Dom Minasi - "The Vampire's Revenge"
(CDM Records CDM 1006)
Dom Minasi - "The Vampire's Revenge"
(CDM Records CDM 1006)
Uploaded to Aural Innovations June 2006
Dom Minasi is an experienced avant garde jazz guitarist who together with his dedicated back line of Ken Filiano on bass and Jackons Kraft on Drums, have pulled in 20 guest musicians to fill in Dom's vision for this Anne Rice dedicated suite of extremely interesting and diverse compositions. This is a beautifully packaged double CD with a very detailed book and description of each track and pictures of all the contributing musicians. The opening track, The Seduction, features guest clarinet player Perry Robinson and is a very interesting composition that is like the musicians are pushing each other back and forth and then all coming together. Very good idea. Who's Your Dentist features Joe Giardullo (soprano sax), Tomas Ulrich (cello) and Jason Kao Hwang (violin) on a quite challenging track that moves the listener in many ways. Dom acts more like a conductor and never lets his guitar playing really take the lead here as he steps in and around the others. Just One More Bite is an 11 minute track that slowly develops and features the vocalist Carol Mennie. This track also features a lot of other guests and is quite insane at times but always very interesting and intense. The Transformation evokes a dark sense of endangerment in the way the track is constructed and features the most complex line up of guests with strings and horns and double bass. The Dark Side is 13 minutes and begins with some piano (Mathew Shipp) and intense bass playing before Dom kicks in as well with some amazing guitar. This track builds up and really shows the intense musicianship of the core members on this CD. The last track on the first CD is The First Day. This track begins with a sort of walking bass line as trombone (Steve Swell) and alto sax (Mark Whitecage) kick in with improvised wordless vocals by Carol that are played against the horns. A daring track to say the least!
The 17 minute Bloodlust starts CD 2 with very haunting lines that you might hear in a horror film (very abnormal one!). The piano playing by Borah Bergman is quite insane and this is countered by equally intense guitar by Dom. Later in the track the fugelhorn (Paul Smoker), tenor sax (Joe McPhee) and trombone (Steve Swell) add to the massive complexity of this track. Phew... this one leaves you exhausted! The Hunt is next with dual saxophones (Sabir Mateen and Joe McPhee) and trombone (Steve Swell). This track is slow to build which is nice as the last track blows your mind. Where You Gonna Go, Where You gonna Hide? This is an older track that Dom had performed with alto sax player Blaise Siwula (who is featured prominently). There are some very strange spoken words by actor Peter Ratray. The final track, The Vampire's Revenge, features extremely intense bass and guitar playing while the string players add to the mix. Far out! If you can handle a musical challenge, this is for you. Amazing stuff!
For more information you can visit the Dom Minasi web site at: http://www.domminasi.com.
Reviewed by Scott Heller