxes. Superior feelgood music, it is only on the albums final track Maiden Voyage that there is the beginning of something more substantial and profound and akin to the work of Miles, with whom most of these musicians also played. The groove is altogether more subtle and Hubbard excels in his solo.