"Watermelon Man" (PDF) from The J.B.'s compilation, Funky Good Time: The Anthology, and The J.B.’s & Fred Wesley album, The Lost Album Featuring Watermelon Man

(2021 revision):
A recurring subject in folk songs around the world is a figure who provides sustenance to the community - in Cuba, there is “El Manisero (The Peanut Vendor)”; in England, it’s “The Muffin Man”; New Orleans has the legacy of “Mr. Okra” - with a calling melody that is instantly recognizable and echoes throughout the public space. Despite his classical success as a young musician, pianist Herbie Hancock relied upon these folk sounds from the streets and churches throughout Chicago to provide him with the commercial sustenance for his 1962 hit, “Watermelon Man.”

Hancock’s composition became a crossover hit later that year with Cuban percussionist Mongo Santamaria and quickly solidified its place as a jazz standard for its simplicity and adaptability, especially with younger musicians. In his autobiography, trombonist Fred Wesley remembers having learned “Watermelon Man” as a high-school student and how the tune became a vehicle for understanding blues phrasing within his solos. The difference, however, was that “Watermelon Man” provided Fred with sustenance from playing it on gigs with multiple R&B and jazz bands as a teenager.

Later in his career, as an aspiring bebop musician and the musical director for James Brown, Fred Wesley was given the opportunity to record an album of his own in 1972 with assistance from producer Dave Matthews and a cast of New York City session musicians. The album was never released due to the opportunistic return of saxophonist Maceo Parker to the organization - as well as a political move by Mr. Brown, perhaps to keep Fred in check, according to liner notes of the album’s eventual release in 2011 as The J.B.’s & Fred Wesley’s The Lost Album Featuring Watermelon Man. From those recording sessions, “Watermelon Man” was originally issued as a single in 1972 - featuring actual members of the J.B.’s band, including Mr. Brown on the drums - perhaps as a way to keep the payroll, or sustenance, within the James Brown organization.

Mr. Brown was also given credit for the Fred Wesley & The J.B.’s funky arrangement of “Watermelon Man” even though it was most likely Fred that dictated those grunts and screams into the instrumental melodies - thus, Mr. Brown can also be blamed for Fred’s trombone solo over a static groove rather than the more traditional bebop-blues form. It remains unclear, however, as to whether Hancock’s own funk re-working of “Watermelon Man” for his 1973 album, Headhunters, was a direct response to Mr. Brown’s claim of ownership of the hit song that put food on a lot of musician’s tables.

Here’s a YouTube video of Herbie Hancock demonstrating the evolution of “Watermelon Man” on the Elvis Costello talk show, Spectacle:

And here’s a YouTube video of Fred Wesley sitting in on a straight-ahead version of “Watermelon Man” while on tour in Hong Kong:

Recommended Reading: Hit Me Fred: Recollections of a Sideman by Fred Wesley Jr.  Published by Duke University Press.