IMN : Updates for The Bad Plus

Live Review: The Bad Plus at Colston Hall

IMN

May 14th, 2013

from classical-music.com (The official website of BBC Music Magazine)

Neil McKim enjoys a Bristol concert by jazz misfits The Bad Plus
by Neil McKim

This was one of the most good-humoured concerts I have seen for a long time… and for the right reasons. The audience was in stitches after a five-minute meandering introduction to a song, apparently inspired by a 1960s stuntman who kept turtles… and who hung out with Steve McQueen… and who liked baloney sandwiches. I was pleasantly surprised at this mirth as I was watching The Bad Plus, an American jazz band that is best-known for its relentlessly aggressive musical approach.

Over the last decade The Bad Plus (pianist Ethan Iverson, bassist Reid Anderson, and drummer Dave King) has maintained a reputation for tearing up the rulebook when it comes to jazz trio performance. They are often portrayed as throwing aside older forms of jazz and instead recreating a contemporary format that is heavily influenced by other genres, as demonstrated by infamous cover versions, ranging from heavy metal’s Black Sabbath to Abba or to dance music’s Aphex Twin. Their tracks, whether cover versions or their own, have a beguiling ability to lull a listener into a calm state and then to rip up the floorboards in a ferocious audio assault.

As I sat watching the trio in Bristol last weekend I couldn’t really see what all the critical ‘fuss’ has been about. The band, although now older than when they first burst on to the worldwide scene in the early 2000s, has survived some very varied reviews in the UK over the years.

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The Bad Plus (Plus One)

IMN

May 6th, 2013

From The Los Angeles Times

Review: Brad Mehldau, the Bad Plus push jazz further ahead at UCLA
By: Chris Barton

There was no shortage of curiosity going into headliners the Bad Plus, which was paired with a special guest in Joshua Redman. Redman’s the son of avant-garde saxophonist Dewey (who also recorded with Haden), and his gifts have been well documented since the ’90s, but how much space would he be able to carve out in the compact, intensely collaborative world of the Bad Plus?

The question was answered early during “Love Is the Answer,” a moonlit ballad from the trio’s 2000 recording “Motel.” As pianist Ethan Iverson carried a flickering melody that gracefully recalled “Moonlight Sonata,” the rhythm section of bassist Reid Anderson and drummer Dave King surged ahead as Redman waited. When the saxophonist entered with a lovely, squiggly turn, King answered with an acrobatic barrage of fireworks behind him, goading Redman to push further ahead or be overtaken.

From there, the Bad Plus (plus one) roared as if a quartet were always lying just beneath its surface. Although the trio was considered a controversial force by some in the early ’00s for a variety of ear-grabbing covers that included the Pixies, Aphex Twin and Nirvana, it was telling that the group performed only its originals here, marking a summary of a decade-plus career that has always been more than its eclectic tastes.

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The Bad Plus: The Difference Between Jazz & Rock Bands

IMN

May 1st, 2013

From SF Weekly

The Bad Plus’ Dave King on How Touring in a Jazz Band Is Different From Touring in a Rock Band
By: Casey Burchby

The Bad Plus visits the Bay Area on a regular basis, and we are grateful for this. As drummer Dave King told us in a recent conversation, that feeling is mutual. “San Francisco is one of the cities we’ve felt huge support from over the years,” he says.

As one third of the Bad Plus, King anchors many of this hard-driving experimental jazz trio’s tunes with a ferocity and physicality that’s heard plainly on the group’s recordings, but is even more evident live. It is largely because of King’s contribution that the Bad Plus is often characterized as a jazz trio with a rock edge; the group also boasts the lyrical, harmonically complex piano work of Ethan Iverson and graceful, inspired bass of Reid Anderson. The trio operates in a truly co-equal fashion, with each member sharing in composition duties. Live, the communication of the unit is palpable as it establishes three things in parallel: restless innovation, musical sophistication, and an enormous sense of fun. King recently spoke with us by phone prior to the Bad Plus’ performances at Yoshi’s Oakland, today (Tuesday, April 30) through Thursday, May 2.

When did you start playing music? And did you start on the drums, or on something else?
I started playing piano when I was five. I got pretty heavily into piano until I was 10. I still play piano, and I studied it for much longer than that. I started playing the drums in a school band in fifth grade. I have several brothers, and we all started out on an instrument, but I was really bitten by it early. I continue to use piano as a compositional tool, of course — I think it’s a wise thing to do if you’re going to play any instrument. I think you’re overtly more musical when you really get your piano chops together, no matter what you end up playing.

