After the dippy jam-jazz of the Benevento/Russo Duo and a stint in Phish man Trey Anastasio’s ensemble, keyboardist Marco Benevento seemed primed for postbop the hard way with his testily experimental Live at Tonic.
The three-CD set showed off the instrumentalist’s chops, not only as a keyboardist who could leap inventively among jazz canons old (Thelonious Monk’s “Bye Ya”) and new (Brad Mehldau’s “Sabbath”), pop oddities from Pink Floyd, and the big-band brass of Benny Goodman, but also as a leader who could command topnotch downtown cats like Bobby Previte, Matt Chamberlain and Steven Bernstein.
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