Eight Hands One Mind. That is the perfect name for this album from the Dom Minasi Guitar Quartet. It absolutely describes each of the six compositions that make up this project.
I love the strong harmonized melodies and counter melodies. The groove; the feel; the rhythms move so interestingly through each piece. Sometimes powerful, four voices moving together; sometimes soft and gentle. But always beautifully done.
The thing I love about Dom’s music is that I’m drawn in from the downbeat, and my attention is focused throughout each tune. This is not music I could just put on for background music. For me, it’s far too interesting.
Story Telling and Conversations
I once described the music on Dom’s other project, Freeland, as storytelling by the two guitarists on the album. When I’m listening to Eight Hands One Mind, I’m hearing fascinating stories and conversations between four guitarists. Too interesting to stop listening.
This is not just another jazz guitar album, but a very unique and strong voice in 21st-century jazz.
The quartet includes Dom Minasi, Hans Tammen, Harvey Valdes, and Briggan Krauss. All on Guitar. Y
I look forward to seeing and hearing Dom Minasi on the Alternative Venues for Jazz Facebook page on Tuesday, January 25, 2022, at @5pm ET. Join me.
“Improvising musicians all pay lip service to the idea of working without a net, but most end up building safety precautions—no matter how slight or subtle they may be—into their work. Dom Minasi, however, isn’t one of those musicians. The indefatigable guitarist has no interest in sonic safeguards or insurance. He’s a law unto himself, creating music that speaks to his intelligence, fearlessness, and mischievous nature. And while Minasi has been at it for half a century, he shows no sign of slowing down or taking an easy road. Minasi is one of the great creative guitar artists operating today”.
Dan Bilawsky from All About Jazz.
Dom Minasi has been playing guitar for over 50 years. He became a professional musician playing jazz when he was 15 years old. In 1962 he started teaching and working as a full–time musician.
In 1974, he was signed to Blue Note Records. After two albums he left the recording business and did not record again as a leader till 1999 for CIMP records. Between those years he made his living composing, authoring three books on harmony and improvisation, teaching and arranging. During the late seventies, he did have an opportunity to work and perform with a whole slew of jazz giants including Arnie Lawrence, George Coleman, Frank Foster, Jimmy Heath and Dave Brubeck.
After working with and being inspired by Roger Kellaway in ‘74, Dom began seriously composing in all genres’, including songwriting (both music & lyrics) jazz tunes, and serious long hair contemporary pieces. He was the major composer for M.I.C.E. (Manhattan Improvisational Chamber Ensemble) which specialized in through--composed music with improvisation. He composes all the music for his many varied groups.
Dom also worked for Young Audiences New York, where he was the first teaching artist to use songwriting as a learning tool in its’ Literacy Programs throughout the NYC area. Since then he has composed over three hundred children songs.
Wanting to have control of all aspects of his music, Dom along with his wife, Carol, formed CDM Records. Because of earlier experiences of constantly getting fired for playing ‘too far out, his wife Carol urged him to finally record Ellington the way he “heard it”. With his new trio, Ken Filiano --bass and Jackson Krall-- drums, on April 23 rd. , 2001 they recorded in one set, “Takin ‘The Duke Out” live, at the Knitting Factory in NYC. It was released in October 2001. Dom expected this record to be the last recording CDM Records or he would ever make as a leader. To his astonishment, “Takin’ The Duke Out” met with glowing reviews. Of course, there were some die--hard Duke fans who absolutely hated it, but that was expected. Since then CDM has released Goin’ Out Again--2002, Time Will Tell, 2004. In 2005 Quick Response and Carol Mennie’s I’m Not A Sometime Thing.
