COMPOSERS: The Bad Plus
LABELS: Columbia
PERFORMER: Reid Anderson (bass), Ethan Iverson (piano), Dave King (drums)
CATALOGUE NO: 87040
Columbia’s new signing, at the behest of forward-looking producer Yves Beauvais, is a piano trio called The Bad Plus, which also delights in the unconventional. It is a significant deal for a record label which seemed to have lost its way marketing contemporary jazz over the last two decades, but THE BAD PLUS seems set to put things back on track.
Reid Anderson on bass, Ethan Iverson on piano and drummer Dave King move within similar circles to the cutting-edge Esbjörn Svensson Trio, but they have also been inspired by the irreverence of Medeski, Martin and Wood, and do enough to suggest an exciting group in the making, one that could end the trend of the big majors signing bland hard bop acts.
After all, Medeski, Martin and Wood’s latest album, Uninvisible, has sold over 200,000 copies, suggesting that audiences still believe jazz should sound surprising, something people like Kenton and Brubeck never doubted for a moment..