Ropeadope Releasing 3-CD Set Documenting Marco Benevento

Every Wednesday in November 2006, Marco Benevento set up shop for a residency
at Tonic, the recently shuttered
New York City improvisational music Mecca.
"For these shows, I decided I was going to invite some of my closest
friends along to play and we'd just let the music go where it wanted. I've always
thought that if you think too much about something, there winds up being
this hesitation that throws the whole 'universal timing'  balance off.  With
improvised music you want to let the music play you, so that's the
approach we took," explains
Benevento.  "In this case, music is more like the wind
that carries a little balloon through the sky, it's something  to succumb to.
When you think of an improvised performance as 'something you don't play' you may
wind up with a better mind set. That concept paired with the fact that my
friends are my biggest musical inspiration, completely allowed the music to come
to life. The entire month of November is a brilliant memory."
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 line-ups included a trio with bassist
Reed Mathis and drummer Matt Chamberlain, a duo with bassist Mike Gordon, a
drum group with percussionists Bobby Previte, Mike Dillon and Joe Russo and a
free play quartet with trumpeter Steven Bernstein, bassist Dave  Dreiwitz and
drummer Claude Coleman. The repertoire, while always based in
improvisation (including a number of pieces created on the spot), drew from
Benevento's own compositions, as well  as, classics ranging from Pink Floyd's "Fearless"
to  Benny Goodman's "Moonglow" to Leonard Cohen's "Seems So Long Ago
Nancy" to
Thelonious Monk's  "Bye Ya." The highlights will be released August 7 by
Ropeadope on three discs of wide-eyed, daringly fierce and cosmically joyous music
entitled Marco Benevento--Live At  Tonic.
Watch Marco Benevento--Live At Tonic Video Teaser on YouTube: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LamZyhaEGBc

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