Between Rock and a Jazz Place
Finding the Balance with Marco Benevento
Marco Benevento can't commit. Sure, he was married in September, but, when it comes to music, the Brooklyn-based keyboardist, bandleader, and composer feels no loyalty to any one genre or style. "As far as being a performer, and an entertainer, I personally want to keep my own head satisfied," says Benevento. "I want to hear a rock tune, a free jazz tune, a slow ballad," all of which are present on Live At Tonic, Benevento's three disc debut as a leader. Tonic, recorded over five consecutive Wednesdays at the ill-fated New York club, is full of the eclecticism that has propelled his Benevento-Russo Duo to near-stardom, and landed him sideman gigs with everyone from jazz drummer Bobby Previte to Phish frontman Trey Anastasio.
Of course, there is a common thread that ties these situations together. In nearly all of Benevento's musical endeavors, improvisation plays a crucial role. "Improvisation, in context, can be really powerful," says Benevento. "It makes the listener slow down, stop and listen, and get on the musician's wavelength." In recent years, however, Benevento's main gig has scaled down its sense of spontaneity. What began, in 2001, as a funky jazz thing with drummer Joe Russo, evolved, by 2005, into the Benevento-Russo Duo's highly structured, instrumental rock sound. "The Duo's sets gradually went from 20 percent songs and 80 percent improv to 10 percent improv and 90 percent songs in the past five years."
Benevento's November 2006 residency at Tonic was a return to his love of "becoming all ears" and "letting the music happen." Each night featured a different combination of players, including a duet performance with Phish bassist Reed Mathis (of Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey) and drummer Matt Chamberlain (of Critters Buggin). "The repertoire changed for each lineup, and large chunks of some evening were completely improvised. "The Tonic shows were a visit towards that part of my life that was not satiated by touring and playing rock songs," says Benevento.
Playing rock songs, however, may not be far removed from playing improvised music. One of Benevento's favorite jazz musicians is Wilco guitarist Nels Cline: "He's someone who's got both feet in the each genre. He's just as bad ass a free jazzer as a rocker." Another of Benevento's jazz influences, who borrows from the rock world is pianist Brad Mehldau. Benevento covers Mehldau's "Sabbath" on disc one of Tonic. "I love his tone and I love his patience and his clarity on the instrument," Benevento explains. "He can speak clearly with every note, whether it's at 360 BMP or 60." Benevento admires these musicians' abilities to play with an original voice. "They're very much themselves to the point where, if you played like them, people would be like 'The's very Mehldau,'" or that's "very Nels Cline."
Benevento is very much himself too. On a recent acoustic piano tour with Mathis and Chamberlain, he processed the instrument's natural sound through an array of pedals and effects, making the piano sound like a guitar. His real focus as of late, however, has been finding that happy medium between his personal affairs and his career as a musician; "I think I'm finding a better balance with life itself and friends and family and touring and music." That's very Benevento.
