Herbie Hancock - Dedication (1981 Japanese CBS/Sony Vinyl LP)

Herbie Hancock - Dedication | Vinyl LP - 1981 Japanese CBS/Sony Reissue (18AP 2180, Big Jazz Fusion 23 Series no. 19)

• Hancock's first and only electro-acoustic solo performance on record, Side A on grand piano, Side B on Fender Rhodes and five ARP synthesisers, recorded live without overdubs at Koseinenkin Hall in Shinjuku, Tokyo
• Japan-exclusive release, never issued outside Japan until the 2013 Columbia box set, featuring solo readings of "Maiden Voyage", "Dolphin Dance", "Cantaloupe Island" and the otherwise unrecorded "Nobu"
• Japanese CBS/Sony pressing from the Big Jazz Fusion 23 series, produced by David Rubinson, engineered by Tomoo Suzuki

Herbie Hancock recorded Dedication in July 1974, one month after a controversially received electronic solo concert at the Newport Jazz Festival where he had appeared alongside acoustic solo sets from Keith Jarrett and McCoy Tyner. He was in the middle of touring with the Head Hunters band, between Head Hunters and Thrust, and this Japan-only session captures a side of his playing that neither of those records shows. Side A is solo acoustic piano, nothing else. "Maiden Voyage" opens with the familiar suspended-fourth harmony played more freely than on the 1965 Blue Note original, Hancock stretching the melody across nearly eight minutes without the rhythmic anchor of a band behind him. "Dolphin Dance" follows at over eleven minutes, and the extended form lets Hancock explore the ballad's harmonic structure in a way the quintet version never had the space for. Prior to this concert, the only time Hancock had attempted a solo performance during a recording was an alternate take of "Goodbye to Childhood" from Speak Like a Child in 1968.

Side B is a different instrument, a different sound, and almost a different musician. Hancock switches to Fender Rhodes and a battery of ARP synthesisers: Pro Soloist, Odyssey, 3604, 2600 and PE-IV String Ensemble. "Nobu" is the album's only piece not drawn from his Blue Note catalogue, an electronic improvisation that layers the synthesisers in real time, no overdubs, no tape editing, the sounds building and overlapping as Hancock works the controls live on stage. "Cantaloupe Island" closes the album at nearly fourteen minutes, the 1964 groove reimagined through the Rhodes and the ARP's filtering and modulation, the melody still recognisable underneath the electronic processing. The contrast between the two sides is the point -  acoustic and electronic, composed and improvised, 1965 and 1974. Produced by David Rubinson, engineered by Tomoo Suzuki. Liner notes by Shoichi Yui.

This is the 1981 reissue on CBS/Sony (18AP 2180), the third official Japanese pressing, released as number 19 in the Big Jazz Fusion 23 series. Photography by Shigeo Anzai, album design by Shuichi Yoshida and Teruhisa Tajima. Original inserts are missing.