The Benevento Russo Duo: Biography

• Overview
• Discography
• Biography
• Related Artists

• Billy Martin
• Brad Mehldau

• Joe Russo
• Trey Anastasio
• Joanne Brackeen

• Benevento/Russo Duo
• Jazz Farmers

Formed:

Jan 1, 1977 in Livingstone, NJ

Genres:

Jazz Music, Rock Music

Decades Active:

2000's

Marco Benevento is a young keyboardist whose jazzrooted work has expanded to include indie rock, jam band and experimental postrock 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, Colorado 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 Bostonarea improvisational outfit called the Jazz Farmers, which split up when Benevento resettled in New York City in 2001. Running into his old junior high buddy Russo at a Medeski, Martin and Wood gig, Benevento accepted an invitation to perform a series of duo gigs at the Knitting Factory, which turned into a fulltime 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 and 2006 touring as half of former Phish leader Trey Anastasio's backing band. In 2007, Marco Benevento began a live residency at the New York club Tonic, which led to the August 2007 release of Marco Benevento Live At Tonic, a threeCD set taken from those shows that ranges from traditional small combo jazz to postrock experimental soundscapes.

- Stewart Mason, All Music Guide