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Dom Minasi

It’s not common to hear a guitarist mentioned in the same vein as adventurous players like Eric Dolphy, John Coltrane and Cecil Taylor, but Dom Minasi is not your common type of guitarist. Like many highly creative artists, Dom needs a variety of contexts to express the full range of his musical vision by maintaining several separate groups, Born on March 6, 1943 (sharing a birthday with legendary guitarist Wes Montgomery), Dom is a 50-year veteran of the music scene, with a history and scope of activities as varied and jam-packed as his native New York City. Backing up top singing groups at rock 'n' roll shows, church dances and the like while still in his early teens, Dom has maintained a jazz trio with bass and drums since he was 15 years old. But education has also played a major role in his overall musical activities. "By the time I was 20, I had more than 100 students, but I cut it down to 95 so I could play six nights a week." A lot of those nights were spent backing up, and providing musical direction for vocalists, something that Dom has continued to do since 1964 and almost exclusively until 1973, when his own trio began to really take shape, coming to the attention of George Butler who had taken the reins at Blue Note from the label's visionary founder and producer, Alfred Lion. After recording two albums for Blue Note, When Joanna Loved Me and I Have The Feeling I’ve Been Here Before, Dom felt the business of Jazz was not for him So from 1976-1993, Dom involved himself in a variety of pursuits such as freelancing, recording dates as a sideman, and occasionally performing with the late, great pianist Dennis Moorman and his organ quartet featuring Dr. Lonnie Smith. Composing the music for a variety of off-Broadway shows, authoring three books for Sunrise Artistries, two books on jazz theory and chord substitution and one on improvising. Returning to school where he studied with Academy Award-winning (The Red Violin) composer John Corigliano at Lehman College, receiving his degree in composition in 1990. He also composed over 300 vocal and instrumental compositions during those years, as well as creating Literacy Through Songwriting Workshops for grades one through six for the New York City Board of Ed. Fellow musicians kept trying to get Dom more involved with the regular scene but he continued to resist.

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Album Review

Dom Minasi: Me Myself and I

Read "Me Myself and I" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian


Those familiar with guitarist Dom Minasi and his adventurous releases may be surprised by the more “straightforward" Me, Myself and I. On this solo outing Minasi is heard on two acoustic guitars contributing both the cadence as well as the melodies. The two parts were then overdubbed in the studio. The nine mellifluous originals that Minasi interprets here with sensitivity and intelligence were written between 1976 and 1995. The haunting “The Color of Her Eyes is Gray" is ...

3
Album Review

Dom Minasi: Eight Hands One Mind

Read "Eight Hands One Mind" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian


Restlessly innovative, guitarist Dom Minasi is a stalwart of the creative music scene. A brilliant improviser and composer, Minasi deftly utilizes his inventive ideas as launching points for his equally exciting extemporizations. On the unique Eight Hands One Mind, Minasi joins three other intrepid guitarists for a fiery and poignant tribute to another trailblazer, the late guitarist Bern Nix. The others in the group are the master of prepared guitar Hans Tammen, the virtuoso Harvey Valdes and the ...

1
Album Review

Dom Minasi: Remembering Cecil

Read "Remembering Cecil" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian


Innovative pianist Cecil Taylor, who passed away on April 5th 2018, was a transformative force in the world of improvisational music. His signature percussive pianism was imbued with dynamic poetry and he, together with saxophonist Ornette Coleman, is credited with starting the free jazz movement. Taylor has also been a source of inspiration for fellow New Yorker, guitarist Dom Minasi. Minasi who is equally idiosyncratic, and similarly pushes artistic boundaries, pays tribute to Taylor on the emotive and vibrant Remembering ...

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Album Review

Dom Minasi: Remembering Cecil

Read "Remembering Cecil" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Guitarist Dom Minasi counts the late pianist Cecil Taylor (1929-2018) as one of his idols. Taylor was among the true pioneers of free jazz, with free-flying ensemble recordings like Unit Structures (Blue Note, 1966), Conquistador (Blue Note, 1967), and scores of solo piano outings, notably including Silent Tongues (Freedom, 1974), and For Olim (Soul Note, 1986). For many free jazz fans, it was the solo sets that showcased Taylor's true genius, so it is fitting that Minasi goes solo for ...

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Album Review

Dom Minasi & Juampy Juarez: Freeland

Read "Freeland" reviewed by Mark Sullivan


American guitarist Dom Minasi and Argentinian guitarist Juampy Juarez have performed as a duet several times, first during a tour in Buenos Aires, then at some shows in New York. Recorded in Buenos Aires, in April 2018, Freeland documents their playing partnership. Minasi has a history of duets, most recently on record with guitarist Jack DeSalvo on Soldani Dieci Anni (Unseen Rain Records, 2016). Like that album, the program here is much more diverse than its title suggests.

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Album Review

Improvising Trio: Manna for Thought

Read "Manna for Thought" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


This is the house that Ornette Coleman built some 60 years ago. Guitarist Dom Minasi and his like-minded colleagues, vocalist Nora McCarthy and saxophonist Ras Moshe, show that the free jazz tradition is very much alive as we approach the third decade of the new millennium. Minasi has for the past 20 years, progressed further into the heart of improvisation, sporting a round, fuzzy guitar tone that seems to proceed from slow melodicism to light-speed electron sparking off the edge ...

