Rope-a-Dope
2007
Live At Tonic
About This Album
What is presented in this quite reasonably priced, three-plus hour triple-disc collection by keyboard wild man Marco Benevento (of the Benevento/Russo Duo with percussionist drummer Joe Russo), are the highlights of his month-long residency at the now defunct music Mecca known as Tonic in New York. Benevento played two sets every Wednesday night for a month and invited some of his best musician pals to show up and see what happened. One evening he played solo, and those highlights are here. Both participants and musical fireworks were plentiful. Some of the cats jumping in on one night are Bobby Previte and a group of other percussionists who include session kit boss Matt Chamberlain and Russo; there are trios with Reed Mathis (Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey) and Chamberlain, duos with Mike Gordon (Phish), and a quartet with Steven Bernstein, Dave Dreiwitz, and Claude Coleman (the latter two from Ween). This stuff is all over the place musically, aesthetically, and not necessarily chronologically ordered. Benevento plays numerous keyboards at once, and some of his solo performances sound like duets or trios even. Elsewhere, with Gordon on Benny Goodman's "Sing, Sing, Sing," (with beer bottle percussion) they sound like a full band.
Track List

Disc 1 (try tracks 1,2 and 3)

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Disc 2 (try tracks 1,2 and 3)

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Disc 3 (try track 1)

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