The Bad Plus adds up
Matt Terrell | Staff Reporter

The classic jazz combo of piano, bass and drums sounds simple enough, but newcomers The Bad Plus inject bad-ass rock attitude into the mix. It’s something the jazz community has desperately needed since that corny term “fusion” was invented to describe elements of rock and funk being introduced into modern recordings. Now we have “musak” and that nasty stuff they play in supermarkets, which is a step above whatever it is played in B-movie love scenes. No one is exciting anymore, and those who’re worth noting are hidden in obscurity. It’s an unhealthy set of circumstances in an industry driven by buzz power. Here’s a way to make people talk: include a cover of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and play it with the same irreverent chaos of the original. The fact that The Bad Plus attempted this on their major label debut “These Are The Vistas” is a hint at why these guys are often billed as the loudest piano trio ever. Seriously, you’ll never hear jazz music this loud. The discordant and crashing ending to “Smells Like Teen Spirit” says enough, but that intensity is kept on every song. Melodies walk around like the “Charlie Brown Theme” until they explode with the controlled insanity of Thelonious Monk needing anger management therapy. It’s modern jazz that actually sounds modern. Other covers such as “Flim” by the Aphex Twins and “Heart of Glass” by Blondie allow these musicians to reach the hipsters of a younger audience, but it turns out that the original songs are just as good or better. Opener “Big Eater” dizzies me with an off-kilter groove, and “Boo-Wah” is a fun spastic mess of piano riffs and drum fills that gives me the feeling of having a seizure. I seriously think drummer David King needs to be chained up in a basement somewhere. I don’t mean to underscore the talents of pianist Ethan Iverson and bassist Reid Anderson, but it’s the manic percussion that drives this album. Never is King not doing something impressive, and I can guarantee that moments in “Heart Of Glass” and “Boo-Wah” will make your jaw drop.

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