The Bad Plus
Encyclopedia
The Bad Plus are a jazz
trio
from the United States
, consisting of pianist
Ethan Iverson
, bassist
Reid Anderson
, and drummer
Dave King
, originating from Minneapolis, MN.
was heard by Columbia Records
representative Yves Beauvais, and the band was signed to Columbia in 2002. Their major label debut album, These Are the Vistas
, was released in 2003. This was followed by Give
in 2004 and Suspicious Activity?
in 2005. After parting ways with Columbia, the group signed to Heads Up Records (a division of Telarc), and released the album Prog
in 2007. In early Spring of 2008 they finished recording their next studio album, For All I Care
, which features vocalist Wendy Lewis. It was released in autumn 2008 in Europe and in spring 2009 in the US. In July 2010, The Bad Plus announced their latest album, Never Stop
. This was released on September 14, 2010.
Anderson and King are originally from Minnesota
, and Iverson is from neighboring Wisconsin
.
King is also part of the Minnesota-based groups Love-Cars; Halloween, Alaska
; and Happy Apple
. However, he has said that he is only in three working bands because Halloween, Alaska is more of a studio band.
The trio's music combines elements of modern Avant-garde jazz
with rock
and pop
influences. The band have recorded versions of songs by Nirvana
, Aphex Twin
, Blondie
, Ornette Coleman
, Pixies, Rush
, Tears for Fears
, Neil Young
, David Bowie
, Yes
, Interpol
, and Black Sabbath
. Blunt Object: Live in Tokyo includes a cover
of Queen
's "We Are the Champions
" along with the jazz standard "My Funny Valentine
". Suspicious Activity? contains a cover of the theme from "Chariots of Fire
", while a version of "Karma Police
" by Radiohead
appeared on the 2006 album Exit Music: Songs with Radio Heads
. The band has said that they changed their sound a little bit for their sixth album, For All I Care.
The trio served as artists in residence at Duke University in 2010 and 2011. On March 24, 2011, they premiered their version of Igor Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring
" at Duke's Reynolds Theater.
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
trio
Trio (music)
Trio is generally used in any of the following ways:* A group of three musicians playing the same or different musical instrument.* The performance of a piece of music by three people.* The contrasting section of a piece in ternary form...
from the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, consisting of pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
Ethan Iverson
Ethan Iverson
Ethan Iverson is a pianist, composer, and critic best known for his work in the postmodern jazz trio The Bad Plus, with bassist Reid Anderson and drummer Dave King....
, bassist
Bassist
A bass player, or bassist is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass, bass guitar, keyboard bass or a low brass instrument such as a tuba or sousaphone. Different musical genres tend to be associated with one or more of these instruments...
Reid Anderson
Reid Anderson
Reid Anderson is a bassist and composer originally from Minnesota. Anderson is best known for his work in The Bad Plus with pianist Ethan Iverson and drummer Dave King...
, and drummer
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
Dave King
David King (musician)
David King is a drummer/ composer from Minneapolis. He is best known for being a founding member of the jazz groups The Bad Plus and Happy Apple although he is active in many other projects including free jazz collective Buffalo Collision with NYC "Downtown" legends Tim Berne and Hank Roberts and...
, originating from Minneapolis, MN.
History
Iverson, Anderson and King first played together in 1989 but established The Bad Plus in 2000. The band recorded their first album, a self-titled effort released on Fresh Sound, after playing only three gigs together. A live performance at the Village VanguardVillage Vanguard
The Village Vanguard is a jazz club located at in Greenwich Village, New York City. The club was opened on February 22, 1935, by Max Gordon. At first, it also featured other forms of music such as folk music and beat poetry, but it switched to an all-jazz format in 1957.-History:Over 100 jazz...
was heard by Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
representative Yves Beauvais, and the band was signed to Columbia in 2002. Their major label debut album, These Are the Vistas
These Are the Vistas
These Are the Vistas was the second studio album released by the jazz trio The Bad Plus, and the band's first album for a major label...
, was released in 2003. This was followed by Give
Give (album)
Depending on the pressing, one or both of the following tracks may appear as bonus tracks. The recording of "Knowing Me, Knowing You" is not the same as the one that appeared on The Bad Plus album.-Personnel:*Ethan Iverson – piano*Reid Anderson – double bass...
in 2004 and Suspicious Activity?
Suspicious Activity?
