Herbie Hancock - Directstep (1979 Japanese CBS/Sony Direct-to-Disc Vinyl LP)

Herbie Hancock - Directstep (ダイレクトステップ) | Vinyl LP - 1979 CBS/Sony Japan Direct-to-Disc (30AP 1032, Master Sound DD Series, gatefold sleeve)

• Japan-exclusive direct-to-disc recording, cut in real time with no editing, overdubbing or post-production, the live performance transferred straight to a master acetate at CBS/Sony Studio in Tokyo
• Headhunters-adjacent funk session with Bennie Maupin on saxophones and Lyricon, Paul Jackson on bass, Alphonse Mouzon on drums, Bill Summers on percussion, Ray Obiedo on guitar and Webster Lewis on Hammond B-3 and synths
• CBS/Sony Master Sound audiophile pressing in gatefold sleeve, recorded October 17 and 18, 1978, never released outside Japan until the 2013 Columbia box set

Direct-to-disc recording leaves no margin for error. The musicians play live in the studio and the performance is cut directly onto the master lacquer in real time. No tape, no editing, no fixes, no overdubs. Each side of the record is a single continuous take, with a hard limit of roughly sixteen minutes. Herbie Hancock recorded two albums this way at CBS/Sony's Tokyo studio in October 1978: this one with a band, and The Piano, a solo acoustic album, a week later. "Butterfly" opens Side A with a seven-minute reading of the tune from the Sunlight sessions, Hancock's vocoder sitting over a warm groove from Jackson and Mouzon while Maupin's Lyricon adds melodic lines above. The direct-to-disc format captures the bass and drums with an immediacy that studio recordings of this period rarely match. "Shiftless Shuffle" follows, a composition from the 1973 to 1974 Headhunters touring repertoire that had never been recorded until this session. A different version later appeared on Mr. Hands in 1980, but this one has a rawness that the studio take smoothed away.

Side B is given over entirely to "I Thought It Was You", the vocoder-driven single from Sunlight, stretched here to fifteen and a half minutes. Hancock later wrote that it was perhaps stupidity rather than daring that led him to accept the direct-to-disc challenge, but the extended performance suggests otherwise. The arrangement builds through several phases, with Maupin switching between soprano and tenor saxophone, Obiedo's guitar moving in and out of the mix, and Webster Lewis doubling Hancock on Rhodes and Hammond B-3. The synth arsenal across both players is extensive: Hancock is on Oberheim, Prophet, Yamaha CS-80 and Mini-Moog alongside his Clavinet and Rhodes, while Lewis adds Prophet, Yamaha CS-40, ARP String Ensemble and Multi-Moog. Produced by David Rubinson and Friends, recorded by Fred Catero, Tomoo Suzuki and Brian Bell.

This is the original and only vinyl pressing, released exclusively in Japan in January 1979 on CBS/Sony's Master Sound DD Direct Disk series in a gatefold sleeve.