Memories of My Mother

Memories of My Mother ( The Clean Version)


When I was young man and being of Italian heritage, I was expected by my parents to only date Italian girls and if and when I got married it was absolutely to be an Italian.

Like most young men in the late fifties-early sixties I hadn’t had sex till I was nineteen years old. Most of the boys, when younger, bragged about having these wild experiences, but they were only bragging and none of it was true.

When I was 19 and a full-time musician, I was playing with a band in a strip club on Long Island. While on a break, a tall older, woman about 28 came in and sat next to me at the bar. She looked at me and said: I want you!

Immediately I got hot and ready. She waited for me to finish the last set. She then scooped me up and drove me and my readiness to a motel. She paid for the room.

We got undressed, and I just lay there. She looked at me and asked if I had ever been with women? I told her no. Being a good catholic boy, I never even ‘copped a feel’. She was flabbergasted and totally amazed. She couldn’t believe she had the good fortune of breaking in a virgin

Hold on this is still about my mother.
I was so nervous, but this woman taught me a lot that night. In fact everything I ever wanted to know about sex that would last me a lifetime. We made love for hours. She was very fulfilled and couldn’t wait to tell her girlfriends and I couldn’t wait to tell mine.

Around 9AM she drove me to the Long Island Railroad and I went home.

Little did I know my parents were frantic. At six in the morning they called the bandleader, (who was my ride home), to find out what happened to me. He settled them down and told them I was with a woman.

The next day the bandleader recanted the phone conversation with my father.

Apparently when he told him I was with a woman, my father told my mother and he could hear her screaming, is she Italian?

Dom Minasi

One Day

It started with a whisper in the wind. You could hardly hear it. As people everywhere walked down the street they would suddenly turn as if someone tapped them on the shoulder. Strangers would ask the person in back of them, “what did you say”? And ultimately the reply was the same,” I didn’t say a thing. I thought it was you”. Each day the whisper got a little louder and the Voice became clearer and everyone throughout the world heard this Voice in his or her own language. And the Voice surrounded everything and said, “ Tell me why I shouldn’t destroy everything on Earth”?

Actors couldn’t recite their lines. Radio announcers couldn’t announce. The Voice was relentless. It didn’t stop. All anyone could hear in their I-pods, cell phones, computers, TV’s and radios was this constant voice. If there were human beings in far away and desolate places on earth, without any sort of electronic or battery communication devices, as mysterious as it was, the Voice was still heard

The Voice went on and on. Airports shut down. In fact everything shut down, Work could not continue for no one could concentrate. Nothing could function. After seven days the Voice stopped as quickly as it began.

Needless to say the leaders of each nation became alarmed, thinking there was some kind of invasion coming. But the best intelligence and radar could not detect anything in the sky or atmosphere. Jet planes were sent scouring around the world, but there was nothing to find. Satellites in orbit couldn’t find anything near earth or in outer space. The leaders of the Christians, Muslims, Jews and every other type of religion that existed believed it was the voice of God. Arguments ensued between all of the religious leaders. The Muslims thought it was of voice of Mohamed. The Jews claimed is was Moses and of course the Christians were absolutely sure it was Christ coming for the last judgment. Jehovah Witnesses though the Rapture was about to begin and starting preparing for the Four Horsemen of The Apocalypse to appear.

Meetings were held. The US congress ordered an emergency meeting to discuss this turn of events, as did all the other governments around the world. The tribal leaders in the mountains of Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan met to discuss defending their territory. The Pentagon put all the Armed Services on alert and the UN convened into their separate delegations to figure out whom, why and what is doing this. Had some country or individual found a way of taking control of all forms of communication and threaten the very existence of humanity? Was this some elaborate hoax? Some “super-hacker” showing off his or her ‘skills?’

Discussions continued. There were no results. Nothing was being accomplished. The US congress, acting like little spoiled children and lashing out at each other bickered they way they always have. The same happened across the seas in Parliament. Then exactly one week later to the second, the Voice came back and repeated, “ Tell me why I shouldn’t destroy everything on Earth”?

This time the Voice added: “you have one week to respond, and I will speak to one person only. This one representative will speak for all of humanity. He or she should be ready to defend the World. We will meet at 10:00 A.M. EST in Central Park in New York City on the Great Lawn. This message continued for exactly 24 hours, then stopped.

