Something special sure is happening with Marco Benevento’s career.
The pianist/keyboardist/organist is someone you can hardly just call jazz – mainly because his music exemplifies something so much more than one genre of music.
Along with Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey’s Brian Haas, Benevento heads the class of pianists the new wave of art/experimental jazz genre has seen over the last 15 or 20 years. Like the seasoned Haas, Benevento commands his instrument with intensity and perfection, blending a touch of simplicity with complex sounds and jamming and improv.
Benevento has played with his fair share of extremely talented musicians, most notably his venture into jam band territory with Phish’s Trey Anastasio and Mike Gordon. Along with drummer Joe Russo, who along with Benevento make up the Benevento/Russo Duo, the four played a short-lived tour in a band that came to be known as GRAB.
On his latest album, Between the Needles and Nightfall, Benevento’s playing has never been better. The exploratory jamming is as colorful as the album cover. A standout track for me was “RISD,” a seven plus minute piece of exceptional sound that barrels through at a fast pace. The track is the benefit of tight drum beats setting a rhythm for Benevento to play brilliant over.
In “RISD” and a great deal of other tracks on the album, Benevento’s keys come in at a pleasing high pitch, a sound I now only place with his instrument and play. He’s made this screaming sound his own and no one does it better.
But on “Wolf Trap,” things get a bit dark and menacing with Benevento’s low minor key playing overlapping his still present higher sound. The production on the album is great and “Wolf Trap” proves it, overlapping different levels of sound in a way that isn’t too much to handle for one’s ears.
The electro-rock and jazz heard on tracks like the joyous and rising anthem “Two of You” and “It Came From You,” as well as half title track “Between the Numbers” is inspiring work.
Benevento gets much help on these and all tracks from bassist Reed Mathis (formerly of Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, Tea Leaf Green) and drummer Andrew Barr (The Slip). Mathis is a veteran performer and both him and Barr have an unheard of chemistry with Benevento.
Full of energy, Between The Needles & Nightfall stands out in the experimental jazz genre in so many ways. Benevento is an authority on the style of sound and play he demands from his instruments and this latest effort is just another stop on the long road of a brilliant career.
Filed under: Album Reviews, Reviews, Between the Needles and Nightfall, Marco Benevento
