Cocktail Notes || EP. 13 “Cantaloupe Island", by Herbie Hancock || Midori Sour

The third song in my tribute to Herbie Hancock is “Cantaloupe Island”. This was one of my go-to jams in high school jazz band. I liked the slow harmonic progression and the straight 8ths beat. It gave me room to try out different improvisational ideas when I was a younger player. This song was also a good choice to play in a contemporary funk style. I didn’t take that route in this interpretation. Instead, I tried my best to imitate the piano part as I played the melody---more of an acoustic feel. It was very challenging to maintain the groove and accuracy throughout the melody. I was lucky my hand endurance held out. Maybe playing this on an acoustic guitar was not a great idea? For a future performance, I would definitely try to explore more exotic and dissonant scales in my improvisation. This song is a prime candidate to expand out and try different tonalities and colors.

The cocktail I chose to pair with this song is the “Midori Sour”. Midori is a famous melon liqueur from Japan that is almost candy-like in sweetness and aroma. The addition of lime juice balances out the drink by bringing a bitter, citric flavor. Typically, “sours” will have egg white in them. The egg white adds protein which froths up the drink when shaken, making the drink a little silkier in texture and mellows the tartness of a sour drink. I’m not a fan of wasting food (in this case, the egg yolks), nor did I want to go through the hassle of separating eggs. Instead, aquafaba makes for a good substitute for egg white. The cocktail itself was a little to 2-dimensional for me: it was just sweet and tart. I ended up tweaking the recipe lanter on by adding pineapple juice and a half ounce of vodka. In doing so, the cocktail tasted much deeper. Either way, it’s pretty rare to see a green drink! Cheers!

[January 21, 2021]