In March 2006, Dom’s most ambitious project was released. Using his trio as a base and writing for small and large ensembles,
The Vampire’s Revenge is a double-disc set of almost two hours of through-composed music with lots of room for improv. Many renowned Jazz Journalists throughout the USA, Canada, and Europe selected The Vampire’s Revenge as one of the best recordings of 2006. . Again, in September 2007 CDM released The Jon Hemmersam/Dom Minasi Quartet, along with Dom’s five previous recordings, was named as a first draft ballot for a Grammy nomination. In April 2009 Dom recorded Dissonance Makes the Heart Grow Fonder for reKonstruKt Records, which was later released on Konnex Records, featuring Dom on nylon string guitar, Jason Kao Hwang (violin), Tomas Ulrich (cello), and Ken Filiano (contrabass). Dissonance is a totally different sound. This group is a real combination of contemporary 21st-century composition coupled with modern improvisation.
April 2010 reKonstruKt Records released The Bird the Girl and the Donkey followed by Dom’s first solo recording, Looking Out looking In.. In 2011. Nacht Records released Synchronicity with Karl Berger on vibes and piano. Since 2015, Dom has mostly recorded for Unseen Records except for Freeland with fellow Buenos Aires guitarist Juampy Juarez on the Cirko Records label in 2018. 2019 Remembering Cecil, a homage to Cecil Taylor. In 2020 Unseen Rain released Eight Hands One Mind to glowing reviews. Due January 14th Me Myself and I
Stress Points II is continuation of an improvisation method that Dom came up with in the 60’s and has been teaching it to advance students for over 55 years.
Looking for a way to change the way you play and hear music. This may be the answer you are looking for.
I’ve been toting around a sizable library of music for a while now. My plan is always the same, commit some words to paper the screen about all of them. Ahh, plans. Now, I’m staring at a near insurmountable list of to-reviews. It is time to make some progress. So to begin somewhere, I’m going to start by focusing on one my favorite instruments, the guitar. But even doing this is daunting, and it’s obvious that I’ll need to sub-divide … I will begin with solo guitar recordings, and we’ll see how the future shapes up…
Dom Minasi – Remembering Cecil (Unseen Rain, 2019) ****
I think I’ve been carrying New York based guitarist Dom Minasi’s album, dedicated to Cecil Taylor, in my pocket on a device of some sort for nearly a year. In this time I’ve actually gone through three devices – one took too long of a swim in a not-as-waterproof-as-advertised dry bag as I was kayaking, the other was a temp device with a pre-cracked screen that simply got worse and worse, until I got my latest gadget. But, I digress. The point here is that Minasi’s album is one that I’ve become attached to. It was recorded not long after Taylor passed away, and on it, the guitarist allows the great improviser’s influence shine through in naked, revealing light.
A concert or an album by Cecil Taylor was an outpouring of emotive melody and rhythm. The one and only time I was able to see him perform was the final concert at the Whitney Museum, and as frail as he was at the time, his music was still commanding and percussive. A famous quote from Taylor in fact compared a piano keyboard to 88 tuned drums, and compared Minasi, over the course of four improvised tracks, captures the relentless and effusive spirit of Taylor, but on just his six strings. Minasi’s playing captures the tonal clusters, the intense bursts, and the moments of gentle melody, in general he reflects the velocity of sound that would emit from Taylor. The melody that evolves on ‘Improv 3’ is a real highlight, clear lines that seem to almost grasp the outlines of forming thoughts, but slowly grow more solid at the track progresses. As a contrast, there is the opening of moments of ‘Improv 1’ which is pretty much pure energy. The notes themselves take backseat to the flow of energy.
Qabbala::Entanglement is a twelve movement suite inspired by Michael Moss’ long study of Eastern mythology, physics, and Jungian analytical psychology. Moss artistically and musically presents an ancient metaphysical oracle in present-day form using improvisation over an extended compositional structure to realize his aims. Each of the 12 movements expresses a sephira or « limb » of the Tree of Life. For the Accidental Orchestra Moss has adapted Ain Soph, a 1973 composition recorded by Free Energy on 4th Stream Records (Cross Current, 1978). Ain Soph explores archetypal themes in the Kabbalah and represents the creation myth as a substrate of the Jewish mythical tradition.
