In 2023, the Larry McDonough Quartet (LMQ) and the Aster Café in Minneapolis, MN, embarked on an ambitious project: a monthly series with LMQ performing classic jazz of a different artist each month. With all of the LMQ members (Larry McDonough, piano and voice; Richard Terrill, saxes and poetry; Greg Stinson, acoustic and electric bass and guitar; and Dean White, drums) being busy working musicians, rehearsals would be limited to once a month for each new show. Each month, McDonough wrote a new set of arrangements for the next show.
The result was 12 months of concerts covering the music of Chet Baker, Chick Corea, Tony Bennett and Bill Evans, Wayne Shorter, Antônio Carlos Jobim, Miles Davis, Jim Hall and Bill Evans, Dave Brubeck, Geraldo Vespar, the Sidemen of Miles Davis, and Herbie Hancock, culminating with the LMQ holiday show Festivus and Other Twisted Holidays. Guests included trumpeter Josh May, flutist Carol Bergquist, bassist Matt Senjem, and guitarist Joel Shapira. McDonough recorded each show, and now we have Larry McDonough Quartet Live, Best of the Aster Classic Jazz Series.
♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬
Video
A hot bop version of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬
Selections
2. Chick Corea - Crystal Silence
3. Tony Bennett and Bill Evans - Some Other Time
4. Wayne Shorter - Footprints
5. Antônio Carlos Jobim - How Insensitive
6. Listening to Miles Davis (Spoken Word)
7. Miles Davis - Freddie Freeloader
8. Jim Hall and Bill Evans - All Across the City
9. Dave Brubeck - Brandenburg Gate
10. Larry McDonough - Blue Dolphin
11. Geraldo Vespar - Estudos Populares Brasileiros No. 10
12. Coltrane (Spoken Word)
13. John Coltrane - Impressions
14. Herbie Hancock - Dolphin Dance
"The quartet does more than replay the songbook. They relive it, reinterpret it for a new generation of jazz listeners, making then into now." - Eric Hanson, Author, Artist, and Jazz Historian.
♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬
Ordering
Available from Larry McDonough Jazz
651-398-8053
Available soon on streaming services.
♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬
Liner Notes
In 2022, I pitched a plan to the Aster Café in Minneapolis, MN, to embark on an ambitious project: a 2023 monthly series performing classic jazz of a different artist each month. I enlisted the Larry McDonough Quartet (LMQ), led by me on piano and voice, and including Richard Terrill, saxes and poetry; Greg Stinson, acoustic and electric bass and guitar; and Dean White, drums. I wrote a new set of arrangements for each show, with rehearsals limited to once a month for each new show due to everyone's busy schedules. We recorded each show and include here one song from each show. I always have preferred the old live recordings to the studio tracks. The sound of the venue, with the audience chatter and applause, and even the noise from the espresso machine, allows the listener to get the feeling of jazz in live performance.
We began in January with Chet - The Beautiful Music and Tragic Life of Singing Trumpeter Chet Baker. Baker performed a laid back version of Softly as in a Morning Sunrise on the 1979 recording Ballads for Two with vibraphonist Wolfgang Lackerschmid. With guest trumpeter Josh May, we played a burning version of this jazz standard as Baker played in the 1950s, starting with an intense drum solo from Dean White. In February, we celebrated the life of Chick Corea, who died in February 2021, with Returning to Return to Forever with Chick Corea. I started listening to Corea when he played with Miles Davis, and later with his various jazz fusion groups. His ballads remain some of his best work. Flutist Carol Bergquist joined us for Crystal Silence, which Corea recorded both with Return to Forever and Gary Burton in the 1970s.
One of the advantages of a monthly jazz series rotating different themes is that we can program a show based on current or recent events. In March, we performed You Must Believe in Spring - The Music of Tony Bennett and Bill Evans. We reprised the show in August after Bennett died in July. Bill Evans collaborated with singer Tony Bennett on two albums, The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album in 1977 and Together Again in 1977. The albums displayed Tony's softer side and Bill's skills as an accompanist. Here we perform the Bernstein, Comden and Green classic Some Other Time, with me channeling both Evans and Bennett to the best of my ability. In April, we responded to the recent death of Wayne Shorter with the show Footprints - The Music of Wayne Shorter. Shorter's long career included many shows with Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock. On Footprints, we start with another solo by drummer Dean White, featuring the wailing soprano sax of Richard Terrill. Spring arrives late in Minnesota. We warmed Spring with the show Jobim! - The Music of Antônio Carlos Jobim, often called the Duke Ellington of Brazil (although others call Ellington the Jobim of America). Greg Stinson begins the dark How Insensitive with a bass solo, followed my vocals over the bass.
