Track Listing

1. Spiralling Prism
2. Calypso
3. Just Around The Corner
4. 4am
5. Shifless Shuffle
6. Textures

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #47722 in Music
• Released on: 1994-04-25
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Customer Reviews

"Four a.m."
If I had to give one reason for buying this album, it would be the track "Four a.m." It is one of Jaco Pastorius's best recorded performances. It must been one of those days when Jaco turned up clean and sober to a recording session and really engaged with the music. When you listen to him play like this, you are reminded of what a total genius he was; it also makes his needless and tragic death all the more galling.

I rate it 4 1/2 stars!
Mr.Hands is another masterpiece by Herbie Hancock. Surely you can hear that it was recorded in the 80s, but it doesn't sound banal nowadays. "Calypso" is the true killer cut along with "Shifftles Shuffle". I like every song, everybody sounds great, especially the drummers of that session: Harvey Mason, Tony Williams, Alphonse Mouzon ( some KILLER fills on "Just around the corner")and Ndugu Chancler. "Just around the corner" is disco-pop , but the best disco-pop Hancock did ever produce and especially Alphonse Mouzon does some over the top playing on it. Really great!

Get it - a 80s Fusion masterpiece!

Early eighties synthesized Hancock
In this CD recorded in 1980, Herbie Hancock plays virtually everything you hear, using over-dubs and many different keyboards. He plays with various different rhythm sections and sax players, including a re-forming of the great Headhunters band on Shiftless Shuffle.

The problem with this album is that it really does sound very dated now - the synthesized horn voices sound particularly bad to me. By far the best music is produced when Hancock just sticks to acoustic piano or his Fender Rhodes. His solo on Calypso (once he's finished mucking around with the steel drum voice) is great, and so's Tony Williams on drums (although there is an ugly cut at about 3'10 - listen to the cymbals). Just Around the Corner is a bit of bland disco-pop, but there are good moments from Hancock on the Rhodes, and Alphonse Mouzon on drums. Jaco Pastorius up to his usual high standards on 4 A.M., and (apart from Bennie Maupin's tentative solo) the playing on Shiftless Shuffle is first rate. The final track, Textures, is probably my least favourite. Hancock plays everything on this track - from the synth lead guitar to the drum machine, and it sounds like a poor imitation of a real band. What makes the tracks in the middle of the album stand out is the communication between Hancock and (mainly) his drummers, and the drum parts on this track get just plain boring and repetetive after a while.

Having said all that, this is not a bad album and is one of Hancock's better fusion efforts since the superb Headhunters.