I’ve been wanting to see the Bad Plus for a while, however the dates just haven’t lined up. I finally got the opportunity last week. There’s a new venue in town, Missy Lane’s Assembly Room, that has been hosting some nice talent. I’m not a huge fan of the room, but sometimes you have to take what you can get. Bad Plus was doing two shows that evening and I opted for the early one—a rare event for me. However, being the early show, it was a much lighter crowd so we were able to sit in the second row and really take it all in. A nice change compared to the last time I was there.

Let’s get the elephant out of the way. The line up, although still 2/3 of the original group is really quite a lot different now. In place of the very cool and stylish piano player is now a tenor saxophonist and guitarist. Generally, I would welcome the addition of the guitar, but I really wanted to hear that old sound (of the trio with the pianist) and it just wasn’t there. It definitely felt like something was missing—the Bad Plus flavor that I had grown to love was altered materially by this change. So keep that in mind if you make it out to see them.

I wasn’t very impressed with the guitarist, Ben Monder. He reminded me a little bit of Steve Howe—at least his look and the way he played and held the guitar (not the type of guitar itself). He was playing a Strat that looked like it was a shorter scale—weird in that he was a pretty tall guy who didn’t need a smaller guitar, but maybe it just looked that way. He played it super close to the body and stared down at it the entire time. It just gave off a weird vibe to me. He was hard to hear. Ironically, he was attached at the hip to his volume pedal—I’ve never seen a guitarist use a volume pedal that much—but for some reason he wasn’t loud enough. And I was sitting very close to the stage. He had essentially three postures: 1) playing cool chordal volume swells, 2) hitting the heads in and around the chords with cool delay tones and 3) making a lot of noise playing leads. Sometimes it was hard to tell which was which.

It seemed like the dude could play, but his phrasing was very noisy, due to constant sweeps and trying to play faster than his ability. At least it seemed that way. A lot of low end woof followed by some chaotic higher end notes, often sounding clunky and just off. I don’t want to disparage the guy—it’s obvious he has the skills to play jazz, but his note choice was so blue it was purple. To me these didn’t sound like “blue” notes, these sounded like the wrong notes. It was cacophonous at times, if you could hear it. I think it was +/- as to whether this particular guitarist really added anything special and/or was a good replacement sound for the old pianist, imho.

The tenor saxophonist, Chris Speed was good but (incredibly) also hard to hear well. I can appreciate not wanting to wail straight into the mic, but at times he backed off it so much it was hard to hear him clearly. Again, kiddies—remember that lavalier mics exist for this reason. I’m not sure what the stigma is with
some pros not wanting to use them, but they really do serve a well defined purpose and there are some super hi-fi choices these days. It would have helped his volume level a bunch, which would have more accurately defined his phrasing, which would have helped the crowd understand what he was trying to do in the harmonic mix. The tenor man also dabbled in the blue. Of course any jazz head is going to do this, it’s always a question of how well the “blue” fits. I’d say he was definitely ahead of the guitar player, but at some points I found it a little too out just for “going out” sake, rather than being melodic and musical. If I’m honest this guy didn’t really impress me much either, but I would rank him a few notches above the guitarist.

Now on the other side of the coin, the original 2/3 of the band are still great and worth seeing. Dave King (drums) and Reid Anderson (bass) are not only fantastic in their own right, they have been playing together for years, so they lock in so well together. This is the really great thing about having a bass and drum connection in the band. The backbone is not only solid, all of the dynamic movements, syncopations and accents flow together flawlessly, so there is little to no choppiness. And it was smooth sailing with these guys amongst multiple tempo modulations and odd time signatures.

Reid Anderson’s meter is rock solid and he has a nice command of the upright bass. He also plays out of a pretty decent sized Ampeg amp—when’s the last time you saw an upright player do that? While not the most conventional, it really adds the low end to his bass (and to the group) and he had it dialed in. He played some great rhythms behind Dave’s drumming and is definitely 1/3 of the reason the old Bad Plus was so good. He feels at home with odd time signatures and always has something creative to put down. He also wrote many of the tunes they performed, so he is talented in that realm as well.

Dave King seems like the leader. His drumming style is ferocious. He has a very loud banging jazz feel that is both old school and unconventional, perhaps a la Gene Krupa. He reminded me of Animal! He has some very cool techniques with his brushes and stick work. He was doing the coolest hits between the side rim and snare head and also using the top of this kick drum. Certainly stuff that other drummers would want to steal, not only because it sounded good, but because it was very cool looking! Style points for Dave. He could go full volume to pin drop in a beat (perhaps not as cleanly as Brian Blade) but still creating nice dynamic effects when needed. It was clear to me that his style is an essential part of what is the “Bad Plus” sound. A few of Dave’s tunes were showcased also–his cleverness and jazz head as a writer is very obvious and welcomed (from the drummer, for a change!)

While I was lukewarm on the new band arrangement, the music was refreshing and very jazzy. It was fun to listen to, not only for the rhythm section backing but the well written harmonic content. Very airy, dreamy, soundscape type of tunes with nice syncopated heads in places and nice chord and rhythm juxtapositions. There was so much that you could do with the chord structure—I enjoyed these compositions. They did a nice job changing up the rhythmic content throughout the set as well, so that kept everything sounding fresh. I’m not the most familiar with their material, I did jot down the setlist. They opened with “Motivations Too”, followed by “Anthem’s Earnest”. “Stigeon Pool”, a Reid Anderson tune was very cool and moody. “Sun Wall” and “Casa Ben” were on the new album (I think?) “You Are” and “Savages” were also nice joints. The closer, “French Horns” (which did not have any) was an interesting Afro-Celtic thing that was held down nicely by Dave King’s four on the floor kick drum. The entire set still had the old Bad Plus style from the perspective of the songs. So we had that going for us, which was nice!

Missy Lane seems to do short shows and this was no exception.  This show was probably 70 minutes total.  Not too bad, but certainly over quickly.  I could have used another two or three joints, but alas they did have another show to do that night.  While I’m still not jazzed on the Missy Lane venue (ha ha I’m so punny) I do have to say that sitting “reserved” (like an old jazz club) two rows off the stage is a much better experience than standing room only at the back of the hall.

As for the Bad Plus, I will listen out for them.  My feeling is that the band is not done doing its whole “Phoenix” thing and as such this will not be the final iteration.  At least I hope so.  I think getting another pianist (or keyboardist) into the mix would help accentuate Dave and Reid’s playing a little more than the current line up and bring back some of the old sound.  Also, with a skilled piano player, they really don’t need another player as the trio sound seems to really do them justice.  At least that’s my opinion.

Until next time, have a good time, all the time.