Laurindo Almeida, Ray Brown, Bud Shank and Jeff Hamilton, four guys experienced live on stage and in the studio recorded this direct to disc album, \"Just Friends\" in 1978. Once the cutter head starts engraving the lacquer the musicians start playing and they can't stop to fix mistakes. They have to break live between songs and then start again. The chain goes from the microphone to the mixing board to the cutter head. Nothing beats a good D2D recording sonically but many aren't musically distinguished because everyone plays it safe, afraid to blow an entire lacquer a few seconds short of the side end! This one wins for music and sound