Hot Dance Piano Rock

Marco Benevento’s amalgamation of rock, jazz, and experimental music just hit a major peak with the release of a vocal album, Let it Slide, produced by the legend Leon Michels. Marco studied at Berklee College of Music, primarily on the piano, but is also a bonafide groove-master-multi-instrumentalist. Marco melds together sound elements from almost every genre creating a new subset genre he and a friend coined as ‘hot-dance-piano-rock.’ Marco’s big release party comes to Fort Collins on February 6 at the Aggie Theatre. 

Marco is notably one of the most talented keys players of our time with a discog of instrumentals. A few albums ago, Benevento released Swift which debuted vocals, a new element in his sound profile. Ever since that album, he has been singing. Let it Slide, Marco’s twelfth studio album since 2008, goes even deeper into his vocal side with rich emotions and themes new to Marco’s style. 

“Before I’ve been basically on my own or recording with the band I was with. But this time, I was collaborating with another brain, another power. Leon became a close friend.” Leon Michels, A.K.A. El Michels Affair, had a lot of input and added his flair for funk to Let it Slide. The two met through a close friend Richard Swift, who has passed. Marco subbed in the band The Arcs for Leon and the two met when schedules overlapped. 

“Richard said, well, man, you should definitely make a record with Leon, that would be cool, so I did,” Marco says. “I normally just finish my work and call it done, but I wanted to have more focus and attention on these tunes.  I slowed down the process quite a bit. I put it in someone else’s hands and trusted what they did, mainly because I was a huge fan.” 

Marco did some international travel last year and was so invigorated he got a European booking agent, so in the fall look for Marco Benevento across the pond. “We went to Japan in November and that was fun,” Marco says. “I met a guitar player from Japan. We played with Billy Martin from Medeski Martin and Wood with two girls playing Bass Clarinet and a girl playing drums. We all got the bug to go to other places.” This is a big-time first, and a pinnacle moment in his career.

Up coming Colorado shows: 

February 06
Aggie Theatre
Fort Collins, CO

February 07
Public House
Crested Butte, CO

February 08
Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom
Denver, CO

Check out Let it Slide on all your favorite streaming platforms.