Every nation thought this was some kind of joke. But as soon as the voice stopped, televisions all over the world began to list what was wrong with the world. The same thing happened on all Radio Shows computers, movie screens and I-pods. Any kind of communicative device gave out this message. On the Radio it sounded like public announcements, but the Voice was the same voice that came from the wind. On the television it showed up as a scroll, but instead of going across the TV screen, it went down and covered the whole screen with the same voice bellowing out each statement. If there was a screen or any kind of sounding device or nothing, the Voice could be heard bellowing all over the world.

It began with,

The Environment

The oceans, rivers, lakes, canals and every waterway throughout the Earth are contaminated. The fish, birds and cows are dying. The carbon emissions are destroying the atmosphere and Global Warming has been accelerated and it may be too late to stop it. In the name of greed the world has refused to come up with an alternate form of energy. The oil companies have been gouging up as much oil as they can to and selling it at absorbent prices while polluting the water and atmosphere. Within the last 50 years, these problems could have been solved, but your governments have chosen not to fix the situation or they have come up with a time table that is a joke and it would be too little too late. As a result, the Polar Caps are melting. Your drinking water supply is low. By destroying the forests you are limiting your supply of oxygen. Soon your food will be inedible and your water un-drinkable. Everything you need to survive as a race is being destroyed. “ Tell me why I shouldn’t destroy everything on Earth”?

Humanity

From the very beginning earthlings have been a killing breed. You have turned on each other. You kill everything, and throughout the ages you have enslaved and in some cases eaten each other. Throughout the centuries more blood has been shed than there are stars in your galaxy. You have so many reasons to kill and very few reasons not to. In the United States alone there are 283 million guns. Chicago and Detroit have the highest murder rate in the US, yet the Congress refuses to change the laws. Everyone has a right to own a gun and defend him or herself. With that thinking maybe the US should arm its’ children. More children are killed in the US than anywhere else in the world. Your wars are initially started because of greed. How many wars are going on around the world right now? How many must die before you realize that the death of one person through violence is the death of all of you. “ Tell me why I shouldn’t destroy everything on Earth”?

The Voice went on and on. It covered one topic after the other. Cheating, lying,
education, health care, gangs, starvation, morals and through it all, it kept coming back to greed. After each topic was stated, it ended with “Tell me why I shouldn’t destroy everything on Earth”?

It seemed there was nothing that could be done to stop the continuous broadcasting. Some unplugged their TVs and radios but the Voice still went on. 24 hours a day. The world was overcome with panic. Riots and looting began.
Police and armies were brought out to stop the looting and control the mob-like crowds, but not much could be done. Many were killed and billions of dollars of property was damaged.

You would think it would be the opposite. People could have gathered in a peaceful way and prayed or meditated and wishing this wasn’t happening.
Some did, but some were afraid to go out. Many went the other way and the thinking was; ‘if I’m going to die, I might as well have and enjoy what I always wanted’. The number of ‘revenge’ killings went up along with rape. It was Clockwork Orange times two billion percent

Meanwhile the UN met and tried to decide whom should they send to literally to save the world. Many names from around the world were put into hat, such as Bill and Hillary Clinton, the Dali Lama etc. Some volunteered to talk to the Voice. Russ Limbaugh and Sean Hannity along with Glenn Beck went to Washington DC and then onto as the UN, but they were finally recognized as the idiots they are and were practically laughed out of town. It came down to ex-President Jimmy Carter or Presiden Obama. In the final vote all agreed that the best representative and probably the better speaker was President Obama.

The President agreed to meet with the Voice. All agreed if anyone could do it, Obama could. The president spoke to the leaders of the world and told them that if he could convince the Voice not to destroy Earth, there will be much to give up and change. Some hesitated, but finally agreed.

On the following Saturday, the president arrived at 9:45 and went to the middle of the great lawn. Secret service agents surrounded him. One of them carried a chair for the president. The chair was placed down and the agents were directed to step back about 50 yards. At exactly 10 AM a bright blue light appeared in the sky and the voice that the world was hearing began to speak. It said, “ Tell me why I shouldn’t destroy everything on Earth”?

This question and the Voice were heard throughout the world, which meant that everyone on Earth was listening in. In that instant all the looting, killing and other despicable acts ceased. The Voice had their attention.

The president said, “Before we begin can you tell me if you are God”?

The Voice answered, it wouldn’t matter if I were God, “ Tell me why I shouldn’t destroy everything on Earth”?

Well if you’re not God, who are you?

“You seemed determined to get some answers before we actually begin”

Obama said, “Yes. Please”.

