MIKE GORDON (Phish); DAVE DREIWITZ (Ween); CLAUDE COLEMAN (Ween); STEVEN BERNSTEIN (Sex Mob); MATT CHAMBERLAIN (Tori Amos); REED MATHIS (JFJO); JOE RUSSO (Benevento/Russo Duo); BOBBY PREVITE (COTW); MIKE DILLON (Les Claypool); BRAD BARR (The Slip) and SCOTT METZGER (Rana)
On five consecutive Wednesday nights in November of 2006 Marco Benevento set up shop at the legendary (and now defunct) club Tonic in New York City. Each night featured two sets, various guests and a musical theme. Each night was documented on tape resulting in over 16 hours of live music. Marco went into the labs and lovingly edited the wall of sound into a 3 CD set that mixed and matched the magic all for the super low price of $19.98! Buy it Now!
Record Book (7:11)
Highlights from Marco's Residency at Tonic. Video produced by Karina Mackenzie.
DISC 1
1. Clouds (Quasi) $
2. Record Book (Benevento) $
3. Fearless (Floyd) $
4. The Arrival of Greatness (Benevento) !
5. Sabbath (Chamberlain/Mehldau) $
6. The Night Before October (Benevento) *
7. Carnival of Souls (Combustible Edison) !
8. Prestidigitation (Benevento/Dreiwitz/Coleman/Bernstein) **
9. Moonglow (Benny Goodman) #
DISC 2
1. Peppermint Hippo (Benevento/Dreiwitz/Coleman/Bernstein) **
2. We’re Using Time For Fun (Chamberlain/Mathis/Benevento) $
3. Seems So Long Ago Nancy (Leonard Cohen) !
4. You Must Be A Lion (Benevento) $
5. Intro (Chamberlain/Mathis/Benevento) $
6. Nobody Does It Better (Carly Simon) $
7. Executive Session (Benevento/Dreiwitz/Coleman/Bernstein) **
8. Elmer’s Tune (Elmer Albrecht, Sammy Gallop & Dick Jurgens) #
DISC 3
1. Bye Ya (Thelonious Monk) !
2. The Weathermen (Previte/Russo/Dillon/Benevento) *
3. Diego Garcia (Previte/Russo/Dillon/Benevento) *
4. Church of God Victory (Benevento/Dreiwitz/Coleman/Bernstein) (Previte/Russo/Dillon/Benevento) Bobby Previte: featured soloist on the marimba * **
5. Teardrop Tea (Benevento/Dreiwitz/Coleman/Bernstein) **
6. Birthday Boy (Aaron Freeman) !
Night By Night Key:
! SOLO (11/15/07)
# DUO (11/1/07) with Mike Gordon playing the music of Benny Goodman
$ TRIO (11/29/07) Reed Mathis and Matt Chamberlain
* DRUM NIGHT (11/22/07) Joe Russo, Bobby Previte and Mike Dillon
** FREE PLAY (11/8/07) Dave Dreiwitz (Ween) Claude Coleman (Ween) and Steven Bernstein (Sex Mob)
Marco Benevento is best known as one half of the Benevento/Russo Duo, the acclaimed instrumental indie rock, post jazz experimentalists, who’ve earned a legion of fans performing at high profile events like Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits, Fuji Rock Festival and Bonnaroo, while drawing rave reviews at publications ranging from Rolling Stone to Pitchfork.com. Holding court behind a dizzying array of vintage keyboards, upright and toy pianos, pedals, samplers and other circuit bent gadgets, Benevento has established a reputation as one of the most exciting young keyboardists to emerge in the last decade.
Beyond all the accolades and hype, however, is a supremely-inspired, ever-curious 29-year old artist whose spirit remains rooted in the musicians he studied under and played alongside when first starting out; teachers like Kenny Werner, Billy Hart, Brad Mehldau and Joanne Brackeen and band-mates like Bob Moses, Ari Hoeing, Terreon Gully, Adam Dietch and DJ Olive. It’s exactly that innocent childlike desire to play the piano and unbridled passion for musical exploration which led Benevento to set up shop every Wednesday in November 2006 for a residency at Tonic, the recently shuttered New York City improvisational music Mecca.
Inspired by Ropeadope’s recent release “Christian McBride Live at Tonic”, Benevento invited his old friend Andy Hurwitz (Ropeadope label boss) along to document the proceedings. Alternating between group and solo performance, Benevento played two sets a night and was joined by a different cast of musical co-conspirators for each show. The highlights were edited down, mixed and matched and presented here on three discs of wide-eyed, daringly fierce and cosmically joyous music entitled Marco Benevento--Live At Tonic.
