from: KEYBOARD Magazine

Declaration Of Independence

By Jon Regen | March, 2008

Bailing on jazz? When Marco Benevento dives into his hybrid elecrtic/acoustic improv, you might think so. But really, he’s building on it.

Marco Benevento was on the verge of becoming one of the great straight-ahead jazz pianists of his generation — when something happened.

“I was working really hard,” the 30-year-old keyboardist tells me from his home in Brooklyn, New York. “I was studying with [renowned jazz pianist] Joanne Brackeen at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, practicing ten hours a day. I even won an award for ‘Most Outstanding Jazz Pianist.’ I was really trying to be that key that fits right into the lock — but it was a different key, and a different lock.”

Benevento initially thought he would follow in the footsteps of his elders, playing and recording jazz standards in a piano trio setting. But his eclectic musical tastes would lead him on a different path altogether. (click to read more...)

Click here to read more at KeyboardMag.com.