Lomheim's compatriots are perfect foils as well as outstanding soloists. Gordy Johnson's basswork was featured throughout the evening, and particularly engaging on his fleet-fingered run on "The Girl Next Door," with upper register slaps and left-handed slides; and on his eerily dissonant but gorgeous glissando and chord combinations on "Blue and Green." Phil Hey provided a drum workshop to an audience seemingly filled with young wide-eyed musicians, with his efforts on "All the Things You Are" ranging from cool to hot, from shimmering to smoking, covering the full dynamic range of his kit with bursts of rat-a-tat rims and jingling cymbals; his dazzling sleight-of-hand mining an endless vault of sound to magnificent effect on "Our Delights," but, indeed, throughout the evening.  A live recording by this threesome seems long overdue!

Larry McDonough: Balancing a full-time law practice (he's a tenants' rights attorney for Minneapolis Legal Aid), fatherhood, and multiple music projects sounds daunting, but somehow Larry McDonough conveys nothing but spirited equilibrium in his far-ranging compositions and off-beat arrangements. With his working quartet (Richard Terrill on saxes, Craig Matarrese on bass, and Chaz Draper on drums), McDonough presented an evening of divergent delights, from reconstructed holiday chestnuts ("Ode to Joy," "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," "Angels We Have Heard on High," "Silent Night") to inside-out renditions of pop and jazz standards (Steely Dan's "Asia," "They Can't Take That Away From Me," "My Favorite Things," "Red River Valley"). Along the way, writer/saxman Richard Terrill read from his autobiography, Fake Book (a very well-timed passage decrying audience chatter at jazz clubs), and his Minnesota Book Award-winning collection of poems, Coming Late to Rachmaninoff ("Listening to Miles Davis" read over the band's soft vamp on "Blue and Green").

It was a subzero night, so cold the city canceled the Holidazzle Parade, but inside there was nothing but warmth and occasional bursts of fire on the Dakota stage. McDonough has a feathery touch that recalls Bill Evans but with more fingers, a left hand that alternatingly propels and sings, dazzling two-handed runs with clear articulation from every digit, and a unique approach to time that makes the most worn carol or standard ("Ode to Joy," "Red River Valley," "My Favorite Things") a new adventure. And he brings his life mission—to support those with difficult life circumstances and special needs—to his music projects, with stellar results: From the Fingersteps Project—a program that encourages children with disabilities to compose music—McDonough offered "Rose for Two," melody composed by his daughter Rosie and pals Jennifer and Patrick Moffat that the pianist arranged in a minor key, and featuring Terrill's lyrically mournful soprano sax. Later the band performed another tune developed through this project (aptly named "Fingersteps"), highlighted by McDonough's explosive runs that seemed more like ascending trills, and Chaz Draper's propulsive percussion that suggested the drum kit had suddenly doubled in size, all over an effective electric bass vamp from Craig Matarrese. Another project close to McDonough's heart is the Wellstone Action program that funds activities to continue the work of the late Paul and Sheila Wellstone; his tune "Tuscarora" (named after a northern Minnesota lake) is dedicated to the Wellstones, as are the proceeds from the recording, Tuscarora: Short Stories for Jazz Piano. Playing the title tune with a quartet rather than as recorded in solo, Terrill's tenor sax was the melodic lead, lulling the listener like waves lapping on that northwoods lake, punctuated a bit too often by a few tables of Happy Hour lingerers.

The second set benefited aurally from a smaller, more serious audience, and was particularly marked by McDonough's harmonically rich clusters of sound on two tunes saluting cartoon characters: Vince Guaraldi's "Linus and Lucy" (which included a humorous quote of the Flintstones' theme song) and "All Alone in the World" from Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol. McDonough engaged the audience with his warm tenor on several vocals throughout the evening, giving "Silent Night" a particularly pleasing jazz twist. The only tune that didn't seem to work was an interesting but odd-fitting rendition of "They Can't Take That Away From Me," with a more than usual wistful vibe from piano and tenor sax that didn't fit (for me) with the rock groove of the electric bass. Gershwin meets the Head Hunters? I much preferred Matarrese on the acoustic upright in general and particularly would have preferred it here.

But if there was one gem among the jewels from McDonough and company, it was the second set closer, "My Favorite Things," revisiting Coltrane with a driving piano/bass ostinato and Draper's clicking vamp leading into McDonough's Monkish deconstruction of time; Draper added to the drama with a series of heavy bass drum beats that set up Terrill's energetic solo on soprano. Draper slipped into a tribal dirge and then an all-out firestorm solo, and with a return of the piano-bass ostinato, the band closed with a final crash and rumble. It was a great night, and this was "My Favorite Thing."

Photo by  Howard A. Gitelson