The Bad Plus

[minew]

THE BAD PLUS AND THE STATE OF JAZZ.

Jazz Beat

by David Adler

As Grammy Award categories go, "Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical" is far from the sexiest. But this year's slate of nominees merit a closer look. There was Smile by Brian Wilson, Feels Like Home by Norah Jones, The Girl in the Other Room by Diana Krall, and Genius Loves Company (last night's victor), the final recording by Ray Charles (on which Jones and Krall both appear). Then there was the underdog: Give, the second Columbia Records offering from The Bad Plus, an instrumental jazz trio with avant-garde leanings--on paper, not a strong contender for mainstream recognition, much less a Grammy nod. The group's unlikely success, and the resulting backlash, tells us much about the self-defeating outlook of many of today's jazz advocates.

Pianist Ethan Iverson, bassist Reid Anderson, and drummer David King are old friends in their thirties, originally from Minnesota and Wisconsin. (Iverson and Anderson now live in New York.) In May 2000 they got together to play. On a lark, they tried a cover of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit," which Iverson, immersed in jazz and twentieth-century classical music, didn't even know. Later in the year they recorded the Nirvana song, ABBA's "Knowing Me, Knowing You," Rodgers and Hart's "Blue Moon," and five smart and slightly disturbed original pieces. They released their first album, The Bad Plus, on the Barcelona-based Fresh Sound New Talent imprint. It was largely ignored, like most of the excellent music on that label (including three previous albums each by Iverson and Anderson).

In early 2002, after some maneuvering and a few lucky breaks, The Bad Plus was signed to Columbia Records. Once the label of Duke Ellington and Miles Davis, Columbia today has hardly a jazz roster to speak of. But Yves Beauvais, formerly of Atlantic Records, came to Columbia's jazz A&R department wanting to shake things up. He did just that. Following the release of These Are The Vistas, The Bad Plus's 2003 Columbia debut (recorded by the influential rock engineer Tchad Blake), the trio received adulatory coverage in Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other publications that barely cover jazz at all.

The tenor of the praise was striking. Andy Langer of Esquire wondered, "Can one album single-handedly make jazz relevant again?" Some of the niche jazz press was just as enthusiastic. In Jazz Times, the U.K.-based critic Stuart Nicholson proclaimed Vistas "one of the most important jazz albums in more than a decade." (I hailed the band's "strong melodies" and "broad emotional spectrum" in Downbeat.) The Bad Plus had vaulted from the jazz underground to the top of the media heap.

Backed by Columbia's p.r. and financial muscle, The Bad Plus sold plenty of records and played to big and receptive crowds. It landed the most coveted gig in jazz: a week at the Village Vanguard in New York. Novice jazz listeners, won over by the trio's earnest but off-the-wall covers of songs like Blondie's "Heart of Glass," Aphex Twin's "Flim," Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive," and Black Sabbath's "Iron Man," were better able to digest the band's challenging original material, which filled about 70 percent of a typical set. Iverson, wearing a suit, would sometimes recite song lyrics in a grave monotone, or fling off his tie with operatic ardor, or stare catatonically at the audience while David King played a drum solo on "Freelance Robotics." Some jazz insiders loved it. Others, annoyed by the rock songs and the shtick, sharpened their knives.

"The Bad Plus finally convinces me that the downfall of civilized humanity is upon us," said the Latin jazz drummer Bobby Sanabria last year in a Downbeat interview. Bill Milkowski, the author and critic, denounced the group in a special pro-and-con feature for Jazz Times. But Bill Frisell, the celebrated guitarist, defended them, telling Downbeat: "What they're doing is the real deal; it's what music is all about." Heated debates like these have roiled jazz at least since the emergence of bebop in the mid-1940s. Although the attacks on The Bad Plus sometimes entailed specific musical criticisms, it seemed the intent was more to swing the pendulum the other way: to answer the early praise with outright calumny. In the end this didn't reveal much about The Bad Plus. It revealed more about the jazz cognoscenti's tortured view of commercial success itself.

One word describes the status quo in the jazz community, and in most arts communities: scarcity. Gigs, recording contracts, press coverage, and even health insurance (not to mention salaried writing jobs) are in short supply. Jazz was long ago overtaken by hip-hop, pop, and rock as the favorite music of America's youth. Club attendance is in decline. Jazz record sales are barely worth talking about. Under these circumstances, when an upstart trio is hailed as the future of jazz by an otherwise apathetic magazine like Esquire, many in the jazz world take it personally.

