Butterfly is an instrumental jazz-fusion tune written by Herbie Hancock and Bennie Maupin. Hancock first recorded it in 1974 for his album Thrust, released by Columbia Records in September of that year after sessions in San Francisco in August, produced by David Rubinson and Hancock. Maupin plays saxophone on the recording, and the Headhunters, with Paul Jackson, Mike Clark and Bill Summers, also perform on the album. The tune has no lyrics and is classed as jazz-fusion or jazz-funk. Hancock returned to it on later albums, including Flood (1975), Direct Step (1979) and Dis Is da Drum (1994). Kimiko Kasai recorded a vocal album also titled Butterfly in 1979. Covers have come from Henry Mancini (1975), Peter Herbolzheimer (1976), Norman Connors (1977), Don Braden (1991), Toto (2002), Austin Peralta (2006), Azymuth (2008), Robert Glasper Experiment and Gretchen Parlato (2009), and Lionel Loueke (2020).
