Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Marco Benevento: Me Not Me

178

Marco Benevento: Me Not Me

By

Sign in to view read count
Marco Benevento: Me Not Me
It comes as no surprise that pop and jazz performers would attempt to reconcile their relationship. After the honeymoon period that was Tin Pan Alley, marriage wrecker hard bop, followed by the extra-marital affair with free jazz, ended things quite poorly. The children survived and played fusion, but the marriage was over. Certainly the reunion, perhaps reconciliation of the two, has been a long time coming. Not that Brad Mehldau, The Bad Plus and Sexmob haven't mined a bit of popular culture, they scrutinized it from a jazz perspective. Pianist Marco Benevento chose not to commit himself to one camp or the other.

Benevento 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 B3

Marco 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

Tags


For the Love of Jazz
Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who create it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

You Can Help
To expand our coverage even further and develop new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for a modest $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination will vastly improve your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Love Is Passing Thru
Roberto Magris
Candid
Sunny Five
Inside Colours Live
Julie Sassoon

Popular

Eagle's Point
Chris Potter
Light Streams
John Donegan - The Irish Sextet

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.