Description As most audiophiles know, records were originally made with the performance being cut directly to the record, starting with the original wax cylinders. Then magnetic tape became the intermediary in the recording process although it was well-recognized that this additional step potentially degraded the best possible sound. In the late 1960's, the legendary Doug Sax, among others, began to record, once again, going directly from the musicians to the master lacquer, using the highest quality equipment. Sheffield Lab produced some extraordinary-quality direct-to-disc recordings in the decade following. Japanese musicians and sound engineers, ever the technocrats, soon followed suit. The engineers at EMI must have said, "anything the Americans can do, we can do better". And, in my opinion, they succeeded. Probably one of the principal reasons was that there were little restrictions on the toxic components in the manufacture of PVC, and so they were, out of the gate, able to produce a better quality of vinyl. Over the next few days, I will be listing several Toshiba-EMI direct-to-discs that are of extraordinary quality. At its peak, about 10% of my LP collection was comprised of high end recordings, with about half of those direct-to-disc. About 100 albums. In my opinion, these EMI discs were the technical pinnacle of that collection, if not always a sublime performance. In my opinion, the performances were certainly as good, and sometimes better than any that Sheffield Lab released. They were a lot rarer on this continent than Sheffield Lab's LP's. I believe Audio-Technica imported a slew of them, and when they were sold, that was it. I used to comb big vinyl shops looking for unique high end recordings, and that's how I found these. I bought all 9 or 10 releases that made it here, then I never saw them again. I liked some of the albums so much that I bought a second copy. I'll mention more about that when I list those. This recording is technically superb, and the performances themselves are very good. Typical Japanese, but reminiscent of 50's East Coast Jazz. The vocalist, who has a nice voice, has a pronounced Japanese accent singing English. Mildly amusing. I purchased this album new in 1979, and played it about 2 times on high end equipment. As noted, I rate the vinyl as Near Mint. LP contains a 4 page insert that describes the songs, performers, and technical aspects of recording. If you've got this far, I'll assume you're a serious vinyl nut, like I used to be. Thanks for reading!