Marco Benevento: Invisible Baby

“Bus Ride,” the opening track on Marco Benevento’s debut studio album Invisible Baby, is instrumental post-jazz done right. Huge, crashing drums, cavernous bass, thundering piano, and banjo blend together, gather momentum, and rise toward dramatic crescendo. It’s an urgent, passionate number from a trio maximizing its individual talents and firing on all cylinders. For Invisible Baby, that trio consists of keyboardist Benevento (Benevento/Russo Duo), bassist Reed Mathis (Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey), and alternating drummers Matt Chamberlain (Critters Buggin) and Andrew Barr (The Slip).

The seven other songs on the album do not reach such heights. “If You Keep On Asking Me” and “Record Book” are neither melodic enough to be memorable nor experimental enough to wow listeners—both end up veering into wallpaper-music territory. And though there are artful arrangements and teases of greatness to be found, the tradeoff is plowing through unremarkable filler.

“The Real Morning Party” begins with an over-melodic kindergarten riff played on a Farfi sa Fast 2 organ, but it’s soon washed away by a Wurlitzer playing a smarter, more nuanced phrase—a high point of the album. “Are You the Favorite Person of Anybody?” is a tiresome listen for its first four minutes, but closes Invisible Baby with two minutes of feverish banging that rivals the opener. By that point, though, it’s too little too late.

Part of what makes Benevento’s flagship group, Benevento/Russo Duo, so thrilling is its buildups, the extended jams where he and drummer Joe Russo feed off each other to create an emotional experience. That reckless electricity is often missing on Invisible Baby.

– David Hudnall

Marco Benevento: www.marcobenevento.com
Hyena Records: www.hyenarecords.com