“Alright. I will give you this much.
I am not God. There is no God. Your religions and faiths were invented by men to control and to steal from you”

“If you are not God, then who are you”?

“I am the Guardian of your Galaxy. It is my job to watch over the inhabitants and to make sure they do not disturb the equilibrium that has existed for millions of years”.

“If that is so, why would you want to destroy everything on Earth”?

“You are destroying the planet with selfishness and greed. The equilibrium is already starting to loose it’s balance and in a few short years the Earth will move off its axis and the destruction that will follow will annihilate everything.” “ Tell me why I shouldn’t destroy everything on Earth”?

“Would you will be willing to kill innocent children? Isn’t the smile from one child’s face worth everything”?

The Voice answered, “You must think this is a television or movie script where an answer like that saves the world, but here in the reality of it all I say, if that were true, then why are there millions of children dying from disease, starvation or murder? Why aren’t your children protected from pedophiles or sex slavery? If humanity cared so much about its children it would be taking better care of them.

“What about all the medical discoveries that help the sick”?

If you cared so much about the sick, your new drugs would not cost so much, that most people cannot afford them”. Healthcare would be free.

The President said, “Tell me what should we do”?

“I am here so you will tell me what you and humanity will do”.

Obama said, “ I think we should stop all wars immediately and all weapons that are used for war and killing should be destroyed. Every handgun or rifle should be handed in and be destroyed. Every knife or any weapon that is used for killing should be destroyed.

The Voice said, “You are on the right track, but how to you intend to do this and how long will it take”?

The President said, it might take a year or two.

“What will you do about-your so-called terrorist”?” I don’t think they will be willing to give up their weapons or stop killing. In fact I think that destroying every living thing on earth would be welcomed by them and seen as the ultimate martyrdom”.

“Um! You’re probably right. We will have to track them down and take their weapons away from them”.

“ You haven’t been able to do it so far. What makes you think you can do it now”?

“We’ll just have to take that chance and try harder.”

“Ok. Let’s say I give you a year to accomplish this task, what will you do about the rest of problems that were created by your world and have caused so much damage”?

The President said it would probably take even longer to solve each of those problems.

“ And how much longer? “

“Five years”

“It took you hundreds of years to create these problems. What makes you think you can solved all of this in five years when there is so much going on that is wrong”?

“I think we as humans can do this, just give us a chance, but in order to make it happen I think you will have to prove you can do what you said you would do.”

“Are you asking for a demonstration? Isn’t it enough that I can control all of your communications”?

“I think some leaders will need proof, especially terrorists”.

“Ok. You will have your proof”.

“What do you intend to do”?

In five days the melted ice in your Polar Caps will be restored. Two days later they will be destroyed.

The President said, “Yes I think that will do it. Will we meet again”?

“We will meet on the eight day”.

The light disappeared and with it so did the Voice.

Almost immediately the Polar Caps stopped melting and started to rebuild themselves. Each day the restoration continued. On the 5th day they were completely restored. The weather seemed to level out and the water temperature throughout the world was restored to where it was 100 years ago. It was what we would call a miracle. The news was broadcast around the world. Some Government leaders were hoping the Caps wouldn’t be destroyed, but two days later they were gone and it was as if it never happened.

On the eighth day the President and the Voice met in Central Park.

“You have one year from today to stop all wars and destroy all weaponry throughout the world. If one shot is fired or one person dies due to murder, your world as you know will be over” the Voice said and disappeared.

The first thing the President did was to go to the UN. He gave a long speech and all nations agreed to start destroying their weapons and the mob mentality in the streets has to stop. The question was asked who would go first? Since the Middle East was a hotbed of violence, the Arab Nations refused to go first. They felt they would be leaving themselves exposed to Israel’s wrath. Israel felt the same way. This went on for weeks. The President had a meeting with both Israel and the leader of the Arab Nation. He stressed how important it was for this to get started. They were already running behind schedule and an Armistice had yet to be called between other warring nations. He finally said to both parties, “ I am going to take care of the United States and help countries that need it. I will destroy all weapons and collect all guns throughout my Nation and I am sure that the other Nations will follow. I will make sure no one goes hungry again and everyone will get free medical care. I will create jobs to help the environment. All the money we have been spending on wars and weapons will go into medical research, creating jobs, rebuilding our roads and bridges and feeding the hungry”.

“I am sure the rest of the world will follow. In a year’s time, when the Voice returns, maybe I can strike a bargain with him. Since 99% of the world will have met its obligations except for you two and some terrorists. Maybe instead of destroying everything on Earth, he would only destroy your two nations and the terrorists.”

