In 2019, the jazz group The Bad Plus, which originally formed in 2000, gave a very intimate performance in the KNKX studios.
The Bad Plus just announced their final tour as a band this year. But, in this 2019 visit to Seattle 18 years after their formation, they were keeping it together and welcoming a new pianist, Orrin Evans.
Prior to adding Evans, the Minneapolis-born trio, which highlighted pianist Ethan Iverson and his piano-driven, highly improvisational mix of jazz, classical and the avant-garde, had developed a devoted following. When Iverson decided to leave the group in 2017, Anderson thought his old friend from Philadelphia might be a good fit at the piano.
"We love Orrin, and we love his playing, and thought he'd just be the right guy. He was the only right guy, really, we didn't consider anybody else," Anderson said.
Drummer Dave King was thrilled with their new pianist. He called him a limitless, non-judgmental, creative musician rooted in all the different traditions of the music. Also, he's a nice guy.
"One minute, it could be a minimalist thing. One minute can be jazz-jazz. One minute it can be pointillist, avant-garde music. There's no agenda or filtering into one or the other. We're just playing music together," King said.
A few months before their KNKX appearance, the trio's first concert with Evans was a highly anticipated event recorded for NPR's Jazz Night in America. Fans wondered how different The Bad Plus would sound with the new member, and Evans knew the pressure was on.
"The first one was definitely an intimidating experience, because not only was it the first gig, it was the first gig recorded live," Evans said.
The Bad Plus had already recorded an album with Evans before that first concert together. It's called Never Stop II, a 2018 sequel in name to an album with the original trio.
King explained that they wanted to double down on that "never stop" proclamation as they moved forward, recording and performing live with their new bandmate.
"The record is, I think, humbly, a very, very strong document about the intuition that Reid initially had about bringing in Orrin and then me making that connection with Orrin right away," King said.
Following a second album with Evans, The Bad Plus made another major change. Piano was replaced by guitar and saxophone for a dramatically different sound. After two albums as a quartet and 27 years as The Bad Plus, Anderson and King are bringing this chapter of their musical lives to a close with a final tour in 2026.
Songs heard in this episode:
- "Hurricane Birds"
- "Boffadem"
- "Lean in the Archway"
