The Bad Plus

The Bad Plus – USA
www.thebadplus.com
myspace.com/badplus

The Bad Plus is a collective made up of bassist Reid Anderson, pianist Ethan Iverson, and drummer David King. All three are from the Midwest and they have known each other since their teens. Nonetheless, with the exception of one unimpressive meeting in 1990, it is only after spending their formative 20s apart — King as a session player in Los Angeles, Iverson as the musical director for the Mark Morris Dance Group, Anderson as a prominent up-and-coming player on the New York jazz scene — that they reunited in late 2000 to play a weekend club date in Minneapolis. The chemistry was immediate and obvious. They planned a second gig and a one-day recording session for the indie jazz label Fresh Sound and The Bad Plus was born.

“It’s about as badass as highbrow gets.”
- Rolling Stone

“If the Coen Brothers put together a jazz trio, perhaps it would be like this, the comic and the dramatic rolled together.”
- The Guardian

“…high art, not pop gimmickry…The Bad Plus embrace sonic adventure without selfish avant-gardism…seething with funky new-millennium rhythms and succulent harmonic flights.”
- Entertainment Weekly

“So, if this piano trio wants to play as loud as a rock band…well, let ‘em rip….these bad boys have the musicianship to back up their attitude.”
- The New Yorker