Hiroko Mina - Beyond The Silk Road (2025)

This album by composer and pianist Hiroko Mina features a wide kaleidoscope of colors and ideas, some reflective of her Japanese upbringing, and others taking you to impressionistic landscapes of Givenchy. Mina keeps the songs varied and interesting in that she mixes and matches instrumentation, ranging from a reflective lily pad solo excursion on the reflective “Snow In The Desert” wile going full orchestral with Britten-like strings wafting into the intro of “Silk Road Reverie” before her jazz trio of Masahito Noda/dr and Harutoshi Ito/cel leap and lope over the chambered drapery.

MINA combines worlds with a gentle solo piano ballet on “Silk Voice-Carried By The Wind” before Liu Wei’s traditional Mongolian throat singing takes you to exotic outskirts of the world. Jazz legend bassist Ron Carter teams with Brazilian percussionist Nanny Assis and Hideki Tsutsumi’s synth work for a mix of tender piano, Mamiko Uchiwa’s delicate vocals and brooding undercurrents, while other worldly voices singing into the unknown are juxtaposed by serene strings and the leader’s ruminating piano on “The Path Beyond Infinity”. An album that successfully takes one to worlds usually requiring a passport and mule to transport one’s belongings.~ By George W. Harris