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Primer: The Bad Plus

IMN

April 24th, 2013

From Williamette Week

Primer: The Bad Plus
By: Brett Campbell

Formed: In 2000 in Minneapolis.

Sounds like: Classically trained piano meets indie-rock drums meets jazz bass.

For fans of: Blondie, Igor Stravinsky, Paul Motian, Flaming Lips, Abba, Joshua Redman, Nirvana, Neil Young, Ornette Coleman, the Pixies, Bill Frisell, David Bowie, Herb Alpert, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, Heart—the Plus have covered or worked with all of them.

Latest release: Made Possible, the band’s eighth studio album, continues its recent emphasis on original music, adding for the first time occasional tasteful touches of electronic instrumentation.

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The Bad Plus and Bill Frisell

IMN

April 15th, 2013

From The New York Times

Quirks and All, a Group Welcomes a Playmate
By: Ben Ratliff

The Bad Plus is an odd bird. The three members of this trio individually lean on specific languages of jazz improvisation, but collectively the band hesitates to get close to any single tradition. It likes to build a crescendo past the point of comfort, or move extremely slowly, or structure a kind of pop song with irresolutions and gravitational tempo shifts and wild staggers, or pump stiff grandiosity into something simple and scratchy. It plays, a little perversely, with putting on a hard shell. It exaggerates with a straight face and builds self-contained events within themselves rather than partial re-enactments of an open-ended story, which is what most jazz is.

The band has made all this its own tradition, but it has also been working on a sub-tradition, in its second decade, by collaborating with various fourth members: the saxophonist Joshua Redman, the guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel and, most recently, the guitarist Bill Frisell. On Friday at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Allen Room, the Bad Plus played with Mr. Frisell for the second time — the first was at the Newport Jazz Festival last summer — and in deference to him became something other than its usual self. It melted a little, becoming more open and mysterious. It shifted toward the kind of atmospheres Mr. Frisell likes: long tones and echoes, rambles and rustles, smoky and atomized music. It was also moving toward a taste that Bad Plus and Mr. Frisell share: the compositions and sound of the drummer Paul Motian.

Motian died in 2011, as many in the jazz world will remember. Mr. Frisell played with him for almost 30 years in a trio with Joe Lovano. The Bad Plus loved him, too: one odd bird recognizes another. (Ethan Iverson, the trio’s pianist, has written a learned liner-note essay, full of exclamation points and arcana, for a new six-CD Motian box set to be released next week on ECM.) And so Friday’s concert became, in part, about Motian and his world, as much as last year’s Newport set had been. And in other parts the set was about the onstage event itself in its most objective terms: one language encountering another.

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The "Unified Sound" of The Bad Plus

IMN

March 29th, 2013

From Playbill Arts

The Bad Plus
By: Scott H. Thompson

For more than a dozen years, The Bad Plus has pushed the boundaries of what we have come to know as the jazz trio, playing everything from David Bowie to Pink Floyd as part of their repertoire.

With Ethan Iverson on piano, Reid Anderson on bass, and Dave King on drums, The Bad Plus make their Jazz at Lincoln Center debut on April 12–13 in The Allen Room with special guest guitarist Bill Frisell. They’ll surely add new dimensions to JALC’s 25th year anniversary celebration.

Theirs is truly a unique approach and sound, often described as avant-garde jazz mixed with rock and pop influences. “It is ultimately jazz, but we’re not afraid of the influence of rock. We should’ve made up a name for it when we started,” Iverson says with a smile. “Someone said we’re avant-garde populists, which was pretty good. What’s really important is that we’re a band. A lot of jazz groups are so-and-so’s quintet, or quartet or trio. A crucial part of our development as musicians is that we’re a unified sound, the sound of the three of us together.”

