MARCO BENEVENTO MAKES A BIG SPLASH IN OWEGO THIS MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND

Festival season is upon us, and for the Southern Tier, it kicks off this Memorial Day Weekend. The Susquehanna River Big Splash Sustainability Fair, presented by the folks up at the Fingerlakes Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance, returns to Owego for two days this month, and they’ve put together a bigger lineup than ever before.

Headlining the eco-conscious music festival’s Sunday lineup is experimental piano player Marco Benevento. The Woodstock- based musician is a familiar name on the jazz/jam circuit: he’s best known as half of the experimental Benevento/Russo Duo, but he’s also done stints with Joe Russo’s Almost Dead and with various members of Phish. He’s recorded with pretty much everybody, including, notably, an album, Tigerface (in 2012) with Rubblebucket’s Annakalmia Traver. Benevento spends most of his time touring with Ween bassist Dave Dreiwitz and drummer Andy Borger (who also works with Norah Jones), and he released a new album, The Story of Fred Short, on April 1st. Benevento touched base recently with Carousel; he was calling from the New Orleans Jazz Festival, and the sounds of celebration were clearly audible through the phone:

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TRIPLE CITIES CAROUSEL: You hosted a tribute to the late NOLA pianist James Booker last night at the Blue Nile in New Orleans. How was the show?

MARCO BENEVENTO: Great. I’ve been here since Friday, playing every night. I’ve got one more night here.

TCC: That yearly gig has become a staple of the New Orleans Jazz Festival. Did they initially approach you, or was it your idea?

MB: No, it definitely wasn’t my idea, although I am a huge Booker fan. But, you know, I never really thought I’d have to take on that task, really learning all that shit. My friends actually hired me to play Booker for their wedding, so I learned a bunch of Booker tunes and played them for their wedding. Ever since then, word got out and people were like ‘oh you do the Booker thing, let’s do it at Jazz Fest!’ So it just sort of happened organically like that. I guess the last three- or four years maybe we’ve been doing it every Monday night in between weekends of Jazz fest. It’s fun, it went real great!

TCC: And then you meet up with the Arcs [a side project of The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach] tomorrow. Have you played with them yet?

MB: I haven’t played live with them. Tomorrow’s like a rehearsal slash gig. The keyboard player’s still there, but I’ll be there to ghost, like check it out. Then I play with them for the next five dates.

TCC: All this on top of touring in support of your newest release, The Story of Fred Short. Do you ever get a day off?

MB: Yeah, I do, I do. I definitely have chunks of super busy times, but I have kids and a wife, so I’ve got to make sure I have time off, otherwise they’re like, ‘where’s daddy, who’s daddy?’ It’s all good.

TCC: Let’s talk about the new album. It’s your second album with vocals. How does learning to sing compare to learning piano?

MB: Well, you know, on piano you can play a lot of notes at one time, singing you can only get one note at a time, so uhh-- It’s pretty focused. I really get to learn how to figure out to be, sort of way more in tune with my body with the singing. I’ve been doing a lot of vocal warmups and stuff, figuring out how to dial it in. It’s a new instrument that I’m learning how to play, and I really enjoy it. The crowd really seems to be connected to it as well.

TCC: Did you grow up singing?

MB: I did, actually. I grew up singing in bands in high school, and I did chorus in high school. I did a lot of singing in high school. And then I got really into jazz and improvisational music in college and sort of put all that singing and stuff to the side. Over the last three years I’ve been singing a ton more, and now I find it’s a very useful sort of weapon on stage. It’s a nice addition to our band. We have a lot of instrumental songs, and now we’re sort of balancing them out with tunes that are easy to get, singing, and more in that sort of rock/pop style versus the jammy improvisational style. I did a gig here at Jazz Fest two years ago, and I sang a tune, and Charlie Hunter was there, and he was like ‘oh man, it sounds good! I like your stuff with the vocals, but you know, it took you thirty years to learn how to play the piano, it’s going to take you thirty years to learn how to sing.” I was like ‘oh shit, it’s true.’ I’m cool with it, though. It doesn’t seem so daunting anymore. I don’t feel so self-conscious about my voice anymore. So now I’m just singing, uhh, I’m a singer.

TCC: Is writing lyrics any different than writing a piano part?

MB: I’ve always kind of come up with the music first, and then come up with the melody second, and thirdly come up with the vocals and the lyrics. It doesn’t really change much. My tunes are very singable melodies, even going back to my first record, Invisible Baby. There’s a couple of tunes on there where the melodies are on a synth or an organ, but could easily be sung. But I didn’t have that in the forefront of my mind. I never really decided to sing those melodies. But nothing changed that much except for the fact that now I have to think about words and writing lyrics- getting imagery or poetry together with my words. That’s the only tricky part about it: writing lyrics. I didn’t really do much of that. But I’m sort of over the beginning hump with that, which is good. I’m feeling more confident with storytelling, figuring out how to use words to my advantage.

TCC: So who is Fred Short? What’s his story?

MB: The story of Fred Short is that he was a Zuni Native American Indian that came from New Mexico to the Catskills and was renamed Fred Short by the settlers- by Henry Hudson. He renamed every Native American, because they had really long names like Bear Runs Through Forest Chasing Fish. So the story is, Henry Hudson renamed all the Native American people very common English names like Fred Short, or John Joy. John Carl. Very common names. This is about his travels from the West Coast to the East Coast, his predictions that the world was going to end. He’s kept on telling people that the sun is almost over, and we need to not destroy the earth. But he was also a partier and a shaman, doing vision quests on the land that I live on. I live on Fred Short Road, so I was always wondering who the guy was. It opened a can of worms, finding the meaning here in the Woodstock area. Yeah, Fred Short Road, man, that’s where I live, come visit any time!