This argument seemed to work. Both nations simultaneously began destroying their weapons. The biggest problem was to find the terrorists and to somehow cut down on crime.

Criminals being released from prisons all over the world had to re-educated.
Many were mentally ill or just plain violent. The task seemed insurmountable.

The one- year mark was arriving in a few days. Not all was complete. The tribes in the Afghan mountains were still fighting and Osama Bin Laden and his military hadn’t been found as of yet. The heads of Governments were panicking. They knew they hadn’t finished. They also knew what the Voice demanded was impossible. All they could do was hope and pray that the Voice would give humanity some more time to stop the violence.

When the next Saturday arrived, the President again arrived at 9:45 and went to the middle of the great lawn. Secret service agents surrounded him. One of them carried a chair for the president. The chair was placed down and the agents were directed to step back about 50 yards. At exactly 10 AM a bright blue light appeared in the sky and the Voice that the world had heard a year ago began to speak. “ Tell me why I shouldn’t destroy everything on Earth”?

The President stood and said” There are very few starving children now. Murders have gone down 98% around the world. All wars have stopped except for a few in some mountain ranges in the Middle East. We are hoping to settle them in a few more weeks. We are rehabilitating criminals. We are helping drug addicts. The sale and flow of drugs has stopped and most weapons have been destroyed. The money used for the military has been shifted to research and cures for all diseases and new and great medicines are on the horizon while we work on restoring the atmosphere, and the oceans to what they once were. In five years we will accomplish what you asked of us.”

The Voice said, “yes you have done well, but there is the question of terrorists.
This problem has not been solved. The deal was no weaponry in one year.
I see you are trying. This is what the universe wants. I will give you another year, but only one year to end terrorism in the world”.

The President smiled and said “thank you, thank you!”

You could hear the cheers around the world. Horns starting blowing, people danced in the street it was as if it was New Years Eve on Broadway.

Just as the Voice said “I bid you farewell” explosions ripped through the park and the surrounding buildings. Simultaneously in other parts of the World,
the same thing happened. London looked like the Blitz after World War Two and the same for Germany. Japan and China had explosions that killed thousands of people and Moscow was devastated by destruction. The American Embassies throughout the world were destroyed. Explosions continued throughout the day. All the work and healing that went into rebuilding humanity was being destroyed.

It seems the year that the World was working on changing everything security had become lapsed.

Osama Bin Laden’s cohorts were able to travel around the world and place bombs in strategic places where they would do the most damage. Washington DC was destroyed along with the UN and Statue of Liberty. In Paris, the Eiffel Tower was destroyed along with The Church of Notre Dame. The Taj Maj Hall did not exist anymore. Dirty bombs left the atmosphere filled with radioactive particles and mushroom clouds were seen from one end of the globe to another.

Three days later the Voice could be heard all over the world.

“You had your chance and you destroyed it. And in destroying it you have destroyed yourselves. You have cast a cloud of darkness that will take hundreds of years to go away. Within a year you will all be dead. I do not have to destroy everything on Earth. Through your selfishness and stupidity you have done it yourselves. Goodbye”!

The Voice was never heard from again. A year later the only thing left on Earth were its’ buildings. Every tree, every flower and every living thing was gone.

50 years later an Alien Spaceship flew over New York. The buildings were still there but it looked and felt like a ghost town. The Alien ship did not land for the radiation level was still high. It flew to South America and then on to Russia and Europe and Asia. Nowhere in sight was there one living thing. As fast as it came in to take a look was how fast the ship left the Earths’ Atmosphere, calling ahead to its Mother Ship.

“ This place called Earth is uninhabitable!”

Dom Minasi

Christmases Remembered

When I was a young child one of my best memories was spending Christmas with my family. When I say family I don’t just mean my mother, father and brother, I mean my grandmother and all my aunts, uncles and cousins on my mother’s side.

Every Christmas Eve and Christmas Day the family would spend together. Most of the time it was at our house. This was the second house we had lived in. We moved there when I was four years old. My brother Tony was born in that house a year later.

This house was a big two-story brick house. It had a large finished basement with a fireplace. The basement had a kitchen, boiler room, finished bathroom, three large closets and the main room was gigantic. The upstairs main floor had a huge kitchen with a breakfast alcove, dining room, and a large living room with a fireplace and adjacent library with huge windows. The upstairs second floor had three bedrooms with a kitchen and another full bathroom. This is where my grandmother lived, (my father’s mother). There also was an unfinished attic. The outside property next to the house was 100’ by 100’. It was huge. People in the neighborhood thought we were rich. We weren’t, but my father made a good living and owned a men’s clothing factory. His factory was big and everyone from both sides of the family at one time or another worked in the factory. My father had contracts with the US Army to make uniforms. We were comfortable.