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Confirmed Tourdates As Of March 4th, 2013

IMN

May 21st, 2013: Treibhaus Club Innsbruck, The Netherlands [The Bad Plus]
May 22nd, 2013: Moods Zurich, Switzerland [The Bad Plus]
May 26th, 2013: Jazz Club Hannover Hannover, Germany [The Bad Plus]
May 27th, 2013: Telegraph Liveclub Leipzig, Germany [The Bad Plus]
May 28th, 2013: Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, Netherlands [The Bad Plus]
May 30th, 2013: Arts Center Vooruit Gent, Belgium [On Sacred Ground: Stravinsky's Rite of Spring Arranged and Performed by The Bad Plus]
June 6th, 2013: Ojai Music Festival, Libbey Bowl Ojai, CA USA [The Bad Plus Original music from Made Possible Stravinsky: Rite of Spring arranged by The Bad Plus]
June 7th, 2013: Agave Maria Restaurant Ojai, CA USA [The Bad Plus Open Mic Sessions with Mark Morris]
June 8th, 2013: Ojai Playhouse Ojai, CA USA [The Bad Plus]
June 28th, 2013: Ottawa Jazz Festival Ottawa, ON, CANADA [The Bad Plus]
June 29th, 2013: Iron Horse Northampton, MA USA [The Bad Plus]
July 1st, 2013: Gesu Theatre Montreal, QC, CANADA [The Bad Plus]
July 16th, 2013: Village Vanguard New York, NY USA [The Bad Plus]
July 17th, 2013: Village Vanguard New York, NY USA [The Bad Plus]
July 18th, 2013: Village Vanguard New York, NY USA [The Bad Plus]
July 19th, 2013: Village Vanguard New York, NY USA [The Bad Plus]
July 20th, 2013: Village Vanguard New York, NY USA [The Bad Plus]
July 21st, 2013: Village Vanguard New York, NY USA [The Bad Plus]
October 3rd, 2013: The Skip Viragh Center for the Arts St. Louis, MO USA [On Sacred Ground: Stravinsky's Rite of Spring arranged and performed by The Bad Plus]
October 20th, 2013: Earshot Jazz Festival Seattle, WA [The Bad Plus]
October 21st, 2013: NSCU Centre at Capilano University North Vancouver, BC, CANADA [The Bad Plus]
October 23rd, 2013: Theatre Petit Champlain, Festival De Jazz De Quebe Quebec, QC, CANADA [The Bad Plus]
October 25th, 2013: Performance Hall at Logan Center for the Arts, Uni Chicago, IL USA [On Sacred Ground: Stravinsky's Rite of Spring arranged and performed by The Bad Plus]
December 14th, 2013: Elgin & Winter Garden Theatre Toronto, CANADA [The Bad Plus]
January 8th, 2014: Jazz at the Bistro St Louis, MO USA [The Bad Plus]
January 9th, 2014: Jazz at the Bistro St Louis, MO USA [The Bad Plus]
January 10th, 2014: Jazz at the Bistro St Louis, MO USA [The Bad Plus]
January 11th, 2014: Jazz at the Bistro St Louis, MO USA [The Bad Plus]

The Bad Plus Takes a Unique Path

IMN

February 4th, 2013

From The Pittsburgh Tribune

Bad Plus taking a unique path to music
By: Bob Karlovits

Calling the Bad Plus a jazz trio is too simple a description.

Sure, there are three members of the band, and they are in the traditional piano-bass-drums setting. But the group’s approach to music and even song-writing is so different it is nearly in a category entirely its own.

Pianist Ethan Iverson, bassist Reid Anderson and drummer David King showed this highly individual nature at two concerts Saturday night at the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild on the North Side. The first session was a performance of all-original works played in the band’s manner of give-and-take that moves it far from the trio work of Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans or even Keith Jarrett.

Rather than building their work around expansive explorations of melody, the Bad Plus creates its sound by building sonic creations that depend on interchange among the three players more than the structure of the songs.

One of the most impressive works of the first set was the opening “Pound for Pound,” which began with a simple statement from drummer King, followed by a nearly equally simple line from Iverson. His melody hardly changed at all in the piece, but the drummer and bassist Anderson grew in their work so much the piece grew like a Phillip Glass composition. The development was simple in construction, but its sound became massive.

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The Bad Plus Finds Strength in Give & Take

IMN

January 31st, 2013

From The Pittsburgh Tribune

The Bad Plus finds its strength in give and take
By: Bob Karlovits

Drummer David King says he is breathing a little easier now that The Bad Plus has passed through the days when it “took all the heat” for is forward-looking programming.

A little over a decade ago, the group was making itself known recording and performing songs by Nirvana, Queen, Rush and Blondie. King says that kind of lineup made some people look at it as some sort of “prog-jazz” band and little more.

But the reality is, he says, The Bad Plus is just a jazz trio looking for material with which it is comfortable. More importantly, it is a “leaderless” band that grows from each other’s ideas.

The band will present its ideas Saturday when it performs at the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild on the North Side.

