The week's best Twin Cities jazz: Larry McDonough, Django Festival All-Stars, Eric Kamau Gravatt

Pianist Larry McDonough has always been an idiosyncratic presence in the local jazz scene. He's made holiday records and doled out tributes to Tony Bennett, Chet Baker and Miles Davis. He's covered Prince, Sting and Eric Clapton. He's used original poetry and a panorama of styles as the years passed. Now he's celebrating the release of "Alice in Stonehenge," a two-disc affair split into acoustic and electric music, with its title referring to Bill Evans' rendition of "Alice in Wonderland" and "Stonehenge" by Spinal Tap. (8 p.m. Thu., Vieux Carre, St. Paul, $10, vieux-carre.com)

The Django Festival All-Stars is another name for what used to be the Dorado Schmitt All-Stars. The group's fidelity to the ebullient "Hot Club" swing jazz of guitarist Django Reinhardt remains steadfast and flexible in all the right places. Dorado and his son, Amati Schmitt, hail from the same Manouche gypsy tribe as Reinhardt, and honor the guitarist's restless creativity by avoiding note-for-note transcriptions in favor of writing and playing original music in kinship with his spirit. (7 and 9 p.m. Fri., Dakota, Mpls., $30-$45, dakotacooks.com)

"Brockowitz" is a logical moniker for the duo of violinist Zach Brock and pianist Phil Markowitz, who have fashioned a mixture of jazz, contemporary classical and American roots music from their respective Eastern European and Appalachian backgrounds. The credentials are solid — Markowitz is a longtime sideman of David Liebman and the late Toots Thielemans, Brock has played with Stanley Clarke and the group Snarky Puppy. Frequently together in larger ensembles, the duo's settings lay bare their ample scholarship. (6:30 p.m. Sun., Crooners, Fridley, $20, croonersloungemn.com)

Guitarist Dean Magraw holds down the first Tuesday of every month at Black Dog. And he's so well respected as both musician and human that he can replace an amazing duo partner like drummer Davu Seru with an equally stellar timekeeper in Eric Kamau Gravatt. In addition to being the original drummer for Weather Report and playing with McCoy Tyner for many years, Gravatt has a new disc out on Red House Records with Magraw, titled "Fire on the Nile." Expect slow burns as well as conflagrations. (7 p.m. Tue., Black Dog, St. Paul, $10 suggested donation, blackdogstpaul.com)

Britt Robson