Experimental duo Benevento/Russo Find Organ and Drums Are More Than Enough

In New York City, fifty dollars a week won't get you very far, but it's still twice as nice as twenty-five dollars. At least that's what drummer Joe Russo was thinking in 2002 when he was offered a weekly Knitting Factory residency that paid a total of a hundred dollars. Deciding that a duo would be twice as profitable as a quartet, he called up his childhood chum Marco Benevento, a jazz keyboardist, and serendipitously formed the Benevento/Russo Duo. Little did either partner imagine how rapidly this casual side gig would acquire an audience.

"It all happened by accident," recalls Benevento. "We didn't say, 'Let's start an organ-and-drums duo.' Our fans turned us into a band."

Their early shows allowed the pair to experiment with both the freedoms and limitations of being an instrumental rock duo. Russo has since programmed melodic samples into his drum pads, while Benevento tricked out his keyboard rig with effects including pedal bass. Between the two of them, they can create music that sounds surprisingly full -- saturated, even -- and always organic. They can spontaneously stretch out any song at will and they take calculated risks that rely on instant communication and flexibility.

Initially, some of that jam aesthetic was more out of necessity than virtue: The duo simply didn't have enough original material for a weekly multi-set show, so they adopted covers by every one from Elliott Smith to Radiohead, flushing out the arrangements, Benevento says, with "lots of made-up twenty-minute odysseys." But when the group tired of being labeled a jam band, they stumbled upon an edgier sound.

"I went to Berklee College of Music and I was way into jazz, but my roots are in rock," Benevento explains. "And it's really challenging to compose a rock song in a duo setting. So that's what we're into."