My friend Jack DeSalvo tells this story about how when he first hit the NYC jazz scene as an aspiring jazz guitarist back in the '80s, one of the first things he was told was to check out Dom Minasi. Even then, Dom had been practicing his craft both over and under the radar for decades. Long before, Cannonball Adderley called a young Minasi the best young guitarist he'd heard in a while. Not long after, Blue Note Records heard the same thing in his playing, and signed him to a deal. Yet while Dom's gifts were well-known and acknowledged by fellow musicians, his steadfastly uncompromising nature - specifically, his determination to explore the possibilities inherent in newer, more experimental types of jazz - meant that he was destined to be a rarefied taste in terms of wide commercial acclaim. And so he's remained: creating and growing in the jazz capitol of the world, New York City, a fascinating artist hellbent on realizing the twin potential of his personal artistry and the greater world of improvised music. The first time I heard Dom was on an album he did with his trio that included bassist Ken Filiano and drummer Jackson Krall. It was called "Taking the Duke Out” - a collection of performances of Ellington compositions that embraced the relationship between straight-ahead jazz and its outré variants. I immediately knew this was a guy I could do business with. We met and soon we began playing, occasionally in groups, but more often as a duo. Our sessions were sporadic but productive. Things heated up after I moved upstate to Dutchess County, to a locale approximately equidistant between Dom's apartment in Manhattan and his other home in Woodstock. Initially I would drive to the latter, but once Dom realized that I had even readier access to NYC, we began having sessions there, as well. After years of talking about recording, last year we finally got down to business. The music contained herein is culled from sessions held over the course of 2014 in both New York and Woodstock. Both Dom and I compose a great deal, but this project naturally evolved into a matchup of hardcore jazz-influenced free improvisers going at it As Serious as Your Life. In other contexts, neither of us is afraid of playing slow and being lyrical, but when we hit as a duo, the gloves come off. Clearly, we bring out the beast in each other. When I think of free jazz duos, my first and primary point of reference is the 1967 John Coltrane and Rashied Ali firestorm, “Interstellar Space.” Dom and I take a similar tack here - unconsciously, perhaps, but naturally and fruitfully. His ability to conceive harmonic and melodic material at such an extraordinary velocity whilst generating such percussive heat is an inspiration. As I meet his challenge, the resultant music is frankly face-melting. Any parsed segment of even a few seconds might contain the seed material for a dozen new compositions. To me, this music gets to the core of what most appeals to me about jazz: the passion and spontaneity, certainly, but almost more importantly, the joy to be had from throwing shade at the rules and letting the music flow, unedited and unfettered by conscious consideration of form or content, something the Coltrane/Ali collaboration exemplified so memorably. Speaking for Dom and myself, in making this music we captured more than a little of that joy for ourselves. For you experience a bit of it would only compound our satisfaction. Thanks for listening. Chris Kelsey March 23, 2015