LATE NIGHT THOUGHTS ON JAZZ
by Marshall Bowden

Double Plus Good
Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Just Let The Bad Plus Be

Read the Jazzitude review of Prog

 

The Bad Plus has been around for a considerable period if you take into account their indie years before signing with Columbia Records in 2003, longer still if you consider that the members have known each other since they were in school. The group’s first Columbia release, These are the Vistas, made them well-known and something of a cause célèbre among jazz and non-jazz listeners alike. Critics and the music press fell all over themselves declaring the group the next big thing while many jazzers decried the group as a gimmick. In fact, these guys are good musicians with a definite sound and definite ideas about the way they approach music as a group. Not only did the group take their covers repertoire from rock music rather than the great American songbook, they operated more like a rock group in many respects. Their cover of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” became a mainstay of their live performances; the physical pianism of Ethan Iverson and the Kenny Clarke-meets-Tony Williams drum work of David King presented a muscular performance style that was far from the lyricism of other new piano trios like E.S.T. and Rachel Z or the ECM sound of Tord Gustafson.

“The covers give us an incredible amount of freedom because they're very sturdy structures to hang our sound on; to support the intentions of The Bad Plus,” says Reid. “When we do a cover it becomes our music, in a
way. “ (http://www.bighassle.com/publicity/a_bad_plus.html)
Sturdy structures to hang a sound on--that represents both the strength and weakness of The Bad Plus. While the very definable sound they have is a definite advantage for the group, the fact that every song they play has been put through the Bad Plus blender is problematic. When a musician such as, say, Bill Evans plays a standard, he or she applies a set of filters to their performance that signifies that it is they who is performing the song. Without this ability, a technically proficient or even gifted musician is unlikely to make much of an impression on the listener. This is generally done with the use of reharmonization, an ability to adapt and develop the song’s melodic content, and often the ability to play with rhythmic elements of the song. The Bad Plus does these things, but ultimately the biggest signifier of their performance is the kinetic, if not bombastic, energy they bring to the material as well as the ability to deconstruct the song by taking melodic elements out of the song’s normal structure, often creating a new vantage point for the listener. In a discussion with Stanley Crouch from the group’s Do The Math blog, Iverson and Crouch discuss the approach that the group takes towards modern popular music that doesn’t have the melodic or harmonic components necessary to be interpreted by jazz musicians in the usual ways that I’ve cited above. Crouch says: “you and Reid and Dave go so far from the original tune that you aren't playing on the form of the song. Your first phrase, after the melody, is always totally "out." I find it really interesting how your audience is shocked and exhilarated by the conclusions you come to with a melody they already know…To me, the conception of The Bad Plus is actually derived from the way Coltrane and his band played "My Favorite Things," which is really far from hearing Julie Andrews sing it. What Coltrane--what everybody in his band--was playing on it is like…[shrugs] "What are they playing?" --"'My Favorite Things.'" --"Where is 'My Favorite Things' here? I don't get it." That's The Bad Plus, too. (http://thebadplus.typepad.com/dothemath/2007/02/interview_with_.html)

The biggest issue is that while “My Favorite Things” was a mainstay of Coltrane’s repertoire for the entirety of his career from the time he recorded it pretty much until his death, he didn’t go to the well too many times, while TBP has covered several rock songs over the course of four albums. The Bad Plus certainly covers these songs because of the sense of recognition that their audiences will get from them, even if the song is deconstructed into something else entirely. But they also come up with original compositions that sound, in many ways, quite similar to what they do with pop songs. They are good compositions, many of them, but the question that sits in the room like the proverbial 800-lb gorilla is this: without the covers, would anyone have paid the kind of attention to this group that they have received? The covers provided a hook that drew in audiences and critics alike—mainstream media was all over itself in praising These Are the Vistas. But then, they wanted something different yet again. Now that they’d heard this approach, they wanted the group to do something else. But The Bad Plus doesn’t want to do something else. They are a band that has recorded a bunch of albums and played an unbelievable number of concert dates together. This is generally a requirement for a group to really become a unit and play together better with each passing year. The most obvious example in the jazz world right now would be Keith Jarrett’s Standards trio. Jarrett, Gary Peacock, and Jack DeJohnette are about to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their collaboration, generally recognized as one of the most influential jazz piano trios in the music’s history. The group’s approach is that of most jazz trios—that is to say that they primarily take their repertoire from the standard tunes written for Broadway, popular music, etc. during the first half of the twentieth century. But, like the Bad Plus, Jarrett and company do often deconstruct their material, doing much more than the ‘head-solos-head’ arrangements that so many bands do. They also have played together for long enough to engage in group improvisations that often sound as though they could have been composed—in fact they have sometimes improvised entire performances (for example, the 2002 release Always Let Me Go, performed live in Japan). But I don’t hear anyone saying (or writing), ‘gee, the standards trio is so samey. They do so many covers that they must be doing this in an ironic manner. It’s time for them to grow up and do something else.” Anyone who did this would be laughed out of the room. But the very same arguments are used with The Bad Plus.

The old argument goes that it’s fine to do what you want, but you should be able to play the standards, swing, show you can hang with the dudes who came up before you. I don’t think groups like The Bad Plus explicity reject this idea, but they play music that comes honestly from their backgrounds, their understanding of the music that has influenced them, and, ultimtately, their souls. To TBP, it makes sense to incorporate elements of the progressive rock music they grew up with precisely because they grew up with it. What you dig when you’re thirteen, fifteen, eighteen—you will always dig. Why deny it? Trumpeter Christian Scott, whose music is rhythmically informed by hip-hop rather than swing, but whose music has a totally jazz conception, says “My art is valid because I’m valid.” And that’s a motto that’s informed the careers of many musical outlaws, from Rahsaan Roland Kirk to Miles Davis to Thelonious Monk.

From all of this you’d probably draw the conclusion that I am a Bad Plus fan. Actually, I’m not that big a fan. I don’t find their music terribly interesting or exciting in large doses, but I recognize that that could change as I continue to listen. There is a lack of dynamic change, and a seeming reluctance for the group to come to grips with ballads in any significant way, and ultimately, I prefer E.S.T.’s groove-inflected lyricism to the forcefulness of TBP. Whether the group will be one of the greats or will get forgotten in the next decade or two remains to be seen. But I do recognize that they are serious about what they are doing and that, far from being some kind of ironic joke, TBP is about creating their own personal musical sound, which is what good musicians should be all about.