The Bad Plus - These Are The Vistas

I haven't marshalled enough evidence to really make the argument but I feel that if some acoustic bands who are mixing jazz and rock/pop (The Bad Plus/Esbjorn Svensson) had rerecorded their albums using drum machines, electronic instruments etc they'd be being hailed as great innovators. As it is, in jazz terms they sometimes get dismissed as safe, watered down, not jazz, jazz for rock fans etc. Especially where the same critics are involved, I suspect there's a deal of hypocrisy in this. Either way, a lot of the music is very beautiful.

I've heard them compared to the Esbjorn Svensson Trio, tell me more about them?

Like TBP, bound to piss off some jazz purists, and also foax who think you can't like Cecil Taylor AND more accessible stuff.

Best albums are "Plays Monk" (the jazziest), "Winter In Venice" and "From Gagarin's Point of View". If you want to download a single track for a taster, I'd try the title track from "From Gagarin's Point of View". It's a little more composed through and electronically treated than most of their work and, ok, a LITTLE sugary, but a good illustration of Svensson's melodic (I don't think this is putting it too strongly) genius. I can't imagine any IDM fan who listens to this track with an open mind not liking it.

Also worth a mention - Bugge Wesseltoft's 'New Conceptions of Jazz' albs, esp. 'Sharing' 'cos it's got Nils Petter Molvaer on it, who is sort've the daddy of this stuff, and the new Dave Douglas, 'Freak In', is a semi-successful attempt to mix sampling/electronics w/ the sound/spirit of 'Bitches Brew'-era Miles.

As for the predictable covers, isn't the point to pick songs that everybody knows and wouldn't necessarily think to turn into vehicles for improvisation, a la Miles/Autumn Leaves for example? I think the familiar melodic material is important, and I like TBP's approach to 'new standards' a lot better than, say, Herbie Hancock.

(and seriously Nick, if you ever saw Dave King live, you would be converted, he's probably the most fun drummer to watch ever)

And after hearing the new EST alb far too many times at work, they can fuck off too.

On the other hand I do like, for example, Dave Douglas's extremely straight version of that Rufus Wainwright tune he did, but I wouldn't be interested in hearing a whole album of those kinds of treatments or doing it myself.

Besides, at least they aren't going to cover Radiohead.

Okay, I'm looking for a piece by Reid Anderson, their bassist, that the band plays live but doesn't seem to have commercially recorded called "People Like You".... can anyone help me out? I really really want a copy of this, it's very sweet and intense.

Also, saw them live for the fourth time last night; great show as per.

sorry for the late reply but I saw someone else was looking for the song "people like you" I found a live version at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122131922
it's my favorite unrecorded song of theirs right now.

dude, thanks! it's my fave too and i'm listening to it with my girl right now.

as dan pointed out in his ilx mail, people like you starts promptly at the 28 minute mark on that npr recording.

ooh they played this in london, thanks dan!

there are two concerts on youtube that seem to be professionally filmed, does anyone know where they come from? would love hq versions of those!

and because this is awesome: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=B6QM6DJ8

new record out, i'm excited to check it out even though i skipped the last one (which includes the song forks was looking for above).

Haven't really heard anything by them since Prog which was alright. Wasn't terribly excited about a vocal album.

the vocal record was pretty good (and half the tracks are instrumental arrangements of 20th century classical music), but they sounded amazing on that tour. it was a really memorable show, and i've seen them a bunch of times.

i never listened to Prog either.

ha, i arrived late and got made to sit outside a venue and wait on that tour

(well, that year. they weren't touring, they were supporting ... charlie haden? at one of ornette coleman's meltdown festival events.)

you dodged a bullet there (unless horrendously sterile piano trio jazz w/ gurning drumbo showoffery is yr 'bag'.) mind you, i didn't think charlie haden was all that, that night.

no, i would have thought that getting to see wyatt sing would have left me less unmoved. ornette, the next night, was enjoyable and odd, though.

i seem to recall that at one point he was onstage with a. the master musicians of jujouka b. flea, did i imagine this

People Like You starts at 28 minutes exactly on that NPR live recording. Still maybe my favorite track of theirs. Never seen them play a bad live show.

lol, i need to read my own damn posts.

forks, i mentioned it above but you know they did a studio recording of that song, right?

the new record is beautiful. highlights for me: the surprise epic synth riff at the end of "re-elect that", "for my eyes only" (really pretty), "wolf out" (odd-time banger), "in stitches" once it gets going (14 min track that feels much shorter).

you did Jordan; I'm grabbing it and the new album off spotify now.

gah we have to wait till 22nd oct here. idiots.

you dodged a bullet there (unless horrendously sterile piano trio jazz w/ gurning drumbo showoffery is yr 'bag'.)

soo offtm. they're really not very 'jazz', at all, 90% of the time it's songs and compositions with very little improvisation. the mechanical/sterility thing is one of best things about them. dave king is hardly a show off drummer, jesus christ, he barely plays half the time.

somehow don't think we're ever going to find much common ground on this one (tho i've never seen another drummer make such a meal of SHOWING us how minimally they're playing.) FWIW (not v much, truly), I went w/ to this show w/ three other ppl - one hardcore jazzer w/ fairly broad tastes, two lefty-punkers who attended lots of that year's meltdown gigs - and we all hated the bad plus, tho of course that cld just be group mind prejudice at work.

These tracks are pretty fine

http://music.duke.edu/news/2012/09/10/tbp-recordings

...before one of these composers sent this to me, I'd mentally filed away The Bad Plus as some sort late-90s Fun Lovin' G-Love Sugar Ray Criminal type band, based on their name.

thanks for that link. those descriptions of the pieces by the composers make me really glad not to be in grad school though.