Soon after we moved to the new house my father’s mother died and a few years later my father almost died from a major heart attack. He lost his business, but we survived.
My mother went back to work and I was given a lot of responsibility in helping out.

Even though we were poor, we didn’t act or behave that way. My mother cooked every night. She made our clothes for us and we lived a life absence of feeling sorry for our selves. My father eventually got better and returned to work and we were OK. Not as good as before, but OK.

My parents converted this large house into a two family house so we would have an extra income. It was after the house was converted that family Christmases were spent at our house.

Two weeks before Christmas, we would put up the tree and hang lights outside around the house and the back. All the lights were blue. It was very pretty to look at and was a perfect setting for Christmas.

In the Italian tradition, Christmas Eve was fish night and Christmas Day was the meat day. All my Aunts would come over and along with my mother and grandmother and would do the cooking. It took all day to prepare the lavish meal for all of us. The fish was bought early in the morning at the fish market as well vegetables at the local farmer’s market and all the deserts and bread at the Italian bakery.

We used the finished basement area to have dinner.

My father would rent long tables and set them up in a semi-circle like a horseshoe. The cousins would set the table and we would sit down to have dinner around 8pm. When I say all of us, I mean about
40 -50 people which included all the new babies too.

The fish dinners always consisted of the 1st course being spaghetti with a red fish sauce made with shrimp or calamari. If you preferred a white sauce there was spaghetti and claims and the claims were fresh and had to me washed and opened.

The next course would be a salad. Some would prefer to wait and have their salad with the main meal. The main meal would consist of all kinds of fish dishes. Lobster with butter sauce, lobster tails baked with red sauce and mozzarella cheese. There was fried flounder and two kinds of shrimp and a fish salad with calamari, shrimp, lettuce and other types of fish. Along with the main course came all the side dishes of two or three kinds of vegetables and of course fresh Italian bread and butter.

After the main course the table was cleared and fruit and nuts were served. In some families that would be considered desert, but in Italian families, desert is cake or pastry. The deserts consisted of all kinds of Italian pastries and assorted cakes and cookies and served with either regular coffee, which was called brown coffee or espresso with lemon slices (black coffee).

Later that night we would open presents.

When I was 12-14 years old, I would do my impression of Elvis Presley singing Hound Dog The family loved it and so did I. ( I can hear all my musician friends laughing). Needless to say, by the time I was 15 years old I refused to do it anymore because I had gotten seriously into jazz and no self respecting jazz musician would impersonate Elvis.

When midnight came, we were all exhausted and would sleep all over the house. The bedrooms, and the couches the floor, everywhere. The next morning we would all wake up, to the smell of fresh coffee. We would have breakfast in shifts.

The men would sit and sip on their extra cups of coffee, smoke and hang around the house and talk or watch TV while the kids either played together or played with some of the toys that Santa brought them. The women would begin preparations for the late afternoon dinner. You must remember this was 1949- 1959. That’s the way it was then. Women did everything and the women were all my mother’s sisters. Whenever they were together they were always laughing as if they had some private joke that no one but them were privy to.

The dinner, again, would consist of a huge meal, with many courses. The first course was some kind of Italian soup. The second course anti-pasta, meaning before the pasta. Next was macaroni (pasta) in a meat sauce or huge meat lasagna. Then came the meat from the sauce that you would eat with Italian bread. Next came some kind a roast along with chicken, which was either roasted, or cacciatore with plenty of side dishes like broccoli in a white garlic sauce, peas and carrots, artichokes cooked in garlic and oil and corn. Again the fruits and nuts and the coffee and desert were served. All in all, we had a seven course meal. After dinner the kids would play, the women washed the dishes and then the adults would either sit around and talk or play cards.

The thing to remember is that these dinners took hours to prepare and hours to consume, but it was a joyous time for everyone. I think back at those times when I was younger and how I enjoyed it all so much. The following week we would do it all over again at one of my aunt’s house for New Years Eve and New Years.

It’s sad, but true, the world was an easier and simpler place to live in back then. It took very little to make us happy.

