Benedict brings vibes sound to jazz clubs, new recording Michael Benedict only began professionally playing the vibraphone in 2006, forming his Jazz Vibes band and releasing the group's debut album, "The New Beat," that year. Before that, Benedict led a 17-piece jazz big band on the drums. Being one of a just few musicians playing the vibes in the Capital Region, he has a lot less competition with that instrument. "In fact, right now I think I'm the only one who plays on them [vibes] on any kind of regular basis that I know of, anyway," Benedict said during a recent interview at The Gazette, "as opposed to playing drums, where there's a number of very good players in the area." And he's certainly no stranger to the instrument, having played the vibes, although not professionally, since the age of 16. Now 51, Benedict has decided to focus more on the instrument and his new band, which has just completed its second album, "The Next Phase." His upcoming gig on Saturday at 9 Maple Avenue in Saratoga Springs will feature one incarnation of his Jazz Vibes band, with bassist Lou Smaldone, drummer Joe Barna and tenor saxophonist Lee Russo. This quartet is slightly different from Benedict's recent recorded work because of the absence of piano. Different sound "When I have a piano player with me, I play the melodies, and the piano player will pretty much take care of almost all the chordal accompaniment," Benedict said. "So I have two different kinds of bands in a sense. When I'm playing with a tenor sax, it's somewhat of a different sound because I'm doing the chords, as opposed to when I have a piano." However, Benedict's vibes playing, as the band name suggests, remain in the spotlight. When he first began Jazz Vibes, the band initially focused on bossa novas and sambas for its debut, recording songs by Antonio Carlos Jobim, as well as Gary McFarland, who is also the biological father of Benedict's stepdaughter. "The Next Phase" also features cuts by McFarland, who died in 1971, but focuses on a more personal side of Benedict's playing. The album was recorded with Russo, Barna, bassist Mike DelPrete and pianist Dave Solazzo. Of the album's nine tracks, five were composed by local musicians Benedict performs with in Jazz Vibes, including two cuts by pianist Yuko Kishimoto, one by Barna, one by Russo and one of Benedict's own compositions. The album is dedicated to the memory of Benedict's wife, who died a little over a year ago. "It was almost a therapeutic kind of thing for me, to do something, a big project like this," Benedict said. "When I first thought about doing it, I didn't have solid ideas as to what I wanted to do, but once I got the ball rolling, things just really fell into place." Benedict cites Milt Jackson, Lionel Hampton and Gary Burton as his three main influences on the vibes. At an early age, he discovered the music of Miles Davis, Stan Kenton, Dave Brubeck and Dizzy Gillespie through his father's record collection, and was immediately attracted to the jazz sound. "It was so different from the pop music that was happening at that time," Benedict said. "I came up in the era of Grand Funk Railroad and Black Sabbath. . . . The jazz was so completely unique, and I really sort of fell in love with it almost immediately. And then my father started taking me out to see some jazz concerts, and I got very attached to the big bands that were happening at the time." Getting started Benedict, who now lives in Rensselaerville and teaches at Greenville High School, originally grew up in Rome, N.Y. The son of a drummer, Benedict picked up the instrument himself at 10, and performed with his first band at 15. He earned his bachelor's in music education at the Crane School of Music at the State University of New York College at Potsdam, then spent 10 years playing professionally and teaching private lessons in the Capital Region and New York City. In 1990, Benedict got his master's degree in jazz studies from Rutgers University in New Jersey, then back to upstate New York. Although the vibes are his primary focus right now, Benedict hasn't turned his back on drumming completely. "It's very rare at this point that I'm playing the drums," Benedict said. "I sat in last night on the drums at Justin's [in Albany], but I would like to continue the drums, because that's sort of my main instrument. I still think of myself as a drummer first, I guess." Reach Gazette reporter Brian McElhiney at |