To read more click here

The Bad Plus Perches on Genre's Edge

IMN

January 21st, 2013

From The Columbia Daily Tribune

Trio perches on genre’s edge with deep catalog, wild covers
By: Aarik Danielsen

The Bad Plus is not your grandfather’s piano trio. Unless, of course, your grandfather was a mad genius capable of both stark-raving soliloquies and lucid moments of wisdom. In that case, he’d likely love the Minnesota outfit.

“Are The Bad Plus a pop- and rock-influenced jazz trio? Or are they a power trio whose members like to play jazz?” AllMusic’s Johnny Loftus has asked. “It’s really a bit of both. But in the brave new world of postmodern jazz, identity crises are encouraged.”

Recording together for the past dozen years, the group’s multiple musical personalities have paid off in vibrant and surprising ways. Together, Reid Anderson (bass), Ethan Iverson (piano) and David King (drums) have subverted and exploded notions of traditional jazz, all while tipping their collective hats to the form’s practices and pioneers. The band’s catalog is full of inventive originals that run the gamut from manic and complicated to simply beautiful. Launching a gleeful assault on the Great American Songbook, the band has also made room in its repertoire for iconic Brit-rock anthems, avant-garde amblings and chestnuts from the hard rock canon. An inability to sit still combined with an ability to beat and bruise its instruments in the service of dynamic sound led Rolling Stone to deem the trio’s music as “about as badass as highbrow gets.”

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The Bad Plus Continues A Tradition

IMN

January 17th, 2013

From KDHX

The Bad Plus continues a January tradition at Jazz at the Bistro
By: Wil Wander

“January has officially arrived because the Bad Plus is in St. Louis,” remarked Jazz at the Bistro‘s Bob Bennett as he introduced the trio on this, their seventh annual stay at the prized listening room.

By the time the band finishes its current four-night stint, the Minnesota-based crew will have shared 56 different sets with their fans and supporters in our fair city, and we just can’t get enough. This year’s tour is packed with new material from the recent studio album “Made Possible,” as well as classic favorites and legendary covers, all in the Bad Plus’ unmatched avant-garde style.

Bassist Reid Anderson emceed the evening, seasoning the mood with barrage of wryly humorous, improvised anecdotes. Delivered with a friendly placidity that resembled the late Mr. Rogers, these stories and introductions stirred the audience (and his bandmates) into a slow-building chuckle each time he took the microphone. Most notably, they connected everyone in the room together into a single mood and mindset and seemed to mirror the design and even thought process of the music. It’s not only the sounds that turn a concert into an experience and there are few that demonstrate that with more proficiency than Reid Anderson.

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The Bad Plus Balances Jazz, Rock and Originality

IMN

January 14th, 2013

From St. Louis Post-Dispatch

The Bad Plus balances jazz, rock and originality
By: Calvin Wilson

In the jazz world, there’s no shortage of piano-bass-drums trios. It’s a configuration that has accommodated pianists from the introspective Bill Evans to the explosive Bud Powell. Still, the Bad Plus — which makes its annual pilgrimage to Jazz at the Bistro next week — stands out.

With Ethan Iverson on piano, Reid Anderson on bass and David King on drums, the inventively collaborative Bad Plus has earned the respect of the jazz crowd while also attracting fans from the rock scene. No doubt the trio’s often percussive attack gets some of the credit for its crossover success, as well as its reputation for covering rock tunes such as Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”

But on “Made Possible,” an album released last year, most of the tunes are originals — the sole cover being the late jazz drummer Paul Motian’s “Victoria.” The disc is also notable in that the trio, known for adhering to the acoustic jazz tradition, makes judicious use of electronics.

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The Bad Plus: Highlighted in Jazz 2012 Review

IMN

January 2nd, 2013

From Austinist

Jazz 2012: A Year in Review
By: Dan Lothringer

Best Touring Performance: Joan Jonas and Jason Moran

One of the most exciting performance all year hands-down was “The Shape, The Scent, The Feel of Things,” a collaboration between venerable performance artist Joan Jonas and talented young jazz pianist Jason Moran. You can read more about it here, but suffice it to say that the 90-minute piece proved that jazz is still a vibrant part of our artistic landscape in 2012.