African-American jazz writers have argued that when new artists arise to save jazz from its own supposed decrepitude, they are almost always (like The Bad Plus) young and white. Even before this controversy broke, Stanley Crouch sparked a firestorm with a Jazz Times column lambasting white critics for overpraising white artists and neglecting black ones. John Murph expressed admiration for The Bad Plus, but admitted that "witnessing [them] being so lovingly embraced ... leaves a slightly bitter taste." Writing in Jazz Notes (a quarterly that I edit), Willard Jenkins lumped The Bad Plus in with the crooners Peter Cincotti and Jane Monheit as the latest white heroes, the "flavor of the month." But creatively, The Bad Plus and Cincotti are from different galaxies. And the fact remains that the majority of white players--like their black, Latino, and Asian counterparts--aren't getting their due. Jazz artists are fighting over scraps.

The Bad Plus's credentials have also been called into question. Joe Chambers, an important drummer and composer, told Downbeat that the three "haven't worked their way up through the ranks. ... These guys have just popped up out of thin air." But together, Iverson and Anderson have worked with Mark Turner, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Patrick Zimmerli, and the renowned Billy Hart. Anderson has supported bandleaders such as Stefon Harris, Orrin Evans, and the Chilean vocalist Claudia Acuña. King leads an extraordinary Minneapolis-based trio called Happy Apple. It isn't surprising for Joe Chambers to be unaware of these details. Not only is there a generation gap in jazz, but the scene's sheer diffusion makes it impossible for everyone to keep up--least of all esteemed veterans busy with their own careers.

The very same information deficits, however, lead some to overstate The Bad Plus's importance. Well before he penned his heated praise of the trio, Stuart Nicholson had a reputation for making sweeping remarks, from across the pond, about the inherent conservatism of American jazz. Columbia's Yves Beauvais seemed to echo Nicholson when I asked him, sometime ago, about The Bad Plus's appeal. "I go to clubs, and I'm always shocked to see how many people are playing their grandparents' music," he said. "I don't really understand 22-year-old musicians playing music from the 1950s, even though they probably grew up with hip-hop and other things. I hear none of those influences entering their music." He must have been going to the wrong clubs. Jonathan Finlayson, Robert Glasper, Loren Stillman, Steve Lehman, and Miguel Zenon are just a few young composers whose cutting-edge influences are unmistakable.

If even Beauvais can miss the boat, forget the glossy media. In his May 2003 Jazz Times column, Gary Giddins, who has written favorably of The Bad Plus, nonetheless gave Andy Langer's Esquire piece an effective lashing. He argued that Langer's effusive take on the trio "involves the writer's presumption that the reader, like himself, lacks the 'decoder ring' to understand jazz, and that a jazz disc he likes must be, ipso facto, a groundbreaking moment for western civilization." Taking aim at the two distorted premises underlying most mainstream coverage of jazz ("jazz is dead!" and "jazz is back!"), Giddins wrote: "Both stories are fabrications of convenience: Only the dead can be resurrected, and since jazz has never actually died, it can never actually return. The clever journalist is thus free to manufacture either at will. And the beauty part is he doesn't have to waste precious time listening to music."

Sometime last year at the Village Vanguard, The Bad Plus brought Ornette Coleman's "Street Woman" to a colossal finish. The audience erupted in a standing ovation, in the tiny club, in the middle of the set. A colleague and I wondered aloud about the last time such a thing had happened. I thought back to the countless panel discussions and online forums, to the communal handwringing over how to make jazz popular again. Jazz diehards can't seem to make up their minds. They want jazz to be popular, but they often loathe popular bands. They lament jazz's marginality but somehow prize it as well.

About Give, Bill Milkowski wrote, "This album works if you truly believe that Kurt Cobain is as valid a musical influence as Miles Davis or John Coltrane." There are no Nirvana covers on Give, but even so, how can one Nirvana cover be seen as an attempt to upend the jazz pantheon? Moreover, countless jazz musicians have covered rock songs by now. A pianist once told me that the essence of the jazz sensibility is "an aversion to popular taste." It wasn't always so, and today it might be an attitude jazz can no longer afford. That's not to say we should applaud jazz's trivialization or dilution. But when an advanced instrumental trio goes head-to-head with Brian Wilson and Norah Jones at the Grammys, isn't that a good thing? In part, what makes jazz a treasure is its specialized, arcane language. But as The Bad Plus reminds us, jazz can be an art music and still floor people who don't necessarily look to music for art.

