The Bad Plus: Smells Like Jazz

Of all musical genres, there are two - classical and jazz - that stick out as a communities rife with purists, people who feel like going back is better than going forward.

While both of those musical types feature pasts robust with virtuosos, the defining musicians within those categories were virtuosos because they did something different and amazing. Today, it seems like there are many musicians within those genres who are bent on preserving the status quo.

The problem with that perspective is that modern artistry is mainly focused on progression, on becoming better, if not just creating something different for the sake of being different and moving forward. Here's where the modern artist and the purist clash.

The Bad Plus was hailed as both the savior of jazz music and the harriers of the beloved styles after the trio's major-label debut came out with a bang in 2003. With “These are the Vistas," released on Columbia Records, the Bad Plus brought new listeners into the jazz realm with cinematically jazzy covers of Nirvana's “Smells Like Teen Spirit" and Blondie's “Heart of Glass."

The indie- and pop-rock inclined instrumentation is what jazz purists scoffed at, but, as Bad Plus pianist Ethan Iverson says, “Part of jazz is playing covers."

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