Dom Minasi, the guitarist, was born in New York City on March 6, 1943. This is the same date as Wes Montgomery. He was a self-taught natural musician who played a lot of jazz combo gigs, rock & roll, church dances and other musical instruments in his youth. Minasi was a teacher and took many students to private school. He also launched a professional career in mid-’70s Blue Note with two albums. This was also a time when Blue Note was going under, and the company wasn’t supportive of promotional efforts. Minasi quit the recording industry and began freelance work for 15 years. He played occasionally with Dennis Moorman, a jazz pianist, before returning to Lehman College in 1990 with a degree as a composer. In 1993, Minasi was working on off-Broadway shows while composing nearly 300 compositions and working with children in New York’s public schools. He was also preparing for a return that would see him reinvent his style improvisationally. Minasi continued to teach workshops for children and learned extended techniques and advanced harmonic theories. He was back on the scene in 2000, producing CDs for CIMP as well as his own independent CDM label with Carol Mennie, his wife and vocalist. Minasi gained a new audience through extended works, extrapolations and pure improvisational explorations. His collaborators include Blaise Siwula and Ken Filiano, Joe McPhee and Tomas Ulrich. He has performed at International Society for Improvised Music conferences (Ann Arbor, MI, 2006, and Evanston, IL) in 2007. His book, A Singer’s guide to reading rhythm, was published in 2007. Allmusic
