Mr. Hands (album)

Mr. Hands
Studio album by Herbie Hancock
Released	September 1980
Recorded	1980 The Automatt (#1-2, 4, 6) (San Francisco) Filmways/Heider Recording (#5) (San Francisco) The Village Recorder (#3) (Los Angeles)
Genre	Jazz fusion
Length	39:55
Label	Columbia
Producer	Herbie Hancock, David Rubinson
Herbie Hancock chronology
Monster (1980) Mr. Hands (1980) Herbie Hancock Trio (1982)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide	[2]

Mr. Hands is the thirtieth album by Herbie Hancock. It features Jaco Pastorius on the track "4 A.M.," plus an all-synthesizer track, "Textures," performed entirely by Hancock. "Shiftless Shuffle" (originally recorded for the Japan-only album Directstep) features all five members of The Headhunters quintet that first appeared on the 1973 album Head Hunters, including the quintet's original drummer Harvey Mason. This album was the first on which Hancock used a computer, this time an Apple II. He would continue his relationship with Apple Computer for many years.

An overlooked album when it was released, this would be the last outing of "straight" electric jazz from Hancock for some time. Later albums focused more on his R&B influences.

Track listing

1. "Spiraling Prism" - 6:25
2. "Calypso" - 6:44
3. "Just Around the Corner" - 7:36
4. "4 A.M." - 5:23
5. "Shiftless Shuffle" - 7:10
6. "Textures" - 6:37

Personnel

• Herbie Hancock - synthesizer, acoustic piano, keyboards, vocals (through vocoder), clavinet, Minimoog, ARP 2600, Apple II, Linn LM-1 drum computer
• Bennie Maupin - tenor sax (5)
• Wah Wah Watson - guitar (3)
• Byron Miller (1), Ron Carter (2), Freddie Washington (3), Jaco Pastorius (4), Paul Jackson (5) - bass
• Leon Chancler (1), Tony Williams (2), Alphonse Mouzon (3), Harvey Mason (4-5) - drums
• Bill Summers (1, 4-5), Sheila Escovedo (2-3) - percussion

References