Cantaloupe Island (song)

"Cantaloupe Island" is a jazz standard composed by Herbie Hancock and recorded for his 1964 album Empyrean Isles during his early years as one of the members of Miles Davis' 1960s quintet. The musicians for the original 1964 recording were: Hancock (piano), Freddie Hubbard (cornet), Ron Carter (bass) and Tony Williams (drums).

El Chicano
El Chicano covered "Cantaloupe Island" on their 1970 album titled Viva Tirado. The song was one of nine songs released on this initial album, which included the hit single "Viva Tirado".

Other samples and covers
The song was sampled by the group Us3 on their song "Cantaloop", and has been used as bumper music on National Public Radio. Versions have been recorded by many artists, including Hugh Masekela, Brian Bromberg, Poncho Sanchez, Donald Byrd, Pat Metheny, Jean-Luc Ponty, Tanghetto, Jack DeJohnette, Kai Winding, Yonderboi and Milton Nascimento.

Awards
In 2000 "Cantaloupe Island" was placed at #19 in the Jazz24.org "Jazz 100: One Hundred Quintessential Jazz Songs".