Multi-instrumentalist/composer Michael Moss, a veteran of New York’s free jazz scene, has assembled a brand-new band, the Accidental Orchestra, consisting of string, reed, brass and rhythm sections and emulating what he refers to as a small renaissance jazz orchestra. Conducted by Michael Moss, the Accidental Orchestra is comprised of a pool of the most exciting improvising artists on the New York scene.
Performing in the June 21 concert: Jason Hwang, Rosi Hertlein, Carol Buck, Lenny Mims, Tanja Hoehne, Waldron Mahdi Ricks, Brian Groder, Libby Schwartz, Steve Swell, Peter Zummo, Richard Keene, Elliot Levin, Michael Lytle, Ras Moshe, Michael Moss, Dave Sewelson, Steve Cohn, Dom Minasi, Chien Chien Lu, Ken Filiano, Warren Smith, Bob Meyer.
The Accidental Orchestra will perform Qabbala::Entanglement in a series of three concerts at Westbeth Home to the Arts and then go into the recording studio. Westbeth has agreed to be a partner to the project and is celebrating its 50th Anniversary next year. Michael Moss recorded and released HELIX in 2018 on 4th Stream records, a cd featuring his two extended compositions and has received enthusiastic reviews from around the world: https://m2-theory.com/helix-reviews.
Art | Artists | the Artistic Process | Inspiration
and the Human Condition
“ powerful playing that really held my attention”
Jazz guitarist and recording artist, Dom Minasi’s latest release, Remembering Cecil is a solo project; a culmination of 30 years of playing free form jazz. The project’s title pays tribute to Cecil Taylor; one of Dom’s idols and sources of inspiration over the years.
I love Dom’s rich tones on this recording. The sound of his guitar is rich and full, but also very clean so that you can easily hear every note; every nuance. You know how it is when you’re eating a meal prepared by a top chef. The chef has prepared the food with a rich array of spices and ingredients, yet it’s prepared so expertly so that you can taste every spice. That’s what Dom’s playing reminds me of on this recording. Masterfully done.
Free form is not everyone’s cup-of-tea. If you’re expecting something traditional with more of a standard AABA form, yeah, this kind of music might seem a little curios to you. But, the way I approach listening to this style of music is like someone listening to a master story teller; following the stories twists and turns to the end.
Remembering Cecil; beautiful and strong harmonic passages. I love the percussiveness that happens throughout the project; powerful playing that really held my attention.
The project consists of four tracks; all solo guitar. My favorite is the third track, entitled, Improv 3. I love the melodic tour and the combination of space and harmony. This one told my favorite story.
Dom Minasi – Remembering Cecil: Freely improvised solo guitar. Cecil Taylor was a revolutionary improvisational pianist. Dom plays the guitar and I think he has achieved something very important honoring the sound of Cecil Taylor. The guitar is a microtonal instrument, it has been partitioned into the traditional 12 tones but you can bend the strings so the palette is actually much bigger than a piano, and there are so many ways to make sounds using an electric guitar. The sound here is unprocessed, made with pure skill and no studio effects. The music is expressed in tone clusters, polyrhythms and a generally percussive energetic physical approach. It is free meaning not in time, no time signature, and truthfully it is not for everyone. There are quick runs and rapid fire streams of notes, up and back, repeat and repeat, pound it, tickle it, pound it some more, then suddenly go into some entirely new territories. Things happen really quickly. The sound is not about chords or melodies, I hear textures and raw imagination. This style of playing has an unusual expressive effect that is a volatile mixture of ideas packed into a concentrated form. Minasi notes “To some free form means atonal, but it’s not. It is a culmination of notes that can be beautiful or (to some) ugly.”
In 1957 at the Five Spot Cafe something very important in music history happened, with jazz musicians such as Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor. In his early years Taylor played with some of the pioneers of free improvisation, including Steve Lacey, Buell Neidlinger, and Dennis Charles. His quartet made history at the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival. Later he played with Jimmy Lyons, Sunny Murray, and Andrew Cyrille. Taylor performed some important solo concerts in Amsterdam and Berlin. In 1986 came the Feel Trio with William Parker and Tony Oxley.
