The Bad Plus

A billboard outside the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport advises travelers to report "Suspicious Activity," a phrase which typifies the "paranoid security-conscious society in which we're now living," says The Bad Plus bassist Reid Anderson. Struck by the advisory, drummer David King found in it the perfect title for the new Bad Plus album and the perfect metaphor for the group's new music.

"There is a sound in the middle of the three of us that is The Bad Plus," says David. On Suspicious Activity?, the group's third album for Columbia Records, that sound moves and grows in fantastic new directions, testing limits of what an acoustic bass-piano-drums trio can accomplish and what genuinely new music can actually sound like.

Pianist Ethan Iverson observes, "Our concept is far removed from the traditional roles of our instrumentation. The idea of 'piano-in-front-with-two-gentle-accompanists' is so completely foreign to what we do that it's simply…gone."

Suspicious Activity? is the first new Bad Plus studio album since the critically-acclaimed Give (released March 2004). In the meantime, the group has racked up some 250 performances on four continents, becoming one of the most telepathically tight and musically adventurous bands on the planet. Bringing its music to venues outside the traditional jazz concert circuit, The Bad Plus has drawn audiences from the realms of indie rock, techno and jam bands—the group's set at Bonnaroo being among one of the most buzzed-about events of the festival—and is on the front lines of an emerging new alternative music.

On Suspicious Activity?, The Bad Plus have again teamed up with Grammy-winning producer Tchad Blake, whose signature experimental sound has graced projects by Peter Gabriel, Pearl Jam, Suzanne Vega, Los Lobos, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello and Phish, as well as The Bad Plus's previous Columbia Records albums These Are The Vistas and Give. The new album was recorded "live" at Real World Studios in May 2005.

"The Bad Plus is controversial in jazz circles," says Ethan, "and one of the factors is the way the tones are recorded. We're not necessarily striving for the most natural tones possible; we're trying to get the best sounding record. We're a high impact band and Tchad gives us a high impact sound; he knows how to work the board to enhance our sound. I always wanted to play something new and it feels like I'm getting there with The Bad Plus."

Echoing the subversive quality of the music within, the cover art and inside booklet for Suspicious Activity? is by the acclaimed underground artist David Rees, perhaps best-known for his controversial comic strip "Get Your War On".

All three members of The Bad Plus hail from the Midwest: Reid and David from Minnesota and Ethan from Wisconsin. The roots of the group date back to 1984 when Dave first heard Reid sing in a junior high rock band. Reid and Ethan met as aspiring young jazz musicians in 1989 and began playing together wherever and whenever they could. While 1990 marks Dave, Reid and Ethan's first musical encounter, the group's eponymous debut album was released in 2001 on Fresh Sound, a Spanish independent label. A 2002 performance at New York's Village Vanguard led to the group's signing with Columbia Records.

The group's major label debut, These Are The Vistas, was released in February 2003 with glowing reviews from traditional jazz outlets and more: ("A bolt from the blue—galvanic, improbable, discrete, unforeseen…" - JazzTimes); "Bad to the bone, hot players with hard-rock hearts…" - Rolling Stone); ("…among the freshest-sounding albums of the year..." - Newsweek).

The new album features ten musical incidents of suspicious activity including nine originals. "Prehensile Dream," the album opener, is a composition of Reid Anderson's, penned pre-TBP. "'Prehensile Dream' is one of my favorites for sure," says Ethan, giving props to his musical comrade's composition. "We chose it to open the album because it has such a prelude-like quality." "We wrote out the sequence before we recorded the album," said Reid. "The flow of the record was important and the details all mean something." The album next moves into a majestic David King composition, "Anthem For The Earnest," which Reid praises as "an overt nod to 80s pop music."

The third track, Ethan Iverson's composition "Let Our Garden Grow," is a new school/old-school "rhythm changes" piece based on the form and harmonic content of George and Ira Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm."

The intention of Dave King's "The Empire Strikes Backwards" is that of a political commentary. "A jazz audience is a liberal audience, thank God," says Ethan, pointing out the fundamental relationship between "improvisation and freedom" as a possible explanation. "'Backwards' is difficult to play," Ethan admits, "but I'm happy with the way it comes out."

The next three songs—"Knows The Difference," "Lost Of Love" and "Rhinoceros Is My Profession"—are all Reid Anderson compositions. "'Knows The Difference,'" says Reid, "is abstract and yet it's a melody full of longing and joy. That's where I live, and I try to imbue my music with those qualities."

