For the month of January, I’m selecting some of the most memorable and influential songs of the 60’s. While they all hail from the same decade, these are some of my favorite songs of any era. They remind me that the 60’s were so much more than just Woodstock and psychedelic rock. It was a flourishing period for blues, folk, progressive and straight-ahead rock. #31DaysOf60sSongs
I have friends who are able to effortlessly articulate their love for jazz and the intricacies and perspectives that different artists bring to the genre and all its variations. I also have friends who haven’t been truly indoctrinated beyond the obvious Kind of Blue / Love Supreme brand of jazz. These casual fans know what they love, but may not necessarily know why. I’m one of the latter. I don’t always understand why I like certain recordings, let alone have the ability to put it into words. Nonetheless I can’t ignore the huge amount of jazz contributions that happened during this decade, including the work of four jazz legends from the Miles Davis Quintet on “Cantaloupe Island”.
This is a Herbie Hancock composition with his legendary piano hook front and center. You don’t need to be an aficionado to know it, appreciate it and be hooked by it. Hancock’s steady groove on piano is an instantly recognizable element. But it’s not even the main course. It’s the bed and Freddie Hubbard’s buoyant cornet solo is like an ecstatic child jumping up and down on it like it’s a trampoline. Thirty years later, apparently Us3 felt the same way, using Hancock’s masterpiece as the launchpad for a hip-hop rewrite in “Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)”.