As the years went by, all the cousins had there own kids and the sisters and brothers had there own Christmas Eve dinners together and after my grandmother passed away, it seemed the family didn’t get together as much. We only saw each other at Weddings and funerals and by the time I was 19, I was traveling and working all the time including Christmas and New Years. If the dinners had continued, I would have missed most of them as I missed many of my cousin’s weddings.

I am so grateful for those memories and my family. To this day I am close with my family. four years ago my Aunt Virginia passed away. I was very close to her and although I hadn't seen her at Christmas in many years, I spoke to her all the time. With her passing and my Aunt Florence, the De Rosa clan (my mother's side of the family) are gone.. My cousin Phil died this pass year and I am eternally grateful to him for he was there for me when my Father died.

My wife, Carol, loves Christmas and decorates our apartment while listening to Christmas music and between my brother’s family my kids and grandchildren and our friends another tradition has begun. With the miracle of the Internet and now Facebook I am in close contact with my cousins. My cousin Angel renewed the traditional family picnic which had stopped 55 years ago, but that’s another story.

I think for all of us, Christmas will be remembered with joy and tragedy. For the last 10/20 years, all the racial tension and the killing of our black brethren. Now going on three years, Covid 19  and the pandemic that has cost thousands of lives throughout the world.. Let us send healing prayers to those who lost their loved ones and give thanks for what we have and pray for  healing and peace.

My wife, Carol and I  and I wish you all a happy and healthy holiday and may your memories and future memories be filled with joy

Dom Minasi


jazzguitar@domminasi.com

A Friend Remembered

Three Days ago, (December 15th) was the anniversary of the death of dear friend and great jazz pianist, Dennis Moorman. It was eight years ago that Dennis’s wife Lynette called to tell us that Dennis died.

Why am I re-posting this again?

It is near Christmas and I always think of Dennis around now.

I met Dennis after my Blue Note days. In order to make a living, besides teaching, I played club dates, which are better known to the rest of the country as 'casuals'. For those who don't know what casuals are, they are weddings, dances, etc. A lot of jazz musicians get their training on these gigs and still do them, but won't admit it.

I was playing in one of these bands when someone asked if I knew Dennis. I did not. Eventually at one of these dates I met him. Dennis and I hit it off right away. We both had sour tastes in our mouths brought on by the so-called "business of jazz."

A few years later I stopped playing these gigs. I had been through a divorce and had moved to the city. Around 1984 I called Dennis and said "listen, I know you like to play ‘out’ and so do I, so why don't we play out together?" We set a date and got together. At first we played standards and eventually we started playing original music.

Dennis and I rehearsed almost every week for a year. In a year's time
we had grown very close, not only as musicians, but also as friends. I also got to know his wife Lynette and their son Russell.

Dennis was getting his Doctorate in Jazz Education from NYU. They had to create a curriculum because no one had ever pursued a Doctorate in Jazz Education before! I was honored that in his Dissertation, Dennis quoted material from one of my books. When he gave me a copy of it, again I felt honored that he truly respected my opinion. This respect, needless to say, was mutual.

We did work some jazz gigs together as co-leaders of a quartet, which
was broadcast ‘live’ on WKCR radio with Phil Schapp announcing and interviewing us.

During that time we recorded an album (String Duets), which we both shopped around with no luck. I did get a hand written letter from Michael Cuscuna telling me how much he enjoyed the music, but Blue Note wanted more commercial music (so what else is new).


Eventually Dennis and I went our separate ways, but we always stayed in
touch and in 2000 we started playing together again. Dennis was sitting in the front row when I recorded Takin’ The Duke Out at The Knitting Factory in New York City.

We started making plans and wanted to add another ten or twelve minutes to the album and release it as a CD under my own CDM label.

Christmas 2001, Dennis and Lynette were in our home laughing and sharing Christmas with our friends.

One year later Dennis was offered a kidney. He was on dialysis for years. Dennis’s kidneys failed a long time ago and he almost died when his body rejected a transplant. But in 2002 he decided it was time to try again.

Lynette called us and told us about it and we went to see Dennis in the hospital. He was in good spirits and happy. Two days later he died.

My wife Carol and I went to his wake and his burial.

To this day I am sad and I miss him all the time and I know if he were alive today, we would be making great music together.

2002 was a hard year for me emotionally. After my heart surgery, bassist Peter Kowald died two days after I worked with him and then Dennis.


It’s Christmas time and the biggest gifts you can give anyone are love, kindness and forgiveness. I can't stress it enough. Make each day count and let your loved ones know how much you love them, 'cause it could be over in a flash!

