The Larry McDonough Aster Sunday Jazz Series presents classic jazz on the first Sunday of the month.

Larry McDonough Quartet

Larry McDonough, piano and keyboards
Richard Terrill, saxes
Matt Senjem, bass,
Dean White, drums

We will record the performance for a future CD. We might record video as well. Come be on the recording.
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The Larry McDonough Quartet will perform timeless Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond pieces in different time signatures than those of Brubeck and Desmond, along with Larry McDonough odd-metered originals.
In 1959, the Dave Brubeck Quartet recorded “Time Out”, an album of uncommon meters for jazz. Featuring “Blue Rondo à la Turk” in a Turkish 9/8 written by Brubeck and “Take 5″ in 5/4 written by Desmond, the album rose to No. 2 on the Billboard pop albums chart. “Time Out” was the first jazz album to sell more than a million copies. The single, “Take Five”, also sold more than a million. It was the first in a series of uncommon meter recordings by the Dave Brubeck Quartet, including “Time Further Out: Miro Reflections” (1961), “Countdown-Time in Outer Space” (1962), “Time Changes” (1963), and “Time In” (1966). While Brubeck pioneered odd-meter jazz, few have followed his lead. Occasional performance of odd-meter jazz usually is just a novelty.
The Larry McDonough Quartet will present several pieces from the Dave Brubeck Quartet catalog, but in different meters than the originals, including:
• “Blue Rondo à la Turk” in 5/4,
• “Take 5″ as a 7/4 reggae and renamed “Take 7″ (recorded on the 2017 two-CD set “Alice in Stonehenge and other AcoustElectric Adventures”),
• “Three to Get Ready” in 5/4 and renamed “Five to Get Ready,”
• “Audrey” in 11/4,
• “In Your Own Sweet Way” in Latin and swing 7/4
• “Brandenburg Gate” in 3/4, and
• “Someday My Prince Will Come” in 5/4.
They also will present new and old Larry McDonough uncommon meter originals in 3/4, 5/4, 7/4, 9/4 (5/4+4/4) , and 12/4 (7/4+5/4).
Come to hear familiar tunes, and expand your horizons!
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The Larry McDonough Quartet

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.

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 books of poetry is What Falls Away Is Always and Essentially.

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.

Dean White grew up in Superior, Wisconsin, and played in various working bands while attending the University of Wisconsin, Superior. After graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in percussion performance, he moved to Hollywood, California, to attend Musicians Institute College of Contemporary Music. Half-way through the first year, Dean was offered a main showroom gig at the Imperial Palace in Las Vegas. He was the first drummer in the Legends In Concert Show that still performs in various incarnations across the country today. He left Las Vegas to join Tony Axtell and Toshi Hinata in Tokyo to write and play original music. Since settling back in the Twin Cities, Dean has performed with many groups, including Good, the Bad and the Funky; the Autobody Experience; Century Big Band; Nova Jazz; Big Time Jazz Orchestra; the Shorn Hortz jazz quintet; Power of 10; Jack Knife and the Sharps; Tubby Esquire; Hennessy Brothers jazz; and many others. He has also studied privately with Gordy Knudtson and his Open/Close hand technique. Dean feels blessed to be part of the rich music scene in the Twin Cities.

Music 8-10

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$10 cover charge will be added to your tab.