The Bad PlusİAndrea Canter

At least in instrumentation and compatibility, the Bad Plus resembles the great trios of Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson and, in a more modern vernacular, Keith Jarrett. And if you listen for a while, you might even hear some homage paid to those masters, particularly Jarrett. Of their contemporaries, the Bad Plus sometimes has been compared to the very hot Swedish trio, E.S.T. (Esbjorn Svensson Trio), a group that fuses acoustics and electronics, yet emerges with a softer, less edgy result than their all-acoustic American cousins.

<>But American audiences, and particularly music critics, have expressed highly divergent opinions about this band, in part due to an overpowering urge to classify each new phenomenon into one genre or the other and to distrust rapid rises in popularity. Is this jazz? Is it rock? Is it serious music? Notes Minnesota native, New York transplant pianist Craig Taborn, “What they’re doing is honest, because they are not trying to appropriate a cultural thing…” Says Bad Plus bassist Reid Anderson, “Jazz has always reached out to other musical styles and used them for its own purposes…There are some people who want to freeze the development of jazz and only allow it to be one thing and you can hear it in their music. The rest of us are just trying to communicate beauty through music.” One thing is certain about the Bad Plus—they sell records, they fill clubs and concert halls, and they are striking happily cacophonous chords with highly diverse audiences, including young rock fans, bringing considerable (and global) attention to jazz at a time when jazz could use more support.

Reid AndersonİAndrea Canter

After graduating from Curtis in 1993, Reid Anderson moved to New York, where he played with other up-and-coming musicians such as Mark Turner, Jorge Rossy, Kurt Rosenwinkel<>, and, yes, Ethan Iverson, and <>led groups at Smalls that included future star pianist Orrin Evans. He’s been the leader on three recordings for Fresh Sound, including Dirty Show Tunes, Abolish Bad Architecture, and The Vastness of Space, and has performed and recorded with numerous artists. Says David Adler (All About Jazz), Reid Anderson is “a bassist and composer of rare gifts who simply must be heard and appreciated by a wider audience.”

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Dave KingİAndrea Canter

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, the classically trained Iverson moved to New York in 1991 and studied privately with Sofia Rosoff and jazz pianist Fred Hersch. Iverson 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 also appears with the Billy Hart Quartet on the acclaimed 2006 recording…  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.”

Ethan IversonİAndrea Canter