Ethan hears in "Lost Of Love" echoes of "60s pop production with a gorgeous melody" and points out that it's the "most produced cut on the record." (Suspicious Activity? is virtually free of overdubs, although there are touches, like the celeste in "Lost Of Love," which add subtle coloration and ambience. "There isn't anything we couldn't emulate live," says Dave, "but there are some extra ear candy moments.")

"I don't usually have images associated with my personal titles, but 'Rhinoceros is My Profession' is an exception," explains Reid, "I like the image of being at a bullfight; the matador administers the coup de grace to the bull and as he basks in the adulation of the adoring crowd, the gate opens and a rhinoceros comes charging into the ring."

Ethan's composition, "O.G. (Original Gentleman)," was written in tribute to the legendary jazz drummer Elvin Jones. "I wanted to write a requiem," Ethan offers, "but it was too large an undertaking. The tune is about Elvin on tour stopping in a doughnut shop. 'O.G.' attempts to evoke the atmosphere in the shop after Elvin leaves."

"If there's anything that justifies the title Suspicious Activity?" says Ethan, "it's covering 'Chariots Of Fire.' The album has our own music, which we're intensely proud of, and 'Chariots Of Fire,' as kind of an encore."

Suspicious Activity? closes with another Reid-penned piece, "Forces," which Ethan calls "a kind of lullaby." "'Forces' asks 'What are the forces that are tossing us around in life?,'" Reid says. "You make decisions and you say 'These are the things I believe in' and that in itself becomes a force that you harness. The thing about forces is that they're always bigger than you are." (Columbia Records, September 2005)
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The Bad Plus at Jazz Alley

by Paul Rauch
May 16, 2025

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 ...

Live Review

The Bad Plus at Bop Stop

by John Chacona
February 14, 2025

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 ...

Album Review

The Bad Plus: Complex Emotions

Read "Complex Emotions" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
November 4, 2024

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 ...

Live Review

Fano Jazz by the Sea 2024

by Libero Farnè
July 30, 2024

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 ...

Play This!

The Bad Plus: Flim

by Scott Lichtman
June 21, 2024

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 ...

Live Review

Monterey Jazz Festival at 65: Let it Happen

by Josef Woodard
October 5, 2022

Monterey Jazz Festival Monterey County Fairgrounds Monterey, CA September 23-25, 2022 For the finale of the arena portion of this year's Monterey Jazz Festival programming, Gregory Porter channeled one of the aspects which make him special in the jazz pantheon, as spirit mover with gospel roots, and with show biz instincts in tow. Launching into his moving, swaying anthem “No Love Dying" as an encore for his festival-closing set, Porter invoked the classic “lighter" moment ...

Radio & Podcasts

New releases from Lydian Nadhaswaran, Sven Gotz and Troy Roberts

by Len Davis
August 5, 2022

New music with Lydian Nadhaswaram from Chromatic Grammatic, Swedish guitarist Sven Gotz, UK based Bassist Mike Forrest Flynn, The Bad Plus, Yellow Jackets, Troy Roberts, and KneebodyPlaylist Lydian Nadhaswaram “Spot" from Chromatic Grammatic (Amly) 00:00 Sven Gotz “The Promise" from Panjoy (Jazzandrecords) 07:07 Mike Forrest Flynn “Strange Weather" from Strange Weather (Self Produced) 14:10 The Bad Plus “Sun Wall" from The Bad Plus (Edition) 21:12 Yellow Jackets “Resilience" from Parallel Motion (Mack Avenue) 28:23 Troy Roberts “Big Night ...

Event

Jazz this week: The Bad Plus, Matt Villinger CD release event, and more

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
January 6, 2016

As usual for the season, things are a bit slow for live jazz and creative music in St. Louis during the first full week of the new year, but there is at least one notable touring act in town this weekend, along with enough music from local performers to satiate those prepared to venture out against the winter's chill. Let's go to the highlights... Wednesday, January 6 The Bad Plus return for the tenth consecutive January for a four-night engagement ...
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Event

The Bad Plus Performs The Ornette Coleman Masterpiece Science Fiction, National Concert Hall, Dublin, 12 April