Suspicious Activity? is the fourth studio album by the jazz band The Bad Plus. The band had previously garnered attention for covering well-known rock songs in an "acoustic power trio" style, but Suspicious Activity? includes only one cover version: the theme to the 1981 movie Chariots of Fire...
in 2005. After parting ways with Columbia, the group signed to Heads Up Records (a division of Telarc), and released the album Prog
Prog (album)
Prog is the fifth studio album recorded by jazz trio The Bad Plus. Like previous Bad Plus recordings, Prog features several covers including "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" by Tears for Fears, "Life on Mars?" by David Bowie, and "Tom Sawyer" by Rush...
in 2007. In early Spring of 2008 they finished recording their next studio album, For All I Care
For All I Care
For All I Care is an album by The Bad Plus with Wendy Lewis on vocals. It was released on October 20th, 2008 in Europe and on February 3rd 2009 in the U.S. This is the first Bad Plus album to include a vocalist, as well as the first to feature no original songs...
, which features vocalist Wendy Lewis. It was released in autumn 2008 in Europe and in spring 2009 in the US. In July 2010, The Bad Plus announced their latest album, Never Stop
Never Stop (The Bad Plus album)
Never Stop is the seventh studio album by jazz trio The Bad Plus, released on September 14, 2010. This album is the first by the band to consist entirely of original compositions.-Track listing:#"The Radio Tower Has a Beating Heart" – 5:44...
. This was released on September 14, 2010.
Anderson and King are originally from Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, and Iverson is from neighboring Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
.
King is also part of the Minnesota-based groups Love-Cars; Halloween, Alaska
Halloween, Alaska
Halloween, Alaska is a Minnesota-based band consisting of James Diers , Jake Hanson , Bill Shaw , and David King . All of the group's members live in the Twin Cities. Original keyboardist and programmer Ev left the band in 2008...
; and Happy Apple
Happy Apple
Happy Apple is an American jazz trio.Formed in 1996 in Minneapolis, members of the band are David King , Michael Lewis and Erik Fratzke ....
. However, he has said that he is only in three working bands because Halloween, Alaska is more of a studio band.
The trio's music combines elements of modern Avant-garde jazz
Avant-garde jazz
Avant-garde jazz is a style of music and improvisation that combines avant-garde art music and composition with jazz. Avant-jazz often sounds very similar to free jazz, but differs in that, despite its distinct departure from traditional harmony, it has a predetermined structure over which ...
with rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
and pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
influences. The band have recorded versions of songs by Nirvana
Nirvana (band)
Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...
, Aphex Twin
Aphex Twin
Richard David James , best known under the pseudonym Aphex Twin, is an Irish-born electronic musician and composer described as "the most inventive and influential figure in contemporary electronic music"...
, Blondie
Blondie (band)
Blondie is an American rock band, founded by singer Deborah Harry and guitarist Chris Stein. The band was a pioneer in the early American New Wave and punk scenes of the mid-1970s...
, Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman is an American saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter and composer. He was one of the major innovators of the free jazz movement of the 1960s....
, Pixies, Rush
Rush (band)
Rush is a Canadian rock band formed in August 1968, in the Willowdale neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario. The band is composed of bassist, keyboardist, and lead vocalist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson, and drummer and lyricist Neil Peart...
, Tears for Fears
Tears for Fears
Tears for Fears are an English new wave band formed in the early 1980s by Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith.Founded after the dissolution of their first band, the mod-influenced Graduate, they were initially associated with the New Wave synthesiser bands of the early 1980s but later branched out into...
, Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
, David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
, Yes
Yes (band)
Yes are an English rock band who achieved worldwide success with their progressive, art, and symphonic style of rock music. Regarded as one of the pioneers of the progressive genre, Yes are known for their lengthy songs, mystical lyrics, elaborate album art, and live stage sets...
, Interpol
Interpol (band)
Interpol is an American indie rock and post-punk revival band from New York City. Formed in 1997, the band's original line-up consisted of Paul Banks , Daniel Kessler , Carlos Dengler and Greg Drudy . Drudy left the band in 2000 and was replaced by Sam Fogarino...
, and Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath are an English heavy metal band, formed in Aston, Birmingham in 1969 by Ozzy Osbourne , Tony Iommi , Geezer Butler , and Bill Ward . The band has since experienced multiple line-up changes, with Tony Iommi the only constant presence in the band through the years. A total of 22...
. Blunt Object: Live in Tokyo includes a cover
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of Queen
Queen (band)
Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1971, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury , Brian May , John Deacon , and Roger Taylor...
's "We Are the Champions
We Are the Champions
"We Are the Champions" is a power ballad written by Freddie Mercury, recorded and performed by British rock band Queen for their 1977 album News of the World. One of their most famous and popular songs, it remains among rock's most recognisable anthems...
" along with the jazz standard "My Funny Valentine
My Funny Valentine
"My Funny Valentine" is a show tune from the 1937 Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart musical Babes in Arms in which it was introduced by former child star Mitzi Green...