This very week, the Village Vanguard celebrates its seventieth anniversary with a different band every night. Wynton Marsalis will play on Wednesday, The Bad Plus on Thursday. Cynics deride the club's embrace of The Bad Plus as merely about money. Sure, the Vanguard is a business, but there is more to the story than that. These acts represent two entirely opposite approaches to the music. With 70 years' worth of wisdom, the most historic venue of all is making room for both. May that be the future of jazz.

David Adler writes for Jazz Times and other publications.

Edited February 15, 2005 by minew

[minew]

Followup: Has there been any discussion of this group on this board? (Search didn't turn up anything.)

[jazzbo]

I haven't heard the New Talent cd, but I like the Columbias. . . .

Here's one thead:

http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...hl=the+bad+plus

[Joe]

Not a bad article.

Have found little replay value in The Bad Plus' releases. But I do think Iverson is an interesting player, heard to better effect on some of his own dates, like THE MINOR PASSIONS.

[Alexander]

Well, I am a fan. I have all three Bad Plus releases (plus some bonus material from iTunes), and several Anderson and Iverson albums. I also have "Youth Oriented" by Happy Apple. I like what they're doing and I like the way they do it. Frankly, if they didn't piss at least a few people off, they wouldn't be doing their jobs.

Good article, btw.

[Guest che]

I saw this group in concert recently, I was not sure what to expect, the concert was fantastic and sounded great.

Well worth going to see.

Che.

[ejp626]

Well, I'm not a fan. It's probably more a reaction to the hype than anything, but I did listen to their first album a couple of times and was not impressed. As it happens, I have a ticket to their CSO show in Chicago in May (part of a subscription). I'll be posting in the Offered section pretty soon, but you can PM me too.

[AllenLowe]

haven't heard the group, but heard Iverson play solo a few years ago - he was excellent, actually reminded me a little bit of Jaki Byard.

[MartyJazz]

haven't heard the group, but heard Iverson play solo a few years ago - he was excellent, actually reminded me a little bit of Jaki Byard.

In that case, he too is probably a member of the "eclecticians" union.

[cannonball-addict]

get ready for a brand new Bad Plus album. It's a live one in Tokyo. I already wrote my review for AAJ but they won't post it til the street date. It is really pushing the limits. actually, why don't I just post my review here too. many of you haven't ever read any of my writing.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Blunt Object: Live in Tokyo

The Bad Plus | Columbia Records

By Matt Merewitz

A turbulent foray into experimental terrain recorded live at the Blue Note in Tokyo, bassist Reid Anderson, pianist Ethan Iverson, and drummer David King, who together make up the The Bad Plus, explore a plethora of styles on their third Columbia release Blunt Object: Live In Tokyo. It is most certainly their most inventive, risk-taking session to date; a logical outgrowth of their rock and shock reputation.

Can you believe its been over two years now that the Bad Plus broke out with their hit record These Are the Vistas? And in that time, journalists and fans alike have struggled to pigeonhole their sound to no avail. Well, all I can say is you can expect no help from Blunt Object.

It’s clear that the Bad Plus digs experimentation. Whether its punk, pop, grunge, garage, or jazz standards, the formula to success for this band is a philosophy that music is universal and applying the standard jazz trio to other categories is just as valid as your typical two guitars, bass and drums. Like Vistas and Give, the Bad Plus’ third album is not for the light-hearted.

Another collection of originals and well-known tunes, Blunt Object has stuff previously released on Vistas but the trio breathes new life into these making for a satisfying sonic experience. And honestly, how can the Bad Plus keep things any more interesting than giving us their take on everything from Queen to Aphex Twin, Rodgers and Hart, and Blondie.

Starting things off light and ethereal, all of a sudden you find yourself humming a familiar tune. That's right. It's Freddie Mercury's “We Are The Champions” laid out off-kilter in a slow, deliberate fashion. An uptempo romp entitled “And Here We Test Our Powers of Observation” follows with heavy interplay among all three members, but notably from King whose energy really makes the tune what it is. Iverson’s “Guilty” may be an apology for leading the listener down a strange path with much sound and fury, signifying nothing. What starts out a meandering solo piano flight builds into dawdling honky-tonk blues and before you know it you’re back to the land of the free.

Blondie’s “Heart of Glass,” another variations on a theme, is rather boring, while a “Flim,” a plaintive ballad by Richard David James (a.k.a. Aphex Twin) is a done as a beautiful ballad (both were featured on the Vistas) The most intense and frenzied tune, however, is paradoxically entitled “Silence is the Question,” which slowly builds to a dizzying climax as the trio blares with great integrity and purpose. Oh, and don't expect “My Funny Valentine” to simplify things. One should expect as much by now.