We began the summer with Kind of Blue and Beyond, where we celebrated the birthday of Miles Davis. We performed one set of the album Kind of Blue and a second set of music of the members after Kind of Blue group. Saxman Richard Terrill also is an award-winning poet. Here he reads Listening to Miles Davis, followed by our performance of the zen Freddie Freeloader with Josh May again on trumpet and guest bassist Matt Senjem. We followed with the show Intermodulating Undercurrents: The Music of Bill Evans and Jim Hall. All Across the City, written by Hall, is unique in melody, harmony, and structure. Guest guitarist Joel Shapira and I played our arrangement from our recording Intermodulating Undercurrents Live at the Kos: The Music of Bill Evans and Jim Hall.
The fall began with Time Again - Brubeck and Desmond, Reimagined and Beyond, in which we performed timeless Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond pieces in different time signatures than those of Brubeck and Desmond, along with my odd-metered originals. In Brandenburg Gate, we played the piece in 4/4 time while White played time in 3/4. We follow with my composition Blue Dolphin, based on a fragment of the Herbie Hancock classic Dolphin Dance in 7/4 time. Bassist Stinson also is a skilled guitarist. As part of the Jobim show, he performed solo on Geraldo Vespar's Estudos Populares Brasileiros No. 10.
In A Side of Miles - Music of the Sidemen of Miles Davis, we performed the music of the many stellar jazz musicians who performed with legendary trumpeter and band leader Miles Davis. Terrill read another of his writings about John Coltrane, followed by the Coltrane intense classic Impressions that he wrote and performed at the Village Vanguard in 1961. We celebrated the career of Herbie Hancock in Watermelon Man - The Music of Herbie Hancock. His career included many shows with Shorter and Davis. Hancock recorded Dolphin Dance on the 1965 album Maiden Voyage. LMQ's December performance channeled the performances of Hancock, George Coleman, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams. We closed the year with Festivus and Other Twisted Holidays, where we performed music for Seinfeld's fictional December holiday Festivus for the Rest of Us along with odd takes on holiday tunes. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen becomes an organ-driven b-bop preceded by another hot drum solo from White.
We hope you enjoy Best of the Aster Classic Jazz Series. If you like these pieces, find the source material of the classic jazz musicians represented here. You will not be disappointed.
Larry McDonough
♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬ ♪ ♬
Credits
Larry McDonough Quartet Live, Best of the Aster Classic Jazz Series
2. Crystal Silence (6:14) by Chick Corea
3. Some Other Time (7:35) by Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden and Adolph Green
4. Footprints (6:46) by Wayne Shorter
5. How Insensitive (5:49) by Antônio Carlos Jobim
6. Listening to Miles Davis (1:26) by Richard Terrill
7. Freddie Freeloader (6:23) by Miles Davis
8. All Across the City (8:49) by Jim Hall
9. Brandenburg Gate (5:37) by Dave Brubeck
10. Blue Dolphin (4:08) by Larry McDonough
11. Estudos Populares Brasileiros No. 10 (3:01) by Geraldo Vespar
12. Coltrane (1:36) by Richard Terrill
13. Impressions (3:38) by John Coltrane
14. Dolphin Dance (7:07) by Herbie Hancock
Musicians:
Larry McDonough, piano, electric piano, organ, voice, and arrangements
Richard Terrill, tenor sax, soprano sax, and spoken word
Greg Stinson, acoustic bass, electric bass, and guitar
Dean White, drums
Josh May, trumpet on #1 and #7
Carol Bergquist, flute on #2
Matt Senjem, acoustic bass on #7
Joel Shapira, guitar on #8
Recorded monthly in 2023 at the Aster Café by Larry McDonough. Mixed and mastered by Larry McDonough.
Live PA sound mixing:
CD Duplication by Quickturn Duplication, Edina, MN.
Art and cover design by Eric Hanson.
Copy editing by Carol Bergquist.
CD design by Larry McDonough, Palace Art and Music Gallery.
Produced by Larry McDonough for LM Jazz.
© 2024 Larry McDonough and LM Jazz - All Rights Reserved