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Album Review

Dom Minasi & Jack DeSalvo: Soldani Dieci Anni

Read "Soldani Dieci Anni" reviewed by Mark Sullivan


Guitarist Dom Minasi is known as an experimentalist and free player, so there is much in this set of acoustic duets with fellow guitarist Jack DeSalvo that will confound expectations. Opener “The Indelible Delible" is a free improvisation with the expected outside playing and flurries of notes--but there is also some delicate textural playing. Then Minasi's “Angela" announces a complete change of mood. It's a beautiful bossa, with DeSalvo taking the lead on classical guitar, followed by Minasi's acoustic flat-top ...

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Performance / Tour

Dom Minasi's July/August/September Dates

Dom Minasi's July/August/September Dates

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services

Upcoming Dates Saturday July 30th 8pm The Dom Minasi Organ Trio @ Trumpets Jazz Club and Restaurant featuring Dom Minasi-guitar, Kyle Koehler-organ, Jay Rosen-drums 6 Depot Square Montclair, NJ 07042-4018 For Reservations (973) 744-2600 August 21st @ ABC NO Rio Coma Series 8PM Dom Minasi * Omar Tamez ( a great improving guitarist from Mexico 56 Rivington St. NYC 10002 ...

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Contest

Enter the "Dom Minasi - The Bird, The Girl And The Donkey" Giveaway

Enter the "Dom Minasi - The Bird, The Girl And The Donkey" Giveaway

Source: All About Jazz

All About Jazz members are invited to enter the “Dom Minasi—The Bird, The Girl And The Donkey“ digital download giveaway contest starting today. We'll select FIVE winners at the conclusion of the contest on March 6th. Click here to enter the contest (Following Dom Minasi at AAJ automatically enters you in the contest.) Good luck! Liner Notes from The Bird, The Girl And The Donkey Once upon a time a young girl walked alongside a dirt road carrying a bundle. ...

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Event

The Dom Minasi String Quartet

The Dom Minasi String Quartet

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services

The University of the Streets Presents The Dom Minasi String Quartet @ 8PM Featuring Dom Minasi (nylon string guitar), Jason Kao Hwang (violin), Tomas Ulrich (cello) and Ken Filiano (contrabass) “More than jazz, the quartet's music is more at home within the field of modern classical music, daring to strike out sharply if, at times abrasively from the a the angular camps of Shostakovich and Bartok." —Matt Marshall, All About Jazz January 11th, 2011, 10 PM The Blaise ...

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Performance / Tour

Dom Minasi Sextet: In Garden Concert (NYC)

Dom Minasi Sextet: In Garden Concert (NYC)

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services


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Special Offers

Dom Minasi- New Music

Dom Minasi- New Music

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services


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Performance / Tour

Dom Minasi at the Stone on July 21st

Dom Minasi at the Stone on July 21st

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services

Wednesday July 21st @ Stone The corner of E 3rd & Ave C 8pm & 10pm 8pm The Dom Minasi Super Septet Featuring Sabir Mateen ( tenor sax), Blaise Siwula ( alto sax), Rob Henke (trumpet) Steve Swell (trombone), Dom Minasi (guitar) Ken Filiano (bass) and Jay Rosen on drums Only $10 per ticket 10pm The Dom Minasi String Quartet “Consistently brilliant, ever-engaging and filled with more surprising curves than a bumpy road at ...

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Radio

The Jazz Session #119: Dom Minasi

The Jazz Session #119: Dom Minasi

Source: Michael Ricci

Guitarist Dom Minasis most recent recording, Dissonance Makes The Heart Grow Fonder (Konnex, 2009), features his string quartet in a program of adventurous composition and improvisation. In this interview, Minasi talks about how he spent the 20 years between his last Blue Note recording and his re-emergence as a leader; why Johnny Smith was a big influence on him, and why he let that influence go; and how a lifetime of playing, teaching and practicing has brought him to this ...

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Education

Dom Minasi Online Guitar Lessons

Dom Minasi Online Guitar Lessons

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services


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Recording

The Dom Minasi String Quartet

The Dom Minasi String Quartet

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services


"One of New York’s best kept secrets is finally “getting out”. Hooray!" Jim Hall

“I am knocked out by Dom's creative and original guitar playing".

Henry Kaiser

“A true Jazz original ” Bill Milkowski

“Minasi stuns...he coaxes dark emotive chords like a dusky snake charmer wooing a cobra from awoven basket...” Derek Taylor All Music Guide to Jazz

“In the manner of Eric Dolphy...Minasi works over the harmonic and rhythmic material of each song in an extraordinary manner, managing to go places where few lesser guitarists would venture.” Cadence Magazine

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John Coltrane
saxophone
Miles Davis
trumpet
Eric Dolphy
woodwinds
Tal Farlow
guitar
Jim Hall
guitar
Jimmy Raney
guitar, electric

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Soldano Dieci Anni

Unseen Rain Records
2022

buy

Eight Hands One Mind

Unseen Rain Records
2021

buy

Me Myself and I

Unseen Rain Records
2021

buy

Freeland

Cirko Records
2019

buy

Remembering Cecil

Unseen Rain Records
2019

buy

Manna for Thought

Self Produced
2018

buy

The Color of Her Eys Is Gray

From: Me Myself and I
By Dom Minasi

Gentle

From: Me Myself and I
By Dom Minasi

Samba De Domingo

From: Me Myself and I
By Dom Minasi

Brown Eyes

From: Freeland
By Dom Minasi

Chasing Bulls

From: Allivium
By Dom Minasi

Angel's Dance

From: Angel's Dance
By Dom Minasi

The Day After Next

From: Goin' Out Again
By Dom Minasi

Strange

From: Blaise Siwula Dom Minasi Live...
By Dom Minasi

The Vampire's Revenge

From: The Vampire's Revenge
By Dom Minasi

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