Rising UK neo-soul star Poppy Ajudha has released “Watermelon Man (Under The Sun)

Rising UK neo-soul star Poppy Ajudha has released “Watermelon Man (Under The Sun),” her new version of Herbie Hancock’s “Watermelon Man,” which the legendary pianist first recorded for Blue Note Records on his debut album Takin’ Off in 1962, and later re-imagined on his 1973 jazz-funk classic Head Hunters. The song is the fourth single to be revealed from Blue Note Re:imagined, a forthcoming collection of classic Blue Note tracks reworked by a selection of the UK scene’s most exciting young talents. Previous singles include Skinny Pelembe’s take on Andrew Hill’s “Illusion,” Ezra Collective’s cover of Wayne Shorter’s “Footprints,” and Jorja Smith’s rework of St Germain’s “Rose Rouge.” 

Poppy Ajudha: “Herbie’s Watermelon Man was my first thought when asked to imagine a track from the Blue Note catalogue. It’s an iconic song and one that has been with me throughout my life. 

I based the lyrics on my research of Watermelon Men in America, aiming to capture what it may have been like to be a black man in America at that time – newly emancipated but still heavily oppressed – and the race relations that had brought him to this point.  

I wanted to broaden the concept of the Watermelon Man to the way that black people in the US and UK throughout history have been denied an understanding of where they came from and the truth of a violent history within the western world. It feels ever more relevant today with the BLM movement coming to the forefront of our lives and was an important direction for me to take the song in.”