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The Bad Plus: just a 'bad' band...
Described by some as "the loudest piano trio in history," they are practically a rock band that plays jazz: that's what The Bad Plus are.
They became famous for having "jazzed up" a bit of everything, from David Bowie to Nirvana, through Tears For Fears, Aphex Twin, and Black Sabbath. The Bad Plus hit like blacksmiths and are: Ethan Iverson on piano, Reid Anderson on double bass, and David King (the surname is quite fitting!) on drums.
They are Americans from Minnesota and, practically ignored in Italy, have been active under this name for 10 years.
After an album full of covers, here they are again (in 2010) for the first time, with an album full of originals recorded live. Well, it must be said immediately that the tracks are unclassifiable, here and there they do not inspire much confidence, and sometimes the musical language may seem blurry: ALL NORMAL! These three musical hooligans are so tight that they can dwell on a chord until they almost make you angry, or confuse you with almost dance-like rhythms (horrorrree!), but above all, they don't worry much about what to play, how, and why... they just do it, with a ton of irony and an attitude that's only theirs, original, energetic, and maybe a bit brash.
However, often the three are quite shameless, ("Never Stop", a splendid pop-groove march that you end up listening to on loop for an entire day), they can win you over with a drunken song (the quirky waltz/blues of "Bill Hickman At Home" is beautiful), and when you think you've got them as friends, that you've understood and categorized them, they trick you. When you think you have them in the palm of your hand, they slip away, diving into the first lateral avant-garde whim they find, the brilliantly quirky "Beryl Loves To Dance" is sublime in this regard.
You listen to the first three tracks of this album and think, "well, nice, great energy, nice rhythm, is this all there is?" but... from the fourth, the register changes, things get complicated, and then again, and again, crossing rock, swing, pop, hard bop, groove, classical, 60s jazz, and avant-garde.
In short, take it or leave it, but let's make one thing clear: the post-modern Bad Plus are not pretentious, they just have the "flaw" of being musically "FREE"! ...And so "keep on JAZZIN' in the free world" and remember, who stops is lost!
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