"A Professor of Note"
By Eric Johnson
"There is a Janus-faced professor in the University Law School. But Larry McDonough is not the two-faced lawyer common to overplayed lawyer jokes. His two sides are unique.
Because, when McDonough is not teaching his seminar on poverty law, one can find him at a piano grooving to a 5/4 beat. Besides being an adjunct professor, McDonough is an accomplished jazz pianist....
As [Ralph] Nader inspired McDonough's legal interest, Dave Brubeck, an experimental jazz composer and pianist, inspired him musically. Dave Brubeck's album, 'Time Out' challenged the way music was played. He seemed to say,'Why play things the way they've always been played?' I like that,' McDonough says. It was at this point when McDonough began to find a knack for altering the meter of traditional songs, creating unique and original pieces. Among the songs which McDonough has reconstructed and rearranged are Eric Clapton's Layla,' the Beatles' Good Day Sunshine' and Miles Davis' All Blues.' He also has created more dissonant versions of Linus and Lucy,' If I Only had a Brain' and My Favorite Things.'
I like to take songs and weird them out a bit. It sometimes makes them more interesting and fun to play,' he says. For example, I take 'The Star Spangled Banner' and turn it into a 4/4 jazz standard, or when I play 'If I Only had a Brain,' I add some chords and make it more of a dirge.'"
