The Bad Plus has earned a loyal following in and out of jazz circles for their compelling music that has kept evolving over the past quarter century. Complex Emotions, the band’s second album as a quartet, continues the journey into new textures of daring modern jazz, bending corners around influences as varied as classical and rock.
Co-founders Reid Anderson (bass) and Dave King (drums) have seen The Bad Plus move from a piano trio that gained attention for covering songs by Led Zeppelin and Nirvana, then focusing on striking originals over 14 albums with pianist Ethan Iverson.
Among those, the trio grew their sonic character by adding saxophonist Joshua Redman and singer Wendy Lewis for an album each.
In 2017, pianist Orrin Evans replaced Iverson and The Bad Plus shifted over their next two albums to incorporate their new bandmate’s soulful, East Coast jazz background.
Evans left the band amicably in 2021, and the Bad Plus practiced addition by subtraction, then addition again. They eliminated the piano, expanding their sound with guitarist Ben Monder and saxophonist Chris Speed.
The Seattle-native Speed has played with King’s own band for several years, recording four albums with King as a member of the Chris Speed Trio.
Monder is a well-established New York musician whose adaptability has taken him from organist Jack McDuff’s band to David Bowie’s final album and a number of adventurous and improvisational projects, including an album with Reid Anderson.
Both musicians possess strong, direct tones and fluid improvisational skills, which are talents required to collaborate with Anderson and King.
The Bad Plus, though, has always emphasized the personal styles particular to each musician. Speaking to the band’s ethos, Reid Anderson explained, “We create a space where everybody gets to be themselves.”
When these impressive talents come together on Complex Emotions, complexity is a given. The emotions they put into and draw out of each song is where the magic happens.
Anderson’s “Grid/Ocean” opens the album with gentle drumming from King and a solid but searching bass line that’s become a calling card. Monder and Speed play the melody in unison before the guitar opens up hopefully in the song’s slightly somber setting.
“Casa Ben” by King has a similarly familiar relaxed bass and drum tandem. Speed offers the melody on his tenor sax while Monder underpins the song with tasteful chords.
Sax and guitar share the theme of Anderson’s clever “French Horns,” a slightly-off-kilter melody driven by insistent rhythms from the bass and drums. Both Speed and Monder launch into solos driven more by emotion than the complex tune, as the quartet closes with a flourish.
“Cupcakes One” continues the clever song title wordplay The Bad Plus is known for while contributing perhaps the album’s strongest moment. The Anderson-King rhythm section lays down a head-bobbing tempo, with the Speed-Monder tandem sharing the song’s central theme before launching into fiery individual solo statements.
The Bad Plus has always been more than the sum of its parts. This second collection from the quartet version is another example of a band whose sound is always changing. As it happens, that evolution is the true sound of this unique band.
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