". Suspicious Activity? contains a cover of the theme from "Chariots of Fire
Chariots of Fire
Chariots of Fire is a 1981 British film. It tells the fact-based story of two athletes in the 1924 Olympics: Eric Liddell, a devout Scottish Christian who runs for the glory of God, and Harold Abrahams, an English Jew who runs to overcome prejudice....
", while a version of "Karma Police
Karma Police
"Karma Police" is a song by English alternative rock band Radiohead from their 1997 third studio album OK Computer. The song's title and lyrics derive from an in-joke among the band, referring to the Hindu theory of retributive enforcement, known as karma....
" by Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
appeared on the 2006 album Exit Music: Songs with Radio Heads
Exit Music: Songs with Radio Heads
Exit Music: Songs with Radio Heads is a tribute album to British band Radiohead released in 2006 on Rapster Records and Barely Breaking Even Records...
. The band has said that they changed their sound a little bit for their sixth album, For All I Care.
The trio served as artists in residence at Duke University in 2010 and 2011. On March 24, 2011, they premiered their version of Igor Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring
The Rite of Spring
The Rite of Spring, original French title Le sacre du printemps , is a ballet with music by Igor Stravinsky; choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky; and concept, set design and costumes by Nicholas Roerich...
" at Duke's Reynolds Theater.
Studio albums
- The Bad PlusThe Bad Plus (album)The Bad Plus is the eponymous first album released by The Bad Plus. It contains covers of Abba's "Knowing Me, Knowing You", Rodgers and Hart's 1934 classic "Blue Moon", and Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit"...
(Motel) (2001) - These Are the VistasThese Are the VistasThese Are the Vistas was the second studio album released by the jazz trio The Bad Plus, and the band's first album for a major label...
(2003) - GiveGive (album)Depending on the pressing, one or both of the following tracks may appear as bonus tracks. The recording of "Knowing Me, Knowing You" is not the same as the one that appeared on The Bad Plus album.-Personnel:*Ethan Iverson – piano*Reid Anderson – double bass...
(2004) - Suspicious Activity?Suspicious Activity?Suspicious Activity? is the fourth studio album by the jazz band The Bad Plus. The band had previously garnered attention for covering well-known rock songs in an "acoustic power trio" style, but Suspicious Activity? includes only one cover version: the theme to the 1981 movie Chariots of Fire...
(2005) - ProgProg (album)Prog is the fifth studio album recorded by jazz trio The Bad Plus. Like previous Bad Plus recordings, Prog features several covers including "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" by Tears for Fears, "Life on Mars?" by David Bowie, and "Tom Sawyer" by Rush...
(2007) - For All I CareFor All I CareFor All I Care is an album by The Bad Plus with Wendy Lewis on vocals. It was released on October 20th, 2008 in Europe and on February 3rd 2009 in the U.S. This is the first Bad Plus album to include a vocalist, as well as the first to feature no original songs...
(2008 Europe, 2009 North America) - Never StopNever Stop (The Bad Plus album)Never Stop is the seventh studio album by jazz trio The Bad Plus, released on September 14, 2010. This album is the first by the band to consist entirely of original compositions.-Track listing:#"The Radio Tower Has a Beating Heart" – 5:44...
(2010)
Live albums
- Authorized Bootleg: New York 12/16/01 (2002)
- Blunt Object: Live in Tokyo (2005)
Other contributions
- WFUV: City Folk Live VIIWFUV: City Folk Live VIIWFUV: City Folk Live VII is a compilation album released by WFUV in November 2004 to highlight songs performed live in the studio by some of the year's favorite guests...
(2004) - "And Here We Test Our Powers of Observation" - Exit Music: Songs with Radio HeadsExit Music: Songs with Radio HeadsExit Music: Songs with Radio Heads is a tribute album to British band Radiohead released in 2006 on Rapster Records and Barely Breaking Even Records...
(2006, Rapster/Barely Breaking Even) - "Karma PoliceKarma Police"Karma Police" is a song by English alternative rock band Radiohead from their 1997 third studio album OK Computer. The song's title and lyrics derive from an in-joke among the band, referring to the Hindu theory of retributive enforcement, known as karma....
"
External links
- The Bad Plus website
- The Bad Plus at TheGrixer.com
- Interview with Bassist Reid Anderson on 10 years as a band Riverfront TimesRiverfront TimesThe Riverfront Times is a weekly newspaper in St. Louis, Missouri that consists of local politics, music, arts and dining news in the print edition and daily updates to blogs and photo galleries on its website...
January, 6, 2010. - Glide Magazine, The Bad Plus: Give and Take
- Audio interview with Reid Anderson recorded January 2007
- The Bad Plus article February 2009
- Article
- Ithaca Times article
- Alarm Press article
- The Bad Plus on NPR Music
- http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/03/20/1062654_rite-of-spring-with-a-jazz-twist.html