condition (record/cover): NM / EX

Gatefold sleeve. Insert included. No obi.

Recorded in Japan, where the V.S.O.P. band was received as the event it actually was. Five Stars catches Herbie Hancock, Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter and Tony Williams a few years into the reunion, at the point where the group had stopped being a one-off tribute and become a genuinely functioning unit with its own book. The playing is looser and more argumentative than on the first records, Williams in particular pushing everybody harder than strictly necessary, and Hancock is entirely on acoustic piano with no electronics anywhere in sight.

Japanese CBS/Sony pressing, originally a Japan-only release. Acoustic Hancock at a moment when almost nobody expected it from him.