It’s become moderately fashionable to over-appreciate and impersonate the genius of Michael McDonald. After living in the wayback of the public consciousness for the better part of two decades, the
Marco Benevento knows his math. The bearded hipster pianist wisely chose to set up a regular Wednesday residency at Tonic on Manhattan’s Lower East Side in November, which fortunately for all of us, has five Wednesdays. As Cosby would say, that’s “One, two, three, four, fiiiiive Marco Wednesdays.” Bonus.
Last night’s over-before-it-started, 70-minute show marked the middle gig of Marco’s Novemberstand, a (mostly) solo performance full of experimental covers and spacey loops. Somehow he ended up with more equipment on stage than most full bands, but like a musical polygamist, I’m pretty sure he spent a little time with every one of them: the grand piano, the electric piano, the tiny keyboard, toy circuits, drum pad, you name it. Still, the per instrument set-up to play-time ratio couldn’t have been lower than 5:1. I made that up, but it sounded good.
Marco began with Randy Pink Floyd’s Fearless, then followed that stellar beginning with terrifically tickled homages to Thelonius Monk (Bye-Ya), Leonard Cohen (Seems So Long Ago, Nancy) and Radiohead. He even played a lesser known Duo tune off Best Reason To Buy The Sun, Welcome Red, before saying something like “Joe [Russo] is gonna kill me for playing that.” But if a recording of this show ever surfaces, that Monk tune — a grand piano jazz performance devoid of all his typical layers of sound — floored me more than any of his other inventiveness.
Marco eventually called up to the stage his occasional collaborator and preferred rock shredder Scott Metzger for three songs near the end of his set. The lowercase duo kicked it off with a Combustible Edison tune, hightailed it into the capitalized Duo’s Abduction Pose and finished it up with a Happy Birthday-infused cover of Ween’s Birthday Boy (read on below for a couple of videos I shot of these last two). As much as I loved the solo stuff, Metzger took the night’s proceedings to a higher level, his understated-ness notwithstanding.
You’ve got two more chances to see Marco & Friends down at Tonic this month. Next Wednesday features the keyboardist with three drummers — Sir Joe Russo, Bobby Previte and Mike Dillon (and where there’s a Mike D there’s usually a Skerik, but…). Make it your beeswax to get down there and see what unfolds…
Just think, one week from today we’ll all be off and celebrating the turkiest of all days. We’re almost there, and to help you get to the short week faster, check out
Because sometimes you just gotta share cool shit with your friends… I love the brief description of this video on YouTube: “Just because you dont know how to play the
Medeski, Scofield, Martin, and Wood, kicked off their night of funked out jazz at Northampton's Calvin Theater, it was obvious to everyone in the house that gimmicks and stage antics weren’t on the agenda. Instead, quality musicianship was the quartet’s goal, and world-class technique was what they came to deliver.
Like the Magic Numbers’ recent debut before them, Mohair is bound to make another dent as new classic pop songwriters from across the way.
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CMJ (NYC’s annual music fest) came in like a lion, roared like a lion and left like – yup, you got it – a lion. The whirlwind of fantastic jams set the foundation for the Wednesday night show at Bowery Ballroom. Chock Full O’ Bands that are in various stages of their journey on a streetcar named fame, there was a bevy of talent packing the house for seven hours of music. While tag wearing hipsters skedaddled about the city, your faithful narrator got a spot on the ballroom floor and has a review of each of these acts presented here, because all are worthy of praise and your attention:
Music legend Willie Nelson has written and recorded a new, topical song called "Whatever Happened To Peace On Earth?" to speak out about the current political climate and world conditions.