What is most shocking, is that Columbia has given the Bad Plus virtually complete artistic freedom to do this project their way. Sure, there's probably some pressure to record songs people know if only for their crossover potential, but the way such familiar tunes and the originals are being executed by the Bad Plus is very unique. From this execution It is clear that Anderson, Iverson, and King have a deep appreciation for the developments in jazz since the end of bebop; primarily very liberal modifications of time signatures, intense interaction, and a certain disregard for conventional harmonies.

Blunt Object on the whole is an exciting album for modern jazz fans (especially for those who also dig other stlyes). But it will most certainly be uninviting for many uninitiated in free music. It might shock some in its artistic self-indulgence and sonic impenetrability. If you’ve ever checked out Ornette Coleman or anything on recently on Pi or Thirsty Ear, Blunt Object is nothing new. But if you haven't, go ahead, take the dive. The water's nice.

Track Listing: We Are The Champions (Queen), And Here We Test Our Powers of Observation, Guilty, Do Your Sums-Die Like A Dog-Play for Home, Heart of Glass, Flim, Silence is the Question, My Funny Valentine

Personnel: Reid Anderson - bass, Ethan Iverson - piano, David King - drums

Style: Modern Jazz/Free Improvisation

Review Published: April 2005

[A Lark Ascending]

Middle aged men deconstruct 'We are the Champions'.

How daring!

[Dr. Rat]

One of the things that surprises me about Bad Plus (and this has nothing to do with their musical merits) is that they seem to have zero resonance with the young people who work here.

Other "borderland jazz" phenomena like Norah Jones and Jamie Cullum and Sex Mob, even EST picked up very enthusiastic followings among my sub-40 programmers.

Not so Bad Plus--for all their vaunted ability to bring young people to jazz, they seem to leave my folks cold. They get played some, but no more than a Keith Jarrett cd. And I don't have to yell at anyone for playing the same track on their show four weeks in a row.

--eric

Edited March 25, 2005 by Dr. Rat

[Aggie87]

I just received the Bad Plus live cd today, and finished listening to it. It's very interesting, and (to me) follows their last two releases fairly well. I find them interesting, but not in a groove-y or swinging way at all. I see them as an instrumental piano trio, not a traditional jazz piano trio. I don't really care about labels anyway , I suppose. The Queen cover didn't do much for me, but the rest of the disc is fun, exploring music. It's got similar dynamics to their other releases, so it's got more of a "rock" feel to it I suppose.

Edited March 26, 2005 by Aggie87

[Guest che]

One of the things that surprises me about Bad Plus (and this has nothing to do with their musical merits) is that they seem to have zero resonance with the young people who work here.

Other "borderland jazz" phenomena like Norah Jones and Jamie Cullum and Sex Mob, even EST picked up very enthusiastic followings among my sub-40 programmers.

Not so Bad Plus--for all their vaunted ability to bring young people to jazz, they seem to leave my folks cold. They get played some, but no more than a Keith Jarrett cd. And I don't have to yell at anyone for playing the same track on their show four weeks in a row.

--eric

When I recently saw them in concert, there seemed to be quite a few 'younger people' at the concert. In contrast when I saw EST last year there was quite a mixed audiance, with a larger number of 'older people'

Just my personal experience.

Che.

[Guest che]

I just received the Bad Plus live cd today, and finished listening to it. It's very interesting, and (to me) follows their last two releases fairly well. I find them interesting, but not in a groove-y or swinging way at all. I see them as an instrumental piano trio, not a traditional jazz piano trio. I don't really care about labels anyway , I suppose. The Queen cover didn't do much for me, but the rest of the disc is fun, exploring music. It's got similar dynamics to their other releases, so it's got more of a "rock" feel to it I suppose.

Do you have any further detail of the live album: name, recordings dates etc.

Thanks

Che.

[Aggie87]

Che.

See Matt's thorough review in this thread, from yesterday.

Album title is "Blunt Object: Live in Tokyo". Recorded May 2004, except for final track which is from December 2001.

Erik.

Edited March 26, 2005 by Aggie87

[Guest che]

Che.

See Matt's thorough review in this thread, from yesterday.

Album title is "Blunt Object: Live in Tokyo". Recorded May 2004, except for final track which is from December 2001.

Erik.

Much appreciated

Che.

[cannonball-addict]

it's up on AAJ now in the CD review center (published march 30 with minor edits)

Edited April 3, 2005 by cannonball-addict