I Could Have Been.....

Twit, Twitter, Twiddle Lee Dee

In today’s paper they listed the top ten Twitter All-Stars. Lady Gaga is number one with over 6 million fans following her every tweet. I have 59. Not millions, seriously 59 followers. Admittedly so, I only tweet when I have something important to say and I only say it once in a while. Thus 59. Now if I tweeted everyday and let’s say I let people know when I wake up, take a shower, go to the bathroom and then make some phone calls, who knows maybe my fan base will go up to about 61.


Ok! I’m not a rock star. I can’t sing, well she can’t sing either. Maybe if I change my name to Lord Blah-Blah, I’ll get a few more fans. I can perform in my underwear or nude, that should raise my numbers or lower them depending how you look at it. If people want to see an overweight, balding, aging guitar player perform that way, I’m in! I too can become a super star.

But wait! I may have to stop playing very far out jazz and “God forgive me”, play music the public understands like Pop or Rock or even worse, I would have to play a solid body guitar, loose weight and wear a multi-color wig, tattoos and make-up. Maybe then I can raise my numbers to 101 fans. Hey it’s going up.

Lady Gaga writes her own songs. I compose and write songs with lyrics. When Lady Gaga sings her songs, no one understands the lyrics. When vocalists sing my songs everyone understands the lyrics. Wait! Maybe that’s it! I have to write songs that no one can understand and have singers garble the words, which will make them totally foreign. That’s the key and the answer. I now know the formula to becoming world famous!

Write garbage, play garbage, look like garbage and the worse you are the more the public will love you. Gees, why couldn’t I think of that 30 years ago. You see, that’s what a manager is for. What a wasted career. I could have impacted millions but instead, 59 fans. Hey what can I say? 59 is better than none.

Dom Minasi

Let's Make Christmas Simple

Let's Make Christmas Simple

I was raised Catholic. I went to Catholic School and attended Mass every Sunday until I was 18 years old. My father and mother were devout Catholics; in fact, I wanted to be a priest till those teenage hormones kicked in. Growing up as a Catholic and Italian, guilt was no stranger, nor was the fear of dying and going to hell. I was indoctrinated into believing that I was born with sin on my soul and must be baptized to erase that sin, otherwise if I should suddenly die, I would end up in limbo and never go to heaven and see the ‘face of God’. Missing Mass on Sundays was a mortal sin and I would go to hell. There were lots of reasons to end up in hell and suffer an eternity of fire. Heavy? You better believe it!

I came to realize that the Church taught that almost anywhere I turned there was the Devil tempting me to commit all kinds of sins because he wanted my soul. How does one deal with all of this? The only way is to become a priest (the kind that does not prefer children), or live a true Catholic life: attend Sunday Mass, attend confession, receive communion, contribute money I couldn’t afford and censor everything I read or watched, as well as my sex life.

When I finally came to my senses, I realized I had been duped.
I read a lot. I also read the Bible. I wanted to see if any of it made sense. By the time I was 27 years old, I had let go of the church and its’ restricted teachings and finally felt free. My family was horrified when I announced that I didn’t believe that Jesus was the son of God or God himself and the Holy Trinity was conceived by men and there was no such thing as the Immaculate Conception. We’ve been scammed all our lives so that the Catholic Church could get rich off our fear.

But through it all I always believed in Christmas, not as a fact, but as an idea – an idea that through the years has been manipulated by greed and merchandizing. I am disgusted by the fact that Christmas has become so commercialized that most of the world has forgotten what it truly means.

If taken literally, when the three wise men came to visit the baby Jesus they brought gifts, small gifts, one from each of them, which through the years has translated into ‘Let the Shopping Begin!’

Let me ask you, is it better to give a child a gift of love that will instill a sense of well being, security, self confidence and happiness which will endure a lifetime, or a video game that will wear out and is often filled with blood and violence and could possibly twist their reasoning? What greater gift then to share the wonder of reading books? Instead of spending money we don’t have to buy stuff that will eventually break or be discarded and teaches nothing, spend time with them, time that will give them memories that will last a lifetime.

Whether you are a Christian, Jew, Muslim, Mormon or any other religion that exists, Christmas can only mean one thing - love. If you want to believe it is Christ’s birthday that’s OK. If you don’t, that’s Ok too.

Let’s change the meaning of Christmas from, ‘let’s shop till we drop’ to ‘whom can I help today’? Wouldn’t it be great if we could continue this selflessness throughout the year?

