Marco Benevento

by Stewart MasonMarco Benevento is a young keyboardist whose jazz-rooted work has expanded to include indie rock, jam band, and post-rock/experimental influences. Born in 1977 and raised in the northern New Jersey town of Livingston, Benevento studied piano and befriended an aspiring drummer named Joe Russo in a junior-high detention hall. After high school, while Russo migrated westward to Boulder, CO, and fell into the hippie jam band scene there, the more jazz-inclined Benevento moved to Boston to attend the Berklee School of Music, from which he graduated in 1999 after studying keyboards under noted jazz pianist and instructor Joanne Brackeen. Following college, Benevento formed a popular Boston-area improvisational outfit called the Jazz Farmers, which continued when Benevento resettled in New York City in 2001. Running into his old junior-high buddy Russo at a Medeski, Martin & Wood gig, Benevento accepted an invitation to perform a series of duo gigs at the Knitting Factory, which turned into a full-time partnership as the Benevento/Russo Duo. Benevento has released four albums with Russo: Benevento/Russo Duo, Darts, Best Reason to Buy the Sun, and Play Pause Stop. Tying into Russo's roots in the jam band scene, the duo also spent much of 2006 touring as half of former Phish leader Trey Anastasio's backing band. In 2007, Benevento began a live residency at the New York club Tonic, which led to the August 2007 release of Live at Tonic, a three-CD set taken from those shows that ranges from traditional small-combo jazz to post-rock/experimental soundscapes.