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Instrument: Band / ensemble / orchestra
Improvising the Russian Classical Composers: Stravinsky, Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev
by Larry Slater
In the 19th century, Russian composers created timeless melodic works ripe for jazz interpretation. The 20th century in Russia ushered in decades of experimentation and revolutionary musical ideas.Prokofiev's output ranged from lyrical compositions to experimental avant-garde works. In this hour, you'll hear jazz interpretations of Prokofiev from Jo-Yu Chen, Peter Beets and Oliver Nelson. Rachmaninoff wrote music in the romantic tradition with jazz interpretations from Eddie Higgins and Freddie Hubbard. Igor Stravinsky revolutionized 20th-century music and is widely ...
Continue ReadingThe Bad Plus at The Hamilton Live
by Robert Bellafiore
The Bad Plus The Hamilton Live Washington, DC November 9, 2025 The ancient paradox known as the Ship of Theseus poses a philosophical riddle: if every piece of a ship is gradually replaced until no original components remain, is it still the same ship, or has it transformed into something else entirely? Is a thing defined by its collective parts, or by some deeper essence? This is the question raised by The Bad ...
Continue ReadingThe Bad Plus at Jazz Alley
by Paul Rauch
The Bad Plus Jazz Alley Seattle, Washington May 13, 2025 The Bad Plus is a band, and a successful brand in the music world. They have a litany of successful recording and performance credits to their history, achieving amazing success while employing an approach to jazz that is perhaps odd and certainly uncompromising. Beginning in 2000 as a piano trio, bassist Reid Anderson and drummer Dave King teamed with pianist Ethan Iverson, largely ...
Continue ReadingThe Bad Plus at Bop Stop
by John Chacona
The Bad PlusBOP STOP at the Music SettlementCleveland, OHFebruary 7, 2025 Teachers of jazz--the good ones, at least--emphasize the importance of finding an individual sound. That goes for ensembles, too, and at their Friday appearance at Cleveland's Bop Stop, The Bad Plus demonstrated how, even with a radical overhauling of personnel and instrumentation, it can be done. For two decades, The Bad Plus brandished what might have been the most distinctive piano trio ...
Continue ReadingThe Bad Plus: Complex Emotions
by Mike Jurkovic
For those out there who may have inadvertently thought The Bad Plus had nothing major left to say after two-plus decades of saying major things, guess again. Because Complex Emotions--their sixteenth statement of purpose--doubles down and ups a hundred. Proof positive is how guitarist Ben Monder's valedictory “LiPo"--equal parts biblical wind and prairie sandstorm--sleigh rides Category 5 nonstop from Complex Emotions's changeling opener, founder/bassist Reid Anderson's “Grid/Ocean." Seemingly with a mind of its own, the track thrashes then ...
Continue ReadingFano Jazz by the Sea 2024
by Libero Farnè
Varie sedi Fano Jazz by the Sea 2024 Fano 20--28 luglio 2024 La trentaduesima edizione di Fano Jazz by the Sea ha in gran parte confermato l'impostazione consolidata del festival marchigiano, a cominciare da una programmazione artistica che alterna nomi nuovi del panorama internazionale, procurando sorprese impreviste, e protagonisti di peso, magari già presentati in passato, proposte più impegnative ed altre indubbiamente di facile consumo, anche per richiamare un ampio pubblico meno specialistico, riequilibrando nel ...
Continue ReadingThe Bad Plus: Flim
by Scott Lichtman
The 2001 first album from The Bad Plus was a shot across the bow for redefining the piano trio genre. Covering bands from ABBA to Nirvana and offering original compositions that swung, whispered and pounded, pianist Ethan Iverson, upright bassist Reid Anderson and drummer David King drew new audiences to jazz. The second album, These are the Vistas (Columbia Records, 2003), featured a cover of Aphex Twin's “Flim." Compared to the Bad Plus's more avant-garde/muscular pieces, this cover comes across ...
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