{"id":4927,"date":"2017-01-31T20:09:58","date_gmt":"2017-01-31T19:09:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jazzguitar.be\/blog\/?p=4102"},"modified":"2026-02-05T12:34:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T11:34:21","slug":"watermelon-man-guitar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jazzguitar.be\/blog\/watermelon-man-guitar\/","title":{"rendered":"Watermelon Man – Guitar Chords, Chord Melody, and Solo"},"content":{"rendered":"

When learning jazz guitar, the blues is an essential topic that any guitarist\u00a0should tackle. But, how do you move beyond the standard 12-bar form? One of the tunes that get called at jam sessions and is blues related (but not 12-bar), is Watermelon Man.<\/span><\/p>\n

Watermelon Man, a jazz funk<\/a> classic written by Herbie Hancock who was just 22 at the time, was first released in 1962 on the album Takin’ Off. It was later re-arranged by Hancock for the album Head Hunters (1973).<\/p>\n

The song was written with commercial intent\u00a0but wasn’t a real hit until it was covered in a Latin pop version by Mongo Santamaria (a Cuban percussionist who wrote the jazz standard Afro Blue).<\/p>\n<\/span><\/span>\n

Here are those 3 versions of Watermelon Man next to each other. The first video is\u00a0Herbie Hancock’s\u00a0original version, the second is Mongo Santamaria’s cover version and the third video is the Head Hunters version.<\/p>\n

Fun fact: the intro\u00a0of the Head Hunters version is percussionist Bill Summers blowing into a beer bottle.<\/p>\n

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