An intimate crowd of about 45 people, mostly familiar campus faces, flocked to the Miramar Theatre on Saturday, Sept. 24, for an intimate concert by the jazz combo made up of keyboardist Marco Benevento and drummer Joe Russo, collectively known by “The Duo.”

While most of their recent fame is attributed to their string of shows featuring Phish’s bassist Mike Gordon, to fully appreciate The Duo, they should be seen without a bassist.

Benevento’s use of both organs and keyboards fills the gaps that would normally be occupied by a bass note; giving their sound a funky fusion of electronic music and jazz.

The Duo is hardly a strict jazz combo. When entering the show, this reviewer expected something more akin to acid jazz astronauts Medeski, Martin and Wood. The music, rather, has more of an atmospheric quality similar to jamband techno innovators Sound Tribe Sector 9.

While improvisation is the cornerstone of jazz music, The Duo offers a lot of melody with their songs. Whatever musical journey they attempted to take worked so well that the Miramar’s small dance floor was flooded with people boogying while carefully trying not to spill their drinks.

The set consisted of mostly songs off of their new CD, “Best Reason To Buy The Sun.” Nestled within their set, the songs offered a wide variety of sounds ranging from the funky explorations of “Becky” to the Herbie Hancock-tinged “Scrachitti.”

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