By Nou Dadoun
“Evolution is necessary for life and creativity. We’ve evolved, but we’re still The Bad Plus.” ~ Dave King, founding drummer and Reid Anderson, founding bassist
It could reasonably be argued that The Bad Plus in their original incarnation redefined the so-called piano trio for the 21st Century. In many ways, the original members, Ethan Iverson on piano, Reid Anderson on bass and Dave King on drums brought a rock sensibility to the configuration and made a splash with their debut These are the Vistas. They were more likely to draw on Nirvana, Tears for Fears and David Bowie than the Great American Songbook for their source material and brought an energy and virtuosity to their performances that made them one of the most talked about groups of the early 2000s. It’s safe to say that without trailblazers like The Bad Plus and E.S.T., groups like GoGo Penguin would not exist.
The three members came out of the Minnesota area and started playing together a dozen years before their first recording but the magic started after they all moved to New York and launched their debut at the Village Vanguard. Subsequently, Vancouver audiences had many opportunities to see the trio in their appearances at the Jazz Festival (their first show here was at the Commodore for the Jazz Festival), the Blueshore Theatre and the Rio Theatre. Over the following two decades, they released a dozen albums spanning intriguing originals, imaginative covers (including their own interpretation of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring), and collaborations before the original lineup had run its course. Pianist Ethan Iverson was involving himself in more external projects, collaborations with Billy Hart and Mark Turner, a well-regarded blog (originally Do The Math now moved to Substack as Transitional Technology) and his own recordings including his Blue Note debut and a project interpreting Bud Powell for the 21st Century – he finally decided to strike out on his own.
The Bad Plus continued as a piano trio with the fantastic Orrin Evans recording a couple of albums for the Edition label before Evans’ own outside projects like the Captain Black Big Band pulled him away. Coincidentally, Evans performs at Frankie’s Jazz Club the opening weekend of this year’s Vancouver International Jazz Festival with the East-West Trumpet Summit led by Thomas Marriott and Ray Vega, which also includes legendary drummer Roy McCurdy!
Drummer Dave King also played within a number of outside projects, both rock (e.g. Happy Apple) and jazz (e.g. Julian Lage & Craig Taborn), but his attraction to a strong group concept lead to the formation in 2011 of his own Dave King Trucking Company which has appeared in Vancouver a number of times including a packed-to-the-gills residency at Frankie’s at the Jazz Fest last year. Over the course of four albums, the Moving Company explored his own pianoless leanings and compositions with a double saxophone front line that sometimes included an electric guitarist.
When Orrin Evans left The Bad Plus in 2019 after two albums with the trio, it wasn’t immediately clear where the future for the group lay. As two strong composers, Anderson and King wanted to continue and their new inspiration seems to have come from the Trucking Company. As Dave King said in an interview, “We feel like we’ve pulled off a magic trick, changing the lineup from a trio to a quartet with guitar and saxophone that still sounds coherent as The Bad Plus.” Reid Anderson adds, “Ben [Monder] and Chris [Speed] are two people that we have longtime relationships with and whose music and playing we really love. Intuitively, it felt like the right fit, and fortunately, those guys were interested in doing it and being available for it. That’s pretty much how it came together. It was a clear path in terms of inviting those guys into the band.”
The Bad Plus play Vancouver Playhouse Tuesday, June 27. Tickets are $40-$65 plus service fees.
