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Dom Minasi String Quartet: Dissonance Makes The Heart Grow Fonder
by Glenn Astarita
Legendary New York City guitarist Dom Minasi explores and projects dissonance in luminous detail on his affectionately titled Dissonance Makes The Heart Grow Fonder. On the heels of his 2006 The Vampire's Revenge (CDM), Minasi scales back a fifteen-musician ensemble to the more mobile quartet format for this release. Think avant-chamber, where the guitarist serves as the director of operations, while sustaining a dark tone that seamlessly interacts with the strings section from many perspectives.
Minasi guides the ...
Continue ReadingThe Jon Hemmersam - Dom Minasi Quartet: The Jon Hemmersam - Dom Minasi Quartet
by AAJ Italy Staff
Il Dom Minasi che non ti aspetti. Conosciuto come uno dei principali protagonisti dell’avanguardia più moderata, in questo album licenziato con il trio del chitarrista danese Jon Hemmersam Minasi rispolvera una manciata di vecchie composizioni, mai pubblicate, del suo periodo mainstream. Se poi aggiungiamo che Hemmersam è musicista che ha raggiunta fama e visibilità nel mondo della fusion, le aspettative vanno nella direzione di un lavoro strutturato, tecnicamente ineccepibile, morbido, orecchiabile e alla fine un po’ prevedibile. Errore. Perché di ...
Continue ReadingThe Jon Hemmesam/Dom Minasi Quartet: The Jon Hemmersam/Dom Minasi Quartet
by Glenn Astarita
Guitarists Dom Minasi and Jon Hemmersam kindled a relationship back in 1994, which set the stage for the advent of this studio set, recorded in Denmark. The quartet activates a bonding of like-minded American/Danish jazz musicians, and it's a divergent jamboree at that, where the dual guitarists generate gobs of excitement via brisk and bursting free-bop phrasings, torrid swing vamps, delicate balladry and more.
Minasi and his counterpart often engage in buzzing dialogs amid fast and ...
Continue ReadingTake Five With Dom Minasi
by AAJ Staff
Meet Dom Minasi: I have been playing guitar for over 50 years When I was 18 years old I began teaching and working as a full-time musician.In 1974, I was signed to Blue Note Records. After two albums I left the recording business with a sour taste in my mouth and did not record again as a leader till 1999 for CIMP Records. I have played and worked and performed with a whole slew of jazz giants including ...
Continue ReadingDom Minasi: The Vampire's Revenge
by AAJ Italy Staff
La linea rossa che separa composizione ed improvvisazione è spesso sottile, ma in questo caso è davvero impalpabile. Dom Minasi è maestro del caos organizzato, del chaos in time, come lo definisce lo stesso chitarrista. Una forma musicale (ammesso che forma sia il termine corretto) che concede ampia libertà ai musicisti, ma al tempo stesso incastona questi momenti che si potrebbero definire free in una struttura rigorosamente composta. Ovvero, il free come transizione (guidata) per legare situazioni musicali differenti. Musica ...
Continue ReadingDom Minasi: Vampires, Chaos in Time, and Total Control
by Paul Olson
Even in the notoriously difficult jazz music business, Dom Minasi's had a rough time of it. The 63-year-old New-York-born-and-bred guitarist/composer was playing in a jazz trio by the time he was 15 and had an extremely full teaching/gigging schedule up until 1973, he was signed to Blue Note Records. Unfortunately, the George Butler-led 1970s Blue Note was a conflicted and faded label with a lust for commercial grandeur and an almost total lack of conception about how to achieve it. ...
Continue ReadingDom Minasi: The Vampire's Revenge
by Florence Wetzel
Dom Minasi's magnum opus, The Vampire's Revenge, is a rich feast of music featuring no less than 22 of contemporary jazz's strongest players. Inspired by Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, songs like “Who's Your Dentist? and “Just One More Bite show Minasi clearly enjoying the vampire myth--but make no mistake, this two-CD set is a serious project, and the music satisfies on multiple levels. The ten songs are all Minasi originals, and each cut is anchored by the ...
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