The free improvisation community where Taylor thrived and was incandescent included John Coltrane, Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Han Bennink, Tristan Hornsinger, Louis Moholo, Paul Lovens, Dewey Redman, Elvin Jones, Mat Maneri, and the legendary Albert Ayler. In 2000, at the beginning of the new millennium, came the Cecil Taylor Ensemble, and the Cecil Taylor Big Band, with such notables as Joe Locke, Max Roach, poet Amiri Baraka, Albey Balgochian, Jackson Krall, and Tony Oxley.
The percussive technique used by Taylor has been famously described by photographer Val Wilmer as “eighty eight tuned drums” because of the way the notes just fly. Taylor himself said in 1966, “I try to imitate on the piano the leaps into space a dancer makes.” There is no conventional dancing to this sound, no relaxing, this is art so sit up and listen. “I ask that you keep an open mind to what you are going to hear,” says Minasi in the liner notes. “I do not use any effects.”
According to Dan Bilawsky from All About Jazz, speaking about Minasi, “The indefatigable guitarist has no interest in sonic safeguards or insurance. He’s a law unto himself, creating music that speaks to his intelligence, fearlessness, and mischievous nature. And while Minasi has been at it for half a century, he shows no sign of slowing down or taking an easy road.”
Dom Minasi became a professional musician when he was 15 years old and in 1962 he became a teacher while working full time as a musician. In 1974, he was signed to Blue Note Records, and had the opportunity to play with Arnie Lawrence, George Coleman, Frank Foster, Jimmy Heath, Roger Kellaway and Dave Brubeck. He is well known as the major composer for M.I.C.E. (Manhattan Improvisational Chamber Ensemble). Minasi is a man of many interests and abilities, for example he has composed over three hundred children songs. He and his wife Carol formed CDM Records to take more control over his sound. He had great success with his recording Takin’ The Duke Out, playing Ellington the way he “heard it” and later with The Vampire’s Revenge, a double disc set of almost two hours of music that was named as one of the best recordings of 2006. Minasi is truly a giant of the Avant Garde.
What I hear is chaotic noise that is sometimes difficult to endure, but in that cacophony there are these wonderful and amazing passages and breaks of pure magic and that is what makes this crazy music so awesome. There is a reason that avant garde musicians are celebrated and famous, that is because they have gifts and talents that are unique and phenomenal. They make history. This is the real thing, it offers some problems to the widest possible audience, but for the essential few the connection is clear and strong, and what you will experience is revolutionary jazz that is both life affirming and transformative. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED EQ 4 Robin B. James
Michael Moss
Accidental Orchestra
QABBALA::ENTANGLEMENT
Friday, June 21, 2019
8:00 PM Westbeth Community Room
155 BANK STREET, NY 10014
$15 donation
« Moss’ astute penchant for melding the outside parameters of jazz with imaginative
compositions and a wide-ranging improvisational platform delivers the knockout
punch. » Glenn Astarita, All About Jazz
Photo: Scott Friedlander
Michael Moss
Accidental Orchestra
QABBALA::ENTANGLEMENT
Friday, June 21, 2019
8:00 PM Westbeth Community Room
155 BANK STREET, NY 10014
$15 donation
Conducted by Michael Moss: Jason Hwang,
Rosi Hertlein (violin), Carol Buck, Lenny
Mims, Tanja Hoehne (cello), Waldron Mahdi
Ricks, Brian Groder (trumpet), Libby
Schwartz (french horn), Steve Swell, Peter
Zummo (trombone), Richard Keene (oboe, Eb
sopranino clarinet), Elliot Levin (flute, tenor
sax), Michael Lytle (bass clarinet), Ras
Moshe (soprano & tenor sax), Michael Moss
(Bb & bass clarinet, flute), Dave Sewelson
(baritone sax), Steve Cohn (piano), Dom
Minasi (guitar), Chien Chien Lu (vibraphone),
Larry Roland (bass), Warren Smith
(percussion, African bells), Bob Meyer
(drums, percussion), Chuck Fertal (drums)
Qabbala::Entanglement is made possible in part with funding from the
Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation and
administered by LMCC and is made possible in part with public funds from
Creative Engagement, supported by the New York City Department of
Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and administered by
LMCC.
