- Who: Fusebox, progressive jazz fusion w/ Larry McDonough, Craig Matarrese & Eron Woods
- Where: Patrick’s on Third
- When: Thursday, July 20, 6:00-8:00 p.m.
Thursday, July 20, 6:00-8:00 p.m., Fusebox, a new progressive jazz fusion trio performing odd-metered originals, with Larry McDonough, keyboard, Craig Matarrese, bass, and Eron Woods, drums, at Patrick’s on Third, 125 S. 3rd St., St. Peter, MN 56082, part of the Minnesota Original Music Festival (MOMF). Among Fusebox’s influences are Frank Zappa, Medeski Martin & Wood, Spinal Tap, and The Big Lebowski. You have heard anything like Fusebox.
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. When not playing jazz, he performs punk in Saint Small, funk in Funkin’ Right, and classic rock in Whiskey Burn.
Bassist Craig Matarrese is Professor of Philosophy at Minnesota State University, Mankato, where he is also Director of the program in Philosophy, Politics, & Economics (PPE). He holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Northwestern University and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He teaches courses in 19th and 20th Century European philosophy, Philosophy of Music, Environmental Ethics, Social & Political Philosophy, and the Philosophy of Law. He has also been teaching electric & upright bass for the Music Department for the past ten years. Matarrese is the author of the book, Starting With Hegel (Continuum, 2010), as well as two recent essays: “Soundscape Ecology and a Sartrean Phenomenology of Listening,” Earthly Engagements: Reading Sartre After the Holocene, eds. Ally & Boria (Lexington Books, 2021) and “Hegel, Musical Subjectivity, and Jazz,” in Creolizing Hegel, ed. Michael Monahan (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016). He has also worked on a number of documentary films that consider music, philosophy, and culture: Tuning the Pulse (2013), I Know You Well (2014), and Rez Metal (2020). Matarrese plays bass in a variety of ensembles and contexts, for MSU and generally around Minnesota, including Steely Ann, a Steely Dan cover band based in Mankato and Saint Peter.
Eron Woods has been a musician and educator in the Twin Cities for over 20 years. A graduate of the University of Miami with a Jazz Performance degree, Eron worked on cruise ships and toured for several years as a drummer and musical director for circuses. He has performed with a diverse list of artists including Tony Sandler (Sandler and Young), Grant Hart (Husker Du), Pete Christlieb (Tonight Show), John “Bowser” Batman (Sha Na Na), flamenco guitarist Scott “Mateo” Davies, and has published two books on percussion.