Source: All About Jazz
April 5, 2015

As part of the extraordinary weekend of music that is April Jazz, The Bad Plus with very special guests will perform Ornette Coleman’s classic album Science Fiction (Columbia, 1972) in the National Concert Hall, Dublin, Sunday, 12 April, 8pm. Ornette Coleman’s 1972 album Science Fiction, “a stunningly inventive and appropriately alien-sounding blast of manic energy...it's overflowing with brilliance” (Allmusic), is widely considered a landmark recording and especially so for pianist Ethan Iverson, bassist Reid Anderson and drummer Dave King of ...
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Performance / Tour

Jazz this week: The Bad Plus returns to Jazz at the Bistro, and more

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
January 8, 2015

Though this week in St. Louis brings unusually frigid temperatures along with the usual temporary post-holiday lull in touring activity, there still are some jazz and creative music performances happening around town that will reward those determined to brave the cold. Let's go to the highlights... Wednesday, January 7 Tonight, The Bad Plus (pictured) begin a four-night engagement at Jazz at the Bistro, marking the ninth consecutive year the trio has performed at the Bistro in early January. Since their ...
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Performance / Tour

Jazz Trio The Bad Plus Performs At Lawrence University

Source: Rick Peterson
January 26, 2013

APPLETON, WIS. — The convention-breaking jazz trio The Bad Plus makes its Lawrence University debut Friday, Feb. 1 at 8 p.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel as part of the college's 2012-13 Jazz Series. Tickets, at $15-22, are available through the Lawrence Box Office, 920-832-6749 or [email protected]. Featuring Wisconsin native Ethan Iverson, piano, and Minnesotans Reid Anderson on bass, and David King on drums, the trio performed together for the first time as teenagers once in 1990. After spending the ...
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Contest

Enter the "The Bad Plus - Made Possible" Giveaway at All About Jazz!

Source: All About Jazz
October 4, 2012

All About Jazz members are invited to enter the eOne Music “The Bad Plus - Made Possible“ giveaway contest starting today. We'll select FIVE winners at the conclusion of the contest on November 5th. Click here to enter the contest

(Becoming a fan of The Bad Plus at AAJ automatically enters you in the contest.)

Good luck! Your Friends at eOne Music About The Bad Plus and Made Possible The Bad Plus has spent more than ...
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Performance / Tour

Rite of Spring, Left of Center: The Bad Plus at the Loring

Source: JazzINK by Andrea Canter
May 23, 2011

One of the hallmarks of the Bad Plus is the equity of their long-standing collaboration. But the fact that there isn't one star among the trio hardly means these musicians lack star power. Rather, it's the merging of the three audacious talents that yields a supernova. And that galactic phenomenon never shined more brightly than in last night's performance at the Loring Theater of “On Sacred Ground: The Rite of Spring." Or on the set of original works that followed, ...
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Performance / Tour

The Bad Plus at Chris Jazz Cafe on April 16 & 17, 2011

Source: All About Jazz
April 1, 2011

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Performance / Tour

Live Streaming of The Bad Plus Concerts in Denver on Sunday 12/12

Source: Todd Altschuler
December 10, 2010

Telluride Jazz Celebration is inviting the world to watch and listen when the highly acclaimed trio, The Bad Plus plays two special shows at DazzleJazz in Denver on Sunday December 12. The two shows, taking place at 6 and 8pm, will be streamed live over Telluride Jazz' internet site at telluridejazz.org. For the past ten years The Bad Plus—Reid Anderson, Ethan Iverson and David King—have broken down the walls of jazz convention and created an uncompromising body of work. Few ...
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Interview

Together for 10 Years and Still Totally Committed

Source: AAJ Staff
September 18, 2010

Ten years ago the Bad Plus came together in a warm rush of camaraderie and with a clear grasp of novelty. Here was a jazz piano trio with the heart and gall of a stadium rock band, grappling wryly but directly with anthemic covers and its own scarcely less anthemic originals. The group was brash and clever, its crooked sincerity often mistaken for smug acidity. A debate arose in jazz circles over the entitlements of such a group, what it ...
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Interview

The Bad Plus Take a Break From Jazzed-Out Indie Covers With 'Never Stop'

Source: All About Jazz @ Spinner
September 11, 2010

Things are a bit calmer for the Bad Plus these days. The band returns with its eighth album, called 'Never Stop,' which, if nothing else, emphatically states the band's mission statement. It's also the first album of all original songs for the trio. It follows up 2009's 'For All I Care,' which featured rock covers performed with indie rock singer Wendy Lewis and a few classical tunes. By the time this came out, fans and critics alike had long become ...
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