The free improvising guitarist Dom Minasi has made a poignant recording in order to remember Cecil Taylor. This is so because Mr Minasi has chosen to remember the great free improvising composer and pianist the way in which he would have liked to be remembered: as someone who’s embodied the poetics of music which is that lofty ideals of art that found expression in spontaneity, lyricism and dancing rhythms. An articulate musician, Mr Taylor never failed to let it be known that ideals expressed in dancing rhythms and motifs were what kept him in the practice of his art throughout his life and attracted him to music be it what was expressed in the tradition as well as what constituted the new tradition ignited by the avant-garde which he led from the front.
Mr Minasi’s four improvised segments attempt to remind us of Mr Taylor’s whole world and the architecture of each work is like a giant slab of sound that is shaped and erected as if to construct an edifice by which not only Mr Minasi would remember him, but so also would we in listening to this music. Each improvisation is like a stratum made up of dyads, triads and bent notes, and as these black dots leap off the proverbial page they appear placed in a manner so as to create an arrhythmia made up of gestures and phrases that tower as if in a Babel-like poly-linguistic manner which resembles an architecture that is eerily similar – at least in a reverently dedicatory way – to what would constitute a musical monument to the pianist.
The improvisations separately and together are constantly shifting; their dynamism suggestive of the proverbial dance that Mr Taylor always wanted to suggest. The shifting relationships evoke the massive natural forces that shape Mr Taylor’s revolutionary work. Sometimes strata stack up immensely; at other moments they thin o the most diaphanous textures; but always there is sense of returning to the same point, only to discover that the perspective has changed in the interim. On top of these seismic musical processes, Mr Minasi creates a virtuoso guitar-performance superstructure whose riotous details suggest the music’s teeming surface life in all its protean variety which in turn speaks to a dioptric perspective of Mr Taylor’s extraordinary repertoire itself through the lend of Mr Minasi’s own music.
It takes some guts to pay tribute to the most advanced pianist ever on a guitar, which is an inadequate means under several aspects (and, especially, in certain hands). But Dom Minasi – a devotee of Taylor’s art who has been pursuing free-form music for three decades – did it. Consciously, in terms of intention; much less as far as the involvement of the mind during the creative act is concerned. The fruits of this process are four improvisations performed without the aid of effects: a straightforward clean tone was the timbral choice for this homage.
Minasi is the first to advise that “there is a limited audience for this music”. Furthermore, a guitarist is usually subjected to severe scrutiny by his/her peers, who pick anything they believe to know about the instrument’s peculiarities and “defects”, and mercilessly point them out instead of relishing the core of what’s being proposed. This is an error that should be avoided while tackling Remembering Cecil. It’s an album that focuses on the spirit; ostentatious fastidiousness is entirely absent. Make no mistake, Minasi can play. It’s not anyone’s fault if a piano allows a better control on the lingering resonance of the open strings, one of the most annoying features of a guitar throughout an improvisational flux. One has to use what is available, and work around that.
The job was done with indubitable passion besides the obvious respect for the dedicatee. Personally speaking, this writer perceived more Minasi than Taylor (a compliment, for me). Again, what counts in analogous circumstances is the anima; in that regard, this record must be definitely taken into serious consideration. It only remains to be seen how an average listener might be enticed into this type of offering; on the other hand, I remember with shame half a theatre walking away from a Taylor concert in Rome a lifetime ago, someone throwing derisive noises at the group as they were leaving.
“ Brilliantly original…unique and stimulating…compelling listening” Hrayr Attarian:All About Jazz
, “…the headlong freedom, the chance-taking, the manic joy and live wire energy are all here. Dom Minasi does Cecil Taylor proud. Dan McClenaghan-All About Jazz
“… in the process we find on close listening one of the gem examples of free guitar art”.