TCC: The Woodstock/Saugerties scene you’ve come to call home: it’s definitely a lot quieter than your former home in Brooklyn. Does that help the creative process at all?

MB: Absolutely, yeah. I have a little studio right next to my house, like a 20’x20’ little square studio. I have a lot more space now to create. I can work whenever I want to work, and I’m surrounded by trees and mountains and animals. I have so much more room to create! In Brooklyn it’s really hard to do anything. Even just going grocery shopping or going to the post office; it takes a lot out of you. The city: there’s a lot of traffic and a lot of people around. And I have kids and I collect pianos, so the apartment was slowly shrinking. I had to get out. I didn’t feel connected to the land at all, so I just moved everybody up. It’s so much better. I was in Brooklyn for ten years. I did my city time, I did the rat race for a while. Now it’s really nice to just be connected to the land; plant seeds in early spring, have a big garden, get connected to that sort of thing. And I live about a mile from [late drummer of The Band] Levon Helm’s place, so I go there and record with people when they come to town- I just recorded with Shakey Graves over there. I recorded on Amy Helm’s record. And playing over there- they still do the Midnight Rambles every once in a while. There’s a scene up there. There’s a lot of recording studios up there, too. I get called to play on people’s records in various recording studios. I just did three days with Rich Robinson. So I’m busy, even though it’s the country. It’s a music town. Woodstock is a total music town. There’s gigs at the Bearsville Theater, which is a wonderful place to play. Kingston is a really cool town as well.

TCC: I’ve seen you perform live a few times, but I’ve never really been able to wrap my head around how you do what you do. I know you’re big into circuit bending- can you explain that a little bit?

MB: A friend of mine came to my gig in Chicago and he had a duffel bag full of all these children’s toys that had all these extra knobs on them. And lights. They were spray painted all these really cool colors, like something out of Wayne Coyne’s old toy chest or something. When I fired them up, I was really intrigued- it’s like all your favorite Casio keyboards that you mess with when you’re a kid, but they had all these tweaked out knobs and overdrive switches on them, and I was immediately drawn to the sort of ear candy of all these toys. I use the circuit bending toys to help me compose music, instead of standing in front of a piano and running chord after chord, melody line after melody line. The circuit bent toys give you quick sort of inspirational beats. Then before you know it, you’ve got an A section written in, and a B section. And live they’re really fun, too. They’re cool to look at, people are intrigued by them. They’re basically lo-fi 8-bit little sound boxes. You open up the back of them and you rewire them: add switches where switches don’t belong. It creates a whole new sound. It’s a whole new line of instruments I guess. You can go on eBay now and get a lot of circuit bent toys. They’re out there.

TCC: Do you remember your first festival experience, either playing or attending?

MB: I think maybe High Sierra in California was one of the first ones I did, in 2002. I drove out there with my buddy Joe Russo, and at the time we had a Hammond organ and drum duo [the wildly acclaimed, wildly experimental Benevento/Russo Duo], and we threw a Hammond organ and a Leslie and a drum kit into the back of my Subaru station wagon, and drove out to the west coast to play that festival. Super fun, small little hippie festival. I’ll never forget it. It was one of my first experiences breaking into the festival scene, and people knowing who I am

TCC: Are there any plans of a Benevento/Russo Duo reunion?

MB: Not yet. Not yet, but who knows?

TCC: So you’re coming up to Owego for the Big Splash Sustainability Fair on Memorial Day weekend, and then you’re straight down to Mountain Jam to play a Bowie tribute with Superhuman Happiness. How did that come about?

MB: I love all that Bowie stuff. We did Hunky Dorey, the whole record in its entirety, last July, and ever since then people sort of ask us to throw things together here and there. It’s my band-- Dave and Andy-- and some guys from Superhuman. We’ll probably do some of my tunes as well, but mostly probably the stuff off of Hunky Dorey.

TCC: Prince died last week. Was he a big influence on you?

MB: Oh, hell yeah. Especially recently-- I’ve been starting to collect a lot of his records, actually. I’m all about the dance party. Our band has been playing for crowds that have been standing up dancing, and listening to Prince is just a reminder of the importance of dancing, of how to let loose and have a good time. Yeah, huge fan.

TCC: Marco, thanks so much, I’ll see you at Big Splash. Enjoy the tour!

MB: Right on!

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Susquehanna River Big Splash Sustainability Fair takes place at the Tioga County Fairgrounds (Marvin Park) in Owego, NY on Saturday May 28th and Sunday May 29th. In addition to Marco Benevento’s 8pm Sunday set, there will be performances by Donna the Buffalo, Big Mean Sound Machine, Jimkata, The Second Class Citizens, Jeb & Friends, Jatoba, The Linears, Laila Belle, Milkweed, Pasty White & Doublewide, Triple Down, CC Ryder, Next to Kin, Adam Ate the Apple, and many more. The weekend will also feature renewable energy vendors, home efficiency companies, daily yoga classes, a farm-to-festival cafe, not-for-profit groups, environmental advocacy groups, and local artisans. Weekend passes are $20 in advance/$25 at the gate. Day passes are $10 in advance/$15 at the gate. Kids twelve and under are free. Tent, RV, and Camper camping is available for an additional $25. For more info on Big Splash, check out grassrootsbigsplash.com.

For more info on Marco Benevento, check out marcobenevento.com.