The Bad Plus is one of the leading innovators in contemporary jazz music. The trio plays traditional and free jazz with an unusual rock and pop aesthetic. Although they operate within a strong jazz tradition, The Bad Plus has covered songs by Black Sabbath, Ornette Coleman, and The Pixies (on their 2004 record, Give) as well as Nirvana, Aphex Twin, and Blondie (on their 2003 breakout album, These Are The Vistas). Their crossover appeal has not gone unnoticed: The Bad Plus released three studio albums with Columbia Records, including their most recent record, Suspicious Activity? (2005), which includes a version of the theme to the 1981 film “Chariots of Fire.” This spring, The Bad Plus is releasing PROG, both a reference to prog music as well as “music that pushes the envelope and creatively reimagines itself.”
Recently, we spoke with Reid Anderson, the trio’s virtuostic and prolific bass player (drummer David King and pianist Ethan Iverson round out the group). The group’s idiosyncratic approach to jazz has been compared to trio Medeski Martin & Wood and pianist Jason Moran, yet they’ve also opened for rock groups such as The Pixies and Wilco. Tellingly, The Bad Plus is influenced both by traditional jazz masters — Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Keith Jarrett, Charlie Mingus — and contemporary rock musicians. Anderson, who also loves Radiohead, Bjork, Autechre, and Aphex Twin, even makes electronic music on the side.
The Bad Plus will perform at the Statler Auditorium on Sunday, March 11, at 4pm. They will return for two performances on March 14 and 15 with the Mark Morris Dance Group at the SCPA.
Ithaca Times: Was the compositional process for “Violet Cavern,” the piece commissioned for the Mark Morris Dance Group, different than your normal approach?
Reid Anderson: It was a very different process for us than a piece that we would write for ourselves. There were very specific requirements; not only did it have to be set for the dancers, but there were also very specific rhythmic structures that we had to adhere to. Whereas when we perform as The Bad Plus, improvisation is a big part of what we do.
Where do you see The Bad Plus fitting within the continuum of jazz music of the last fifty years?
Well, I think that we’re a group with a group language. And that’s always been really important in jazz. We have a language that is our own, that is identifiable as The Bad Plus. It’s our own language, but it also comes from our love of jazz and our devotion to the history of jazz. But we’re very honest about our influences, and that can range from rock music to classical music to jazz. The thing about jazz now in the 21st century, is the people of our generation all grew up exposed to so many other things. I grew up listening to rock music on the radio, and that was my introduction to music, and I still love rock music and pop music.
Growing up in Minnesota, how would you describe your exposure to jazz?
As young musicians, we didn’t really have someone who was guiding us or showing us the way. It was a process of being curious about it and going to the library with other friends and discovering it on our own. And since we didn’t have any overseeing guidance, we were able to have our own impressions, whether they were mistaken or not. But we could reimagine these things for ourselves, and it was really a wide-open playing field.
How would you describe your relationship with Columbia Records, your former label?
It was a really great relationship because they really did just let us do what we wanted to do. They didn’t force us to do things according to the way they saw it. And part of that is because when we came to them, we were already fully formed as a band. We had our sound. It wasn’t like we were some young kids that they were going to groom and make into something. It was kind of like, “Okay, this is The Bad Plus, take it or leave it” and it was a really good relationship. We got the kind of exposure we couldn’t possibly have gotten through a smaller label, and it really enabled us to have a career in music as The Bad Plus. And we’re intensely aware and grateful for that.
What are the most unique characteristics of The Bad Plus? Has marketing your sound ever been a challenge?
We don’t fit neatly into one label or another, but I think that’s starting to be to our advantage. We really are a band. That is really the important thing, as we see it. Jazz can get to be this thing where this guy is in that band, but you might see different people playing on any given night. But for us, the commitment to being a band is really key.
What was the impetus for covering “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and other rock classics?
Honestly, Ethan had never really heard those songs, and we were like, “Okay, you really need to hear this, you need to check in with this music.” And it made sense from the very beginning. There is an energy when you’re playing music that can be very abstract, but when people know the song really well, there’s also a connection to the audience. It opens a window into the kind of music that we’re doing as well, and it’s a real artistic challenge every time around. Each song we choose to do has its own universe and there’s really no map of how we’re ’supposed’ to reinterpret these songs as improvising acoustic musicians. But if you’re talking about the jazz standard songbook, those are all very well worn paths. But then you’re facing down ‘Ironman,’ and you’re like, ‘Okay, how do we make sense of this?’
What are some of the most exciting prospects for jazz in 2007?
What I think is exciting is that there really is an audience out there for it. There are some people at our shows that are jazz aficionados, maybe even people with more purist inclinations, but sitting next to them might be some 17-year-old teenager who has never heard jazz before, but who heard we do ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit,’ and decides to check us out.