|
Page 2 of 2 Pianist Ethan Iverson is the one member of this trio who can not claim inspiration from a background in rock music. As a 17-year-old high school student in the late 1980s, the classically trained Iverson met Reid Anderson while Anderson was attending college in Eau Claire, WI. The two played free jazz in area restaurants, and then informally hooked up with Dave King in 1990. "We started playing. The one time we played, it was an informal jam session. It was 10 years until the band was formed," Iverson says. In the interim, Iverson moved to New York and studied privately with Sofia Rosoff and jazz pianist Fred Hersch. He has been engaged in a number of solo and ensemble projects, the latter involving work with Mark Turner, Dave Douglas, Bill McHenry, Billy Hart, Kurt Rosenwinkel, and old jamming buddy Reid Anderson. His debut recording, School Work (Mons, 1995), featured sax legend Dewey Redman.With his trio, Iverson has released Live at Smalls, The Minor Passions, and Construction Zone (Originals) / Deconstruction Zone (Standards) for Fresh Sound, each cited by The New York Times as one of the ten best recordings of 1998, 1999, and 2000, respectively. He recently premiered the Patrick Zimmerli Piano Concerto with Metamorphosen in Boston, and in 2002 toured the U.K. with British alto saxophonist Martin Speake, leading to the release of their duo recording, My Ideal. Iverson has also served as the musical director for the Mark Morris Dance Group, performing with Mikhail Baryshnikov and Yo Yo Ma. Notes the Penguin Guide, "Iverson is an original thinker and likely to be a very major force... implacably opposed to anything predictable, conventional or otherwise previously-done." Although Iverson, Anderson, and King had not performed together in a decade, they had remained in touch and were fans of each other's music, finally reconnecting in 1999. Their self-titled debut recording (Thirsty Ear, 2001) made barely a ripple in the music world, and the follow-up, Authorized Bootleg (self-produced in 2002), similarly stayed below the radar screen. It was a 2002 gig at the Village Vanguard that sparked one of the most explosive power surges of modern jazz, leading to the contract with Columbia contract with Columbia and the subsequent releases of These Are the Vistas, Give, and Suspicious Activity. Of the latest, the New York Times wrote: “The Bad Plus's fourth studio record proves that the band is better than anyone at mixing the sensibilities of post-60's jazz and indie rock....The Bad Plus likes to work with giant melodies, and in its choice of a cover version, there is no half-stepping: the band's take on Vangelis's "Chariots of Fire" theme starts with a groove and then makes a free-jazz monument of it. It has to be a joke, right? But listen to this slow-motion bomb in a dentist's waiting room a few more times, and your hearing might begin to change." 
Increasingly over their recent live performances, the Bad Plus has seemed more lyrical, more confident, less edgy than in their earlier efforts. At the same time, they always maintained the elements of playfulness, invention, and surprise that have rocketed them to the top of jazz charts nationwide and pulled in a multi-generational audience. At times, Iverson's classical training is barely beneath the surface, providing a solid anchor that allows the pianist to reach into the stratosphere without leaving the planet. Watching the interplay between King and Iverson is like watching a mirror image of two percussionists, from the movements of their limbs to the contortions of their hands. The piano becomes a drum kit and the drum kit another keyboard. King, indeed, is a magician with brushes, sticks, mallets, and whatever else he can get his hands on. His music is much like the weather in Minnesota—a wild range of scorching heat, rolling thunder, tinkling rain, shimmering mist, blustery wind, and an occasional tornado; and like the climate in the Heartland, the weather changes quickly and defies prediction. Throughout, Anderson's bass is both a steady companion and creative agitator, and his compositions (such as "Big Eater" and "Neptune") offer both funky excitement and ethereal fantasies, often within a few bars. Noted Rolling Stone, "By any standard, jazz or otherwise, it is moving, mighty music—bad in all the right ways."
Playing sets that typically include originals from all three musicians (sometimes including works in progress), as well as covers of tunes from all reaches of the musical universe, from Ornette Coleman to Black Sabbath to the Pixies, The Bad Plus continues to generate plenty of buzz and controversy—Is it jazz? Is it rock? Is it just a lot of volume? My advice--forget the hype and listen. You do not need to be a 60s rocker or 21st century adolescent technophile to enjoy the sometimes over-the-top improvisations of these monster composers and performers. Like me, you can be a 50-something mainstream jazz fan who wouldn't know a Pixie from a Radiohead. This is not my mother's piano trio. But somehow I think she would like it.
“The Bad Plus… have transformed the greying image of piano jazz with their anarchic sense of humour, modern rhythmic sensibility and noisy dynamics. They absolutely have to be heard.”–– The Telegraph, November 2005
After an early March tour of Europe, the Bad Plus will be on the west coast, at Yoshi's in Oakland (March 28th-29th) and at Catalina's Bar in Los Angeles (March 30th - April 2nd) and then back up to the Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz (April 3rd). Visit www.thebadplus.com for full tour schedule.
|
SF Bay Area 
Thursday, 08 January 2009
Home | Jazz Ed | CD/DVD/Book Reviews | Interviews | SF Bay Area | Chicago | Los Angeles | New York | Twin Cities, MN | More Cities | Festivals | News | Contact | Video | 
