Hiromasa Suzuki - Silk Road Rock Joint Cither. 1973 Japan

Rock Joint Cither goes back to the heyday of our CDRWL research. We were digging deep into the mines of Japan, and new discoveries continued to surface on a regular basis. One of the earliest of those was the Rock Joint series. This title, as seen on the cover, was commonly presumed to be Silk Road and the artist as Rock Joint Cither (or vice-versa). Not too long after our "discovery", a CD surfaced for both. It was then that it was revealed to be pianist and jazzer Hiromasa Suzuki who was behind these recordings.

Cither is a "lost in translation" scenario. Cither is a synonym for zither, but of course the instrument in question is really a sitar. For Rock Joint Cither, the truth of the matter is there isn't much rock, beyond some of the deeper rhythmic grooves. Mostly this is a type of heavy straight jazz, as was played more commonly in 1970 with, not surprisingly, sitar blended in throughout. I find the album intriguing though not necessarily satisfying on the whole. Without a doubt worth hearing, but I didn't find it as revelatory as Rock Joint Biwa, the other album from the series.