Grego Applegate- Guitar- Bass Blog
“…A joyous gift, given in the spirit”. Bob Rogers Taint Radio
Juampy Juarez: “Dom”… can’t believe that the music it’s improvised. The four tunes are intense, with lots of fresh, modern ideas , and a completely new language that you have been developing for decades..
Jack DeSalvo:”The guitar playing is genius. ….And in this world of free improvisation no other guitarist, including Derek Bailey, has reached this advanced point.
Susan Alcorn:“Earth, wind, water and sky. Emotion, fire, lyricism. Tenderness. Dom Minasi has given the world a recording that beautifully captures the nuances and the spirit of Cecil Taylor in a loving tribute that will be cherished by future generations long after we, all of us, have ceased to inhabit this earth”.
Troy Wheeler“You are a great player! One of the best ever! “
Dan Arcamone : “Dom, you’ve masterfully captured the spirit of Cecil Taylor’s music. The feeling, the motion, the motivic contours, and unrelenting stream of ideas on Remembering Cecil make this a powerful tribute. It’s a beautiful recording’.
Jay Rosen: « Congrats Dom for encompassing the spirit of Cecil Taylor on the guitar ».
Tomas Ulrich: “Another exceptional musical offering from one of New York’s unsung musical masters”.
David Juarez:”I love the intensity of the album, the personality and rawness, the way that tension is created and resolved is not predictable and staged which makes it obligatory to anyone who is looking for limitless creativity in music”.
Daniel Stearns:« This is the man to interpret the late pianist’s sorcery. Dom is a visionary composer who has at last brought free-jazz into the Orchestral fray”.
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 Cecil.
The provocative release consists of four spontaneous, unaccompanied pieces simply named « Improv, » one through four. Minasi opens the disc with dissonant and muscular chords that form an energetic and fiery solo. As it progresses Minasi’s crisp lines and crystalline notes echo against each other, coalescing into a quiet and pensive musing.
The second track is equally poignant, and stands out because of its bluesy touches and soulful swagger. Minasi’s extemporization evolves in complexity without losing its passionate core. The cerebral performance elegantly simmers within the haunting and expectant ambience. The contemplative and wistful third « Improv » is more introspective than the previous two. As it evolves, an angry edge glows darkly within it yet the conclusion is solemn and serene.
The final tune on the record has a cinematic and crepuscular atmosphere with richly-textured phrases and eloquent lyricism. MInasi, as always, demonstrates incredible agility as he coaxes contrasting and complementary sounds out of his strings, moving from the reserved and melancholic to the restlessly animated.
This brilliantly original album is not a standard homage that often reinterprets the dedicatee’s works. Steeped in reminiscence and sorrow Remembering Cecil is part elegy for and part celebration of Taylor and his oeuvre. This unique and stimulating music reflects simultaneously Taylor’s spirit and Minasi’s distinctiveness. It also makes a compelling listening experience
Dom Minasi, Remembering Cecil, Solo Guitar Improvisations
If you’ve never tried (assuming you play guitar) you may not realize how difficult, even counter-intuitive it can be to play « completely free » on the guitar. Part of it is percussiveness, gravity, the way that hands situate to the keyboard versus a fretboard-and-finger action that is not a first reaction-inclination if you are say three years old and somehow get next to a guitar. And in some ways it explains why we might find more absolutely freestyle pianists than guitarists? A child may sit down to a piano and wang away at it without a whole lot of thought. Because it is a percussing. Plucking is less obvious. On a guitar really you must already know how to play it pretty well or very well before you can hope to address a potentially valid « free » and completely open improvisation.
That does not mean an excellent free improvisation on the piano is something easy. It is not at all easy. If we lost a titan of the free improv piano around a year ago, that is the giant Cecil Taylor, we are in many ways still reeling from the loss, for he was one-of-a-kind, not someone you replace so much as keep in memory and pose as a model for such things regardless of the instrument. He was brilliant and so far beyond a merely intuitive stance as to be in the same select league as all exceptionally great players of instruments in human history.