Best New Release: Made Possible by the Bad Plus

This year didn’t have too many high-profile releases, but that’s not to say there was a shortage of great jazz. Established stars like Ravi Coltrane, Kenny Garrett, Jeremy Pelt, and Esperanza Spalding all released albums in 2012, but one of the most exciting new record had to be Made Possible by piano-bass-drums trio the Bad Plus. Building on the lyricism they’d established with their previous album Never Stop, pianist Ethan Iverson, bassist Reid Anderson, and drummer Dave King expand their palette to include electronic drum beats and synthesized sounds – which, combined with their leaderless, free-flowing improvisational style, makes for pretty bracing stuff. Anyone who thinks jazz is a museum piece should pick up a copy – as should everyone who already knows better.

Honorable Mention: Tenor saxophonist Houston Person has never been an innovator in the mold of a Rollins or a Coltrane, but the former bandleader for icons like Etta James and Lena Horne has aged gracefully and now serves as an elder statesman for an elegant, sophisticated style of swing jazz that doesn’t really go out of style. His latest release, Naturally, features an all-star lineup in Cedar Walton, Ray Drummond, and Lewis Nash (as well as the hand of legendary recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder), and is well worth the listen.

To read more, click here.

The Bad Plus: "new, original, and ambitious"

IMN

December 19th, 2012

From Jazz Times

The Bad Plus: Made Possible, Dave King: I’ve Been Ringing You
By: Thomas Conrad

The boys are back. Made Possible is the 10th album by the Bad Plus. They are still loud and inappropriate. They are still impulsive and obnoxious and irresistible as street urchins. And they have found some fresh ways to be all these things. The tunes are new, original and ambitious, and incorporate occasional synthesizers and electronic drums.

Entirely unforeseen is another piano-trio record released by TBP’s drummer, Dave King. I’ve Been Ringing You is a seductive, moody, poetic album with pianist Bill Carrothers and bassist Billy Peterson. Its repertoire comes from the American Songbook. Its atmosphere comes from Bill Evans.

So: a recording by a 12-year-old anti-piano trio, devoted to mayhem, and a recording by a classic piano trio playing together for the first time, devoted to grace. And they share a drummer. It begs investigation.

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Dave King of The Bad Plus

IMN

December 5th, 2012

From Modern Drummer

Dave King of the Bad Plus: Web-Exclusive Interview
By: Michael Parillo

I’ve always been attracted to the mystery of things, not just the road map,” says Dave King of the Bad Plus, MD’s October 2012 cover star. And indeed, King sometimes resists analyzing his own wide-ranging music on a technical level, letting the sounds and the feelings they evoke resonate within each listener in a personal, individual way. But he’s always happy to open up about the creative process and the many artists who have inspired him. Here, in this Web-exclusive companion to our print feature, King talks about his musical upbringing and sheds more light on the Bad Plus—which, in addition to the drummer, includes bassist Reid Anderson and pianist Ethan Iverson—and its new release, Made Possible. (Under his own name, King has also recently put out an album of mostly standards, I’ve Been Ringing You, with bassist Billy Peterson and pianist Bill Carrothers.)

“Anything that can be a challenge or a complex emotion, we’re at least interested in it,” Dave says of the Plus’s inclusive mindset, where jazz mingles freely with a host of other concepts, including rock, minimalism, electronica, and twentieth-century classical music. “It’s always like: Yeah, let’s do it.

MD: You play high-concept music, but nuts and bolts help construct it. You clearly put in your time getting things like speed, smoothness, and dynamics, and you can reference so many styles.

Dave: My life experience comes from checking out everybody. I checked out Vinnie Colaiuta and Dennis Chambers right alongside Beaver Harris, Tony Williams, Billy Higgins. I mention Beaver Harris or Sonny Murray or Rashied Ali—all my quote-unquote free heroes—but I checked out Dennis Chambers and Steve Gadd right alongside my Elvin fixations, or whatever. My heroes from the generation or two before me, the Joey Barons, or you can go further back to Jack DeJohnette and Billy Hart, they’re always the quirkier musicians. These guys have tons of technique, but when you strip away the obviousness of technique it’s like modern movements in art—you’re getting to some other, very sophisticated space.

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The Bad Plus on BBC Radio

IMN

November 12th, 2012

From BBC Radio 6 Music

The Bad Plus

“Aw jeah. Huey’s here, with the jams in the jar and love in his heart.

This week’s guests, The Bad Plus, push the boundaries of jazz whilst making it inclusive at the same time. They’ve covered everyone from Radiohead to Neil Young but their new album of originals takes them to the next level.”

To read more and to listen click here