ENTERTAINMENT

Bad Plus: It's