Larry McDonough Quartet and Festivus and Other Twisted Holidays Returns to the Aster Café

Do you need a break from the pandemic, politics, Zoom meetings, and maybe some family members? Are you tired of the same old holiday music?

Come to the Annual Performance of Festivus and Other Twisted Holidays!

Larry McDonough Quartet

Larry McDonough, piano, vocals, and arrangements
Richard Terrill, saxes and poetry
Greg Stinson, bass and arrangements
Nathan Norman, drums

Festivus and Other Twisted Holidays in the Media
http://larrymcdonoughjazz.homestead.com/FestivusintheMedia.html

On December 21, the Larry McDonough Quartet (LMQ) will perform music in celebration of Seinfeld’s fictional December 23 holiday “Festivus for the Rest of Us” along with other odd takes on holiday music. Come see the show that filled both the Aster Café and the old Black Dog Café.

Festivus was created by Seinfeld character Frank Costanza (played by Jerry Stiller) as an alternative holiday in response to the commercialization of Christmas. The tradition of Festivus begins with an aluminum pole. Frank cites its “very high strength-to-weight ratio” as appealing. During Festivus, the pole is displayed unadorned. Frank admits, “I find tinsel distracting.”

Festivus includes practices such as the “Airing of Grievances.” During the Festivus meal of meatloaf on a bed of lettuce, each person tells everyone else all the ways they have disappointed them over the past year. Frank begins by yelling, “I got a lotta problems with you people, and now you’re going to hear about it!” Throughout the meal, Festivus participants label easily explainable events as “Festivus Miracles.” After the meal, “Feats of Strength” are held where family members wrestle the head of the household to the floor. Festivus concludes when the head of the household is pinned.

Larry McDonough is an award-winning St. Paul jazz composer, pianist, singer, and teacher, performing around the world and recording with his group the Larry McDonough Quartet as well as solo, and in duos and trios. He has performed with legendary saxophonist and composer Benny Golson, Trombonist Fred Wesley, and trumpeter Duane Eubanks, as well as a who’s who of local jazz artists, and was inducted into the Minnesota Rock Country Hall of Fame for his work in the group Danny’s Reasons. His awards include the American Composers Forum Showcase Award for the composition “Strait of Gibraltar.” He has released eleven CDs and DVDs as a leader. His current CDs are “Kind of Bill on the Palace Grounds, Marking 40 Years since the Death of Bill Evans,” playing on jazz radio stations and streaming services around the country, and “Intermodulating Undercurrents Live at the Kos: The Music of Bill Evans and Jim Hall.” The two-CD set “Alice in Stonehenge and other AcoustElectric Adventures” has played on radio stations and streaming services around the world and charted #18 on the Roots Music Report’s Top 50 Jazz Album Chart. “Simple Gifts” reached number 29 on the CMJ Jazz Chart and also has been played on hundreds of stations around the country and throughout the world. His other jazz projects include Fusebox (original jazz fusion trio) and Trios Trio (classic jazz). When not playing jazz, he performs jam fusion in Quantum Mechanics, funk in Funkin’ Right, classic rock in Whiskey Burn, indie-rock in HiFi, and punk in Saint Small.

Richard Terrill, sax player and retired Minnesota State University Mankato English Professor, received the Minnesota Book Award for Poetry for his poetry compilation “Coming Late to Rachmaninoff” (University of Tampa Press, 2003). Richard has been performing with Larry McDonough since December 2001. He also has performed with guitarist Jim McGuire and with Chaz Draper’s Uptown Jazz Quartet. As a college student, Richard was a member of the award-winning University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Jazz Ensemble and performed with later-to-be Pat Metheny keyboardist Lyle Mays in the Lyle Mays Quartet, winner of small group honors at the Midwest College Jazz Festival. He has also worked with pianist Geoff Keezer. His current book of poetry is What Falls Away Is Always.

Bassist Greg Stinson plays in several bands around the Twin Cities. He has been the bass player in the Century College Jazz Ensemble for more than 25 years. He also plays in the CC Septet, Shorn Hortz Quintet, Paul Berger Trio, the St. Croix Jazz Ensemble, and regularly subs with the Nova Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, Classic Big Band, and Cedar Avenue Big Band. Greg spent many years playing saxophones, guitar, bass, and vocals in jazz/rock and variety bands in the area. He is an active composer/arranger with jazz charts in the books of the Century Band, Nova, CC Septet, and others. He has also written a number of choral arrangements and compositions for school and church groups. Greg was a band and choir director in public and private schools before changing to his career in telecommunications technology, now retired.

Nathan Norman attended the Eastman School of Music in Rochester New York graduating in 1984. After graduating Nathan moved to Minnesota where he started his freelance jazz career. He has performed with the Minnesota Orchestra, Jennifer Holiday, and went on tour in Turin Italy with local jazz vocalist Debbie Duncan. Nathan can often be seen performing at the Dakota Jazz Club and other venues with the Travis Anderson Trio, Charmin Michelle and Joel Shapira, the Illicit Sextet, and other local artists.

Music 9-11 pm

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$10 cover charge will be added to your tab.