Chris Kelsey & Dom Minasi - Duets NYC-Woodstock

Size: 136,9 MB
Time: 58:50
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2015
Styles: Jazz
Art: Front

01. What Is This Thing Called Love (5:25)
02. Feels Like Rain In China (9:54)
03. For My Father (9:05)
04. Quick Response (4:53)
05. I Who Have Nothing (5:46)
06. Into The Night (6:19)
07. Dizzy Lizzie (5:44)
08. When Your Dreams Come Rue (7:40)
09. Softly As In A Morning Sunrise (3:59)

Duets: NYC/Woodstock finds Minasi in the company of another singular saxophone artist—Chris Kelsey. This album, brewing for about a decade in the mind of each man, is the first duo date for Kelsey since he encountered trombonist Steve Swell on Observations (CIMP, 1996). And what a duo date this is. Kelsey manages to be both co-conspirator and foil to Minasi. He brings clarity and focus to the picture via melodic seeds, but none of his gestures are predictable; some of those seeds grow or mutate and others are blown away, never to be developed, seen, or heard from again.

This album proves to be the most listener-friendly of the three dates under discussion here, due in no small part to the way that Kelsey regulates the music. There's lots of ferocious free play and wonky blowing to be found here, but there's also melodic heart in this music. Kelsey brilliantly toys with a motif while projecting puckish charm ("Blues Ultimatum"), plays with a slightly Monk-ish thought before things go awry ("Memories Of Being Very Angry"), and twists and contorts stable ideas ("Say What?). Minasi, every bit as fierce and zany as usual, is capable of engaging in call and response dialogue, delivering brittle rejoinders, and going completely off the rails in a single performance ("Di Dow").

There's beauty in the way these two men occasionally disengage, letting their individual personality traits shine through on their own respective terms, but engagement is more of the norm here. It's plainly evident in the way these two marry the quirky, the angular, the structured, and the free while conjuring thoughts of The Twilight Zone ("Rod Serling"), and it's patently obvious when relatively mellow thoughts lead to intense ideas and wailing passages ("Tip Toe"). Dom Minasi and Chris Kelsey are a simpatico duo if ever there was one. ~Dan Bilawsky

Duets NYC-Woodstock

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Dom Minasi - Quick Response

Size: 136,4 MB
Time: 58:50
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2004
Styles: Jazz: Straight-Ahead/Mainstream, Hammond Organ
Art: Front

01. What Is This Thing Called Love (5:25)
02. Feels Like Rain In China (9:54)
03. For My Father (9:05)
04. Quick Response (4:53)
05. I Who Have Nothing (5:46)
06. Into The Night (6:19)
07. Dizzy Lizzie (5:44)
08. When Your Dreams Come Rue (7:40)
09. Softly As In A Morning Sunrise (3:59)

Quick Response is Dom Minasi's latest effort since last year's Time Will Tell, also on CDM Records. Supported by a group of musicians who are no strangers to playing both classic hard bop and avant stuff, Minasi is delivering an album that in a way dwells both in classic and avant-garde territories.

The choice of material encompasses standards such as Cole Porter's "What is This Thing Called Love" and "Softly As in a Morning Sunrise." What is interesting is that these standards are not approached in a classic way like they have been a thousand times before; the musicians take the material as a basis for reinvention and improvisation. From the opening track until the last, one can hear different worlds colliding into one. "Dizzy Lizzy" is actually a tribute to Duke Ellington where Minasi takes the chords of "Take The 'A' Train" and pushes the piece into different territories. (In 2001, Minasi did a tribute album, Takin' The Duke Out, featuring fresh interpretations of classic Ellington compositions, where he paid homage to the great composer.)

"Feels Like Rain in China" features a wonderful sax solo by Mark Whitecage, and Kyle Koehler's organ provides a nice layer of keyboard sounds for the musicians to play atop. There are shades of Wes Montgomery's sound all around, and the band pays tribute to this great guitarist by employing aspects of his signature style on a tune that was never recorded by him: "I Who Have Nothing." The title track features a repetitive rhytmic opening section and the band's playing indicates a variety of influences.

Minasi's arrangements are inventive and challenging, but even though these are excellent performances, the band tends to overplay some times. But then again, this ain't no beginner's work, and it reveals that Dom Minasi and his band have a lot to say (and play). ~Nenad Georgievski

Personnel: Dom Minasi -- guitar; Mark Whitecage -- alto sax; Kyle Koehler -- organ; John Bollinger -- drums

Quick Response

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