Photo by Rob Chapman
Marco Benevento thrives in situations like Jazz Fest. Never one to sit still, Benevento has bounced between countless bands, side projects and sit-ins since his first visit to New Orleans in 2001—playing with some of the biggest names in the jam, funk, indie and jazz worlds along the way. This spring alone, Benevento is celebrating the release of a new studio effort with Garage a Trois, working on a new Surprise Me Mr. Davis album with the members of The Slip and Nathan Moore and sitting on his fourth and finest solo record in under five years. That’s not to mention a dizzying mix of collaborations that includes appearances with the likes of Booker T. to Bonerama and Billy Martin. While in New Orleans, Benevento brought us up to date on his new album with Garage A Trois, the forthcoming Surprise Me Mr. Davis album, the future of the Benevento-Russo Duo and much more.
Let’s start by talking about JazzFest. You are going to make your Fairgrounds debut this weekend as a guest of Bonerama. How did that collaboration come about?
I just love those guys. They are very welcoming. I have played a bunchwith them before and people have always said, “You should sit in with them some time.” I did a collaboration with Bonerama’s Mark Mullins, Billy Martin and Dave Dreiwitz from Ween last year at Tip’s French Quarter, and we had a great time. So I guess it really came about there. Then this year I literally got a text about it and I said, “Alright, let’s do it.” I am super excited—this is going to be my first time playing the Fairgrounds at Jazz Fest. I love coming down here.
You play Jazz Fest almost every year and also seem to play with more and more bands each year. What was your first Jazz Fest experience like?
I have been coming down here since 2001—basically ten years—and I’ve only missed one or two years since then. I came down here with The Slip guys in 2001 because they had some shows. I was sitting in with them and just kind of hanging out. We were sleeping on friends’ floors back then and just sort of getting to know the place but absolutely loving it. My first appearance at Jazz Fest with a bunch of my own gigs was with The Duo in 2003. Now it has grown into a place where we know so many people—it is a home away from home—and I am staying at a really nice house that my friend has with my wife and kids. A lot of stuff has happened in the past ten years since I have been coming here—it has been great to see how it all grows and also see how New Orleans is changing.
In certain ways your time at JazzFest has mirrored your career arc. You started coming as a fan and in ten years you have made it to the main Acura stage.
Totally. And those years where I played with Mike Gordon and Joe Russo, we played down here in 2005. So many memories have happened here.
You are also in the process of releasing your second album with Garage A Trois, Always Be Happy, But Stay Evil, on your own label. What led you to join the band and how have you felt your presence has changed the group’s sound?
Going back to the frequent visiting of this festival, The Duo opened for Garage A Trois at Tip’s a few years ago. Then we did some post-Phish shows down in Hampton, VA, and we just all started hanging out. So I guess my involvement with them started when I just got to know them in the early 2000s when Joe and I were touring a bunch. Then Charlie Hunter didn’t want to be in the band anymore—he has his own band that tours so he wanted to focus on that a little more. They were left with that and thought, “What one person can cover basslines and also do some composing and soloing” and thought a Hammond organ player might fit. Since they knew me—and since we all had a great time hanging out at gigs and talking about music and enjoying each other’s musical company—it was as simple as that. For a while they called it Garage A Benevento and when they officially wanted to make it a band, they luckily changed it back to Garage A Trois.
The band has taken a whole new direction since I have been involved. If you listen to the records they made with Charlie, it is really more funk and groove-oriented. This album is more riff rock and more compositional—it is much more about the songs instead of the solo sections. It is a whole different angle—it is a lot louder, which is something Charlie was never into. He used to always say, “Why do you guys have to play so loud?” He actually mentioned that a few times [laughter.]. So Garage A Trois is super in your face right now—almost punk, though Stanton Moore is still a swinging drummer being from New Orleans and all. But in Garage A Trois he is playing more like he’s in Tortoise than The Meters. I feel like I had a lot to do with the change on the last two records but at the same time Skerik and Mike D are masterful songwriters. They come up with some great riffs, and I can be supportive in that role and I can sink into that style. That is the type of style I like to compose in too, so it is super powerful watching Stanton play in a band that gives him an outlet like this.
Given that you are all involved in so many different projects, what was the process like writing Always Be Happy, But Stay Evil ? Did you each work on ideas on your own?
We basically all knew we were going to get together for a week to work on the album. We had a day to practice and then four days to record. Everybody would write their song ideas down and bring those ideas to the band. Generally I would say musicians are always messing around with song ideas—even if it is just in their heads. So ideas will come to your head all the time but our headspace was geared towards going in and recording a Garage A Trois record. So for the most part, when anybody would come up with a riff leading up to the recording of the album in January, they would bring it to the table and in rehearsals, and we started putting them all together. Everybody had a lot of ideas so we sort of had this big table covered in all these awesome little bits of paper and ideas scribbled on old magazines. Then Skerik’s friend Randall Dunn—this awesome mixing engineer—helped put it all together. I would imagine if you were dealing with a singer or writing lyrics it might take longer but we did it really quickly. It was super fun.
Who came up with the album’s awesome title?
CoCo, Skerik’s daughter. I think she is about 9. We all loved it when she said it and said, “Let’s just make t-shirts with that on it” and we made t-shirts with this evil, smiley Dracula face. We were all like, “Let’s use that as the album’s title.”
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