The Pandemic, Cancer and Jazz

 

 

Before the Pandemic came and showed its ugly face in March 2020,

I was pretty comfortable. I would go out of town two or three times  a year for good paying gigs ( NYC doesn’t have good paying gigs for my music and I won’t play for the door). I had 20 reliable students and my wife would pick up some acting or voice over gigs and I'd released one CD per year.

 

That all changed in a few days. My students did not want to be taught on line. All of a sudden I was down to five students. The out -of- town gigs stopped and a quartet recording  ( WIG) that we rehearsed for  three months was cancelled. Fortunately, I had already recorded my guitar quartet ( Eight Hands One Mind) with Hans Tammen. Harvey Valdez and Briggan Krauss. Thanks  to Hans Tammen, the mix was set and the master was handed into Jack DeSalvo and Unseen Rain Records.   

 

 Then December 2020  rolled around I was diagnosed with salivary cancer.

At first they thought I had lung cancer but more tests revealed it was in my right salivary glad right under my right ear. What to do?

Operate of course and take the cancer out.

 

Easier said then done. It seems most of the cancer lodged itself in my nerve, so they couldn’t get it all out. Meanwhile my surgeon , Dr. Peter Costantino, submitted my findings to a Tumor Board for recommendations.  In the interim I had a new oncologist, Dr. William Grace, who said the best way to fight this is with chemo and radiation.

 

Thirty- six precise radiations by Dr. Lederman and six  weeks of Chemo. At one point because of the Radiation, I lost my voice and  couldn’t teach. Fortunately, it all worked  out and I have been in remission for the three months. It took me a while but I was able to pick of five new students.

It did affect my playing. A side effect of chemo is extreme tiredness. My playing lost a lot but slowly I am getting it back.

 

I am not ready to go on the road again even though I have been vaccinated and I still am not accepting students in my home. I still feel it’s too dangerous out there no matter what the government says.

 

 Because of these doctors who saved my life I composed six new pieces to honor them. Each composition has their last name as a title.

 

Hopefully, maybe by the end of the year, I will be able to get back in the studios and record WIG  and the new quartet too.

 

BTW, the tumor board recommended that the surgeon take out the cancerous nerve which would have left my right side of my face paralyzed and I would dribble. Guess what I told him?

 

Dom Minasi

June 20y^th, 2021