Last year, keyboard whiz Marco Benevento caused a stir with his very first studio effort Invisible Baby. That record presented Benevento as a post-rocker who likes to mingle melodic acoustic piano with edgy electronic effects used to create a unique sonic presence; a sort of indie-minded Jim Brickman.
Just one short year after Invisible Baby, Benevento is back this past week with studio release #2, Me Not Me. The biggest notable difference on this album is that unlike the all-original Invisible, seven of the ten songs on Me are someone else’s. To Benevento’s credit, none of these songs have been overdone and the sources are eclectic: from Deerhoof and My Morning Jacket to Leonard Cohen and George Harrison.
The heavy use of covers didn’t make for a substantially different record than its predecessor, and so the success of Me hinges more on Benevento’s interpretive abilities than anything else. It’s a mixed bag overall, but “Friends” is one of those interpretations that’s most successful.
“Friends” (not that damned theme song to that long-running comedy series) is an unusual choice of a Led Zeppelin song to cover as it’s not one of their more familiar songs, but it’s tailor made for Benevento. In original form, it was the song that followed “Immigrant Song” on Led Zeppelin III and was one of the band’s earliest manifestations of their exotic folk side. Jimmy Page stayed on acoustic guitar for this one, but there’s some dark, Middle-Eastern chords played by a light string section, and a synth can heard at the song’s end. Robert Plant’s singing part in this is relatively minimal and pushed somewhat back in the mix, the drummer sits out, and there’s no soloing. This is really more of a floating, mood song.
Benevento doesn’t disturb Page’s ethereal melody and doesn’t solo on it, either, but he’s discovered that there was a real rocker inside of this song wanting to get out. The emancipation begins by introducing drums to “Friends,” courtesy of Matt Chamberlain. Chamberlain doesn’t have to shoulder the burden of having to live up to John Bonham, and is able to develop his own propulsive beat for the tune.
For his part, Benevento is playing both the guitar and vocal parts on his piano, and makes good use of those “circuit bent toys” to give the song a heft with some fuzzy sounds that mimic a hard rock guitar. He also conjures up swirling sounds that get more noticeable as the song proceeds to increased intensity. By the end, he and Chamberlain have worked up a good and loud frenzy until the two abruptly quit, leaving in its wake Beneventos’ various pedal-driven effects that fade out to silence.
Sometimes a carefully song borrowed from someone else is what it takes to bring out the best in an artist. In the case of Marco Benevento, a lesser-known track from Zep’s third album does the trick.
“One Track Mind” is a more-or-less weekly drool over a single song selected on a whim and a short thesis on why you should be drooling over it, too.
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- Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock + Paul Motian – ‘The Old Country’ (1992; 2024 release) - November 7, 2024
