Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Marco Benevento: Me Not Me
Marco Benevento: Me Not Me
ByBenevento might be best known for his association with drummer Joe Rossi and their duo jamband outfit that toured with former Phish leader Trey Anastasio. Benevento's Invisible Baby (Hyena, 2008) feels like a precursor to the more fully realized Me Not Me..
A ten-track album, Me Not Me features only three originals by Benevento. The bulk of the disc is made up of covers of compositions by Deerhoof, Leonard Cohen, Led Zeppelin, Beck, The Knife, Greene Harrison and My Morning Jacket.
Engineered by Bryce Goggin (Phish, Pavement) the music is, at times, more like a DJ's record than a pianist's. Benevento keeps the melodies simple throughout, but re-contextualizes just about everything heard here by running his prepared acoustic and electric piano through guitar pickups, delays, distortion pedals and a Fender super reverb amp. Besides the piano he plays with old pump organs and a Farfisa, Optigan and Mellotron. He comes up with enough odd sounds to make Tom Waits shed a tear.
If the question remains whether this is jazz, the answer is both yes and no. Deerhoof's "Twin Killers" and Benevento's "Call Home" are both simple pop tunes employing both old and modern sounds. The creative expression here is more a matter of production and choice of instruments rather than melodies. This territory has also been explored by Matthew Shipp. But where Shipp sounds like an old soul, Benevento's vision is definitely young at heart.
Track Listing
Golden; Now They're Writing Music; Seems So Long Ago Nancy; Mephisto; Twin Killers; Call Home; Heartbeats; Sing It Again; Friends; Run Of The Mill.
Personnel
Marco Benevento
organ, Hammond B3Marco Benevento: acoustic piano, Mellotron, Farfisa, Optigan, tack piano, clavinet, circuit bent toys; Reed Mathis: bass; Matt Chamberlain: drums (1, 2, 4, 9, 10); Andrew Barr: drums (2, 3, 5-7).
Album information
Title: Me Not Me | Year Released: 2009 | Record Label: Royal Potato Family
Comments
About Marco Benevento
Instrument: Organ, Hammond B3
Related Articles | Concerts | Albums | Photos | Similar To