Given all that guitarist Dom Minasi, someone readers of this column I hope know of and appreciate as one of the living lights of the guitar today, aimed recently to pay tribute to the master free improviser pianist in a full set of solo electric guitar entitled Remembering Cecil (Unseen Rain UR9912).
The album is the ultimate challenge of artistry at its most exposed. Just Dom, his guitar and the recording apparatus. He gives us four free improvs that as Dom notes in the liners, are a culmination of his 30 years of playing freely and so too of appreciating the music of Cecil Taylor.
What most intrigues me in listening long and carefully to Dom is the reality that he sounds like no other guitarist when he plays, both in a more straight-ahead mode as well as freely, and that he is a very original free guitarist with a style all his own. As he mentions in the liners this is not « atonal » music but it is not pre-planned nor is it in any set time frame. It cascades. It tumbles. It makes use of all the guitar technique, the considerable guitar technique and schooling Dom has gained and maintained over a lifetime of playing. The technique Dom has accumulated is put to use in a very personal way, in other words, and that is what makes his identity strong and thoroughgoing.
The improvs perforce do not sound at first blush identifiably like Taylor’s playing, but that in many ways is because the guitar has its own challenges and playing free on the instrument means a different set of possibilities. And so there is a underlying closeness between the two players in intent, but not in the ultimate sound.
In the end as a free guitarist he sounds completely like himself–not like Derek Bailey, not like Sonny Sharrock, not Elliot Sharp. Like Dom Minasi. In the course of this album you hear the artist just as he was recording this in real time, a kind of self-portrait that is also necessarily a kind of portrait of Cecil Taylor.
And in the process we find on close listening one of the gem examples of free guitar art. And so there you go.
Juampy Juarez: “Dom”… can’t believe that the music is improvised. The four tunes are intense, with lots of fresh, modern ideas , and a completely new language that you have been developing for decades”…
Jack DeSalvo:”The guitar playing is genius. ….And in this world of free improvisation no other guitarist, including Derek Bailey, has reached this advanced point”.
Susan Alcorn:“Earth, wind, water and sky. Emotion, fire, lyricism. Tenderness. Dom Minasi has given the world a recording that beautifully captures the nuances and the spirit of Cecil Taylor in a loving tribute that will be cherished by future generations long after we, all of us, have ceased to inhabit this earth”.
Troy Wheeler“You are a great player! One of the best ever! “
Dan Arcamone : “Dom, you’ve masterfully captured the spirit of Cecil Taylor’s music. The feeling, the motion, the motivic contours, and unrelenting stream of ideas on Remembering Cecil make this a powerful tribute. It’s a beautiful recording’.
Jay Rosen: « Congrats Dom for encompassing the spirit of Cecil Taylor on the guitar ».
Tomas Ulrich: “Another exceptional musical offering from one of New York’s unsung musical masters”.
David Juarez:”I love the intensity of the album, the personality and rawness, the way that tension is created and resolved is not predictable and staged which makes it obligatory to anyone who is looking for limitless creativity in music”.
Daniel Stearns:« This is the man to interpret the late pianist’s sorcery. Dom is a visionary composer who has at last brought free-jazz into the Orchestral fray”.
« The spirit of Cecil Taylor, the headlong freedom, the chance-taking, the manic joy and live wire energy are all here. Dom Minasi does Cecil Taylor proud. »
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 his tribute to Taylor, with Remembering Cecil
Not many pianists would attempt to take on Taylor in a head-to-head piano session; almost none would have the right stuff. Taylor’s classical background combined with his wild-eyed, in-your-face freedom are unmatchable. A guitar taking on the spirit of Taylor seems even more
far -fetched, but Minasi does a marvelous job of it.
