The Bad
Plus - bassist Reid Anderson, pianist EthanIverson, and drummer David King -
have a well-earned reputation for pushing the limits on what is expected of a
piano-bass-drums trio. The past 15 years have seen the genre-smashing band
create a distinctive and original repertoire of inventive and exciting original
music, along with iconoclastic covers of artists as divergent as Nirvana and
Neil Young, Aphex Twin and Ornette Coleman. Earlier this year, the acclaimed
trio took on one of the most influential works of the 20th Century, Igor
Stravinsky's The Rite ofSpring (Sony Music Masterworks).
The Bad Plus' tenth studio recording, Inevitable
Western, is comprised entirely of originals and continues the band's committed
belief in what Nate Chinen of The New York Times dubbed 'avant-garde populism'
- the idea that serious music can be as engaging and accessible as it is
forward-thinking and provocative. Inevitable Western sees the group exploring
the same set of aesthetic principles that fired their inception: an exploration
of myriad musical forms born of jazz and advanced using any sonic source that
forwards music that is uniquely The Bad Plus. The spark continues on tracks
like Anderson's lyrical "Do It Again" and the post-rock twists and
turns of King's "Gold Prisms Incorporated." This is an album where
pop, blues and folk meld with classic melodies and rhythmic innovation into
that rarest of hybrids: intelligent music for themasses.
A
genuinely leaderless trio, The Bad Plus is equal in every respect, from
composition to performance to production. The interplay between these
collaborators has marked the group's work from the jump, infusing it with
carefully considered spontaneity, subtlety, style, and depth. An intense
emotional twang permeates pieces like King's "Adopted Highway" and
the Iverson composition which gives Inevitable Western its title, evokes a
spacious milieu redolent of WimWenders' Paris, Texas and theAmerican West of
Richard Avedon, dusty and open, weathered but free. Rich withmystery,
Inevitable Western is The Bad Plus at their best, affirming them as one of the
most audacious and imaginative musical collectives of this or any other era.
Inevitable Western was produced by The Bad
Plus in January 2014 at The Terrarium in Minneapolis alongside engineer/mixer
Jason Orris; the Executive Producers are Darryl Pitt and Chris Hinderaker.
The Bad
Plus came together at the end of the 20th century and has avoided easy
categorization ever since, garnering critical acclaim and a legion of fans
worldwide with their creativity, idiosyncratic personality and flair for live
performance. Based in New York City, the deeply collaborative trio constantly
searches for rules to break and boundaries to cross, bridging genres and
techniques while exploring infinite possibilities of three exceptional
musicians working in perfect sync.
Known
for their hard touring schedule, The Bad Plus has slated an array of US and
European live dates through October and beyond. Highlights include a series of
August dates alongside Joshua Redman, beginning August 7th at Rockport,
Massachusetts' Shalin Liu Performance Center, as well as a fall headline tour
set to get underway with a two night stand at Seattle's The Triple Door on
September22nd and 23rd.
The Bad
Plus is: bassist Reid Anderson, pianist Ethan Iverson, and drummer David King.
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