Pianist Larry McDonough will
entertain at this year’s Charlie Smith Awards Banquet, November
2 at BlackBear Crossing. McDonough is a jazz pianist, singer, composer
and a former high school band director. He received his bachelor’s
degree in music education from the University of Minnesota in 1978.
He has performed with legendary saxophonist and composer Benny Golson,
trombonist Fred Wesley, and trumpeter Duane Eubanks. Each year McDonough
also premiers compositions and arrangements for school orchestra
and jazz ensembles in Minnesota and around the country He also regularly
performs at Unitarian Universalist churches around the country, integrating
jazz with issues of faith. In April 2007 he was inducted into the
Minnesota Rock Country Hall of Fame for his work in the group Danny’s
Reasons. In addition to music, McDonough works as an attorney at the Legal
Aid Society of Minneapolis, representing low-income persons with housing and
consumer problems, and teaches at three local law schools.
McDonough’s latest CD “Simple Gifts,” recorded with
the Larry McDonough Quartet, is receiving praise from critics and fans
alike. “Larry McDonough’s long-awaited new recording serves
up divergent delights, from a reconstructed holiday chestnut to inside-out
renditions of jazz standards, from harmonically and rhythmically altered
traditional melodies to a trio of original tunes. With a feathery touch
that recalls Bill Evans but with more fingers and a unique approach
to time that makes the most worn carol or standard a new adventure,
Simple Gifts proves to be anything but ‘simple’—but,
for those fortunate enough to hear this music, it is indeed a gift.” —Andrea
Canter, Jazz Police.
McDonough has dedicated
his recent solo piano CD, “Tuscarora:
Short Stories for Jazz Piano,” to departed friends Senator
Paul and Sheila Wellstone, with benefits going to Wellstone Action.
The CD will be available at the banquet. For more information, visit
Mc-Donough’s
Web site, www.larrymcdonoughjazz.homestead.com ![]()