The album consists of four extended free improvisations, an approach akin to Taylor’s often very extended solo piano workouts. Taylor’s music was commonly described as atonal. It wasn’t always. Not even most of the time. It was very often very percussive—Taylor played the piano at times as if he were trying to hammer it into the floor. Minasi, through a free-leaning player, presents a much smoother flow, with chord clusters and rapid-fire single notes coalescing into an odd and angular allure, a sound that is more overtly beautiful than what Taylor played—not that beauty wasn’t there with Taylor, but sometimes multiple deep listening was required to fully appreciate it. Minasi could probably play improvisations like this in a winery tasting room—where understated background grooves are usually heard—without getting tossed out of the place, though a segment of the audience (those not in the know; those without curious ears) might roll their eyes, might think him crazy. And he certainly would not fade into the background; he would command attention.
The spirit of Cecil Taylor, the headlong freedom, the chance-taking, the manic joy and live wire energy are all here. Dom Minasi does Cecil Taylor proud.
Dom Minasi & Juampy Juarez: Freeland April 12, 2019
Minasi’s beautiful ballad « Angela » (which he has recorded before) opens the set, and shows both players in lyrical form. This track would be right at home on a mainstream bebop guitar album, complete with sparkling harp harmonics at the end. His « Blues, Blues, Blues » delivers what the title promises (albeit with a distinctly Monkish flavor), but it also has edgy moments well outside the traditional blues box, especially a wild, dissonant duet section.
Two brief improvisations occupy the center point of the album. After a rubato opening, the first develops into an intense rhythmic romp. The second is much more reflective, and concludes with more of those lovely harmonic arpeggios. Minasi’s « Inside Out » is another memorable ballad (which recalls the Thelonious Monk standard « ‘Round Midnight »), and it elicits more expressive melodic invention from both players.
Juarez makes his sole compositional contribution with « Tritonal Ballad, » a piece heavy on the tritones and light on ballad feeling. It has a distinctive harmonic signature, more « out » than the straight jazz tunes but less harmonically unpredictable than the freer playing. There were numerous Monk references throughout the session, but the finale finally gets to the real thing: a gleeful romp through « Well, You Needn’t, » with the players egging each other on to further and further extensions of the original harmony.
Contemporary jazz guitar playing doesn’t get much better than this. An easy recommendation to guitar fans who like their bebop with a bit of spice.
April 5th is the anniversary of Cecil Taylor’s death. I have a new album that is being released on BandCamp first and later on this month worldly release of the full package with liner notes etc. If you would like a link to the Bandcamp download, please let me know.
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Dom Minasi – Remembering Cecil: Freely improvised solo guitar. Cecil Taylor was a revolutionary improvisational pianist. Dom plays the guitar and I think he has achieved something very important honoring the sound of Cecil Taylor. The guitar is a microtonal instrument, it has been partitioned into the traditional 12 tones but you can bend the strings so the palette is actually much bigger than a piano, and there are so many ways to make sounds using an electric guitar. The sound here is unprocessed, made with pure skill and no studio effects. The music is expressed in tone clusters, polyrhythms and a generally percussive energetic physical approach. It is free meaning not in time, no time signature, and truthfully it is not for everyone. There are quick runs and rapid fire streams of notes, up and back, repeat and repeat, pound it, tickle it, pound it some more, then suddenly go into some entirely new territories. Things happen really quickly. The sound is not about chords or melodies, I hear textures and raw imagination. This style of playing has an unusual expressive effect that is a volatile mixture of ideas packed into a concentrated form. Minasi notes “To some free form means atonal, but it’s not. It is a culmination of notes that can be beautiful or (to some) ugly.”
Mr Minasi’s four improvised segments attempt to remind us of Mr Taylor’s whole world and the architecture of each work is like a giant slab of sound that is shaped and erected as if to construct an edifice by which not only Mr Minasi would remember him, but so also would we in listening to this music. Each improvisation is like a stratum made up of dyads, triads and bent notes, and as these black dots leap off the proverbial page they appear placed in a manner so as to create an arrhythmia made up of gestures and phrases that tower as if in a Babel-like poly-linguistic manner which resembles an architecture that is eerily similar – at least in a reverently dedicatory way – to what would constitute a musical monument to the pianist.