Let’s let go of the selfishness and the ‘me’ attitude and think of us as one; one color, one religion, one race – the Human Race…. One! It’s so simple.

I wish us all a Happy Holiday and a New Year filled with
Love, Health, Friendship, Generosity, Forgiveness, Abundance, Gratitude and Creativity.

Dom Minasi

Thank You Jerry Springer

I want to thank the right wing media for showing us how and what Middle America thinks. Of course they are not responsible for the way they act. We can thank Jerry Springer for that.

Years ago when I found myself in a bind, I moved in, for a short time, back to my mother’s house. To say the least, this was very traumatic and the slight beginnings of an ulcer. It also was the beginning of a healing between my mother and me that was long overdue.

The house was a two family structure with an apartment upstairs that was rented. I got the spare bedroom in my mother’s first floor level apartment plus the whole finished basement. As a musician/composer and a teaching artist, some of my days started at 8:30 AM and some started about 1PM. Regardless it did not matter. I would awaken about 6:30 AM, have coffee and go to the basement to practice, compose and work on lesson plans for my classes. On the days that I started work late, I would usually go back upstairs and have breakfast with my mother. My mother would get up around 9:30 AM.

This is where the healing happened. We would talk and argue about everything. No topic was left untouched. My mother was not well educated or sophisticated, but she was smart and no one could ‘pull the wool over her eyes’. She loved acting dumb, just so she could see how far someone would go to try and con her. Her greatest line was, I’m just an old lady and I don’t understand things. Bless her soul she understood everything.

My mother was also a racist as well as a was a devout Jesus loving Catholic (sound familiar). She also hated Gay people. I would say to her, Ma! When you come back again, you are coming back as a black gay women. Her attitude was based on fear and not being educated. She did not know any black or Gay people. She had no idea of black families or gay families. If you weren’t Italian, you couldn’t be trusted. The mafia was good and they protected their own.

Before she died, she needed home care. The Universe acts in strange ways. Many of the nurses were black. She became very close with some of them and her attitude changed.

Why am I writing about my mother when I should be writing about Jerry Springer?

It was during those morning get togethers’ and sometime afternoon gatherings that my mother would put on the Jerry Springer Show. I would sit there, keep my mother company while she watched the most despicable people scream, kick, bite, curse, attack, cry and act out like I’ve never seen before. I, who have worked in mafia owned striptease joints and have seen everything, had never watched spectacles such as these. To say the least, I was in shock. My mother would laugh and enjoy this while I would get angry and say, how can you watch this garbage? She learned a lot about all kinds of people from that show. It enforced what her own prejudices.

She would dismiss me, but in my mind these TV programs were not funny. How can people go on TV and act this way? Why did we as an audience allow it and why, to this very day, is this kind if mental midget ness still on the air? We see it in the so-called reality shows and now we see it in the town meetings, Congress and in streets of Washington DC.

When ex president, Jimmy Carters, says he sees it as underlying racism, there is polyphony of voices from the right-wing community. Where was the outrage when New Orleans was devastated by Katrina and it’s citizens left to rot? I personally saw it as racism. What about the lies that got us into a war that cost billions of dollars and American lives? I saw that as the worst kind of dishonesty. How about the profits the insurance and drug companies make or the banks or Black Water or the dishonesty of the right wing Republicans?

Before you can claim dishonesty or lies, you have to be honest and truthful first. To quote a wiser man, “ let he who is without sin throw the first stone’

Let’s see the Republican Party and the right wing conservatives and media own-up before they stir-up!

Everyone in this country has a right to speak up, disagree, march, even shout, but do it with some dignity and self-control. Show respect where it is due. The office of the Presidency demands respect. This president more than any deserves, at the very least, some kind of co-operation and in a dignified manner. You can disagree with every word he says, but disagree properly not like some thug.

Again, we have to thank Jerry Springer. He opened the door for thuggish behavior. He showed the American people how it's done and ‘boy’ did they learn'.

Imagine this, anyone working for Fox News, in order to get hired has to take mandatory classes in:

1.How To Be A Thug and Get Away With It
2.How To Be Rude,
3.How To Lie On The Air and Look Like or Sound Like You’re Telling The Truth,
4.Go Out and Commit A Crime, We’ll Hire You!
5. And the Piece de Résistance you must watch 60 Jerry Springer Shows In One Week

Complete this and you will become a full-fledged Fox News person or better yet, you can work for Russ Limbaugh or get elected to congress!

Again I say, thanks Jerry. You did a great job!

DM