THE BAD PLUS
The Bad Plus has standard instrumentation for a jazz trio—Ethan Iverson on piano, Reid Miles playing bass, and Dave King behind the drums. However, their career, repertoire and well-defined sound during the past 17 years has been quite unconventional. Iverson’s cool, knowing touch on the keyboard is abetted by Miles’ stalwart, pulsing tones and offset by King’s often ferocious rhythms. They have covered radio hits by bands such as Nirvana, Tears for Fears, Aphex Twin and the Pixies, but also have recorded their own version of Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring,” and revisited fabled “free-jazz” luminary Ornette Coleman’s classic album, Science Fiction. Being encyclopedic in their range and walking the thin line between ironic references and earnest celebrations, they became the first post-modern instrumental group popular among millennials. Initially jazz purists resisted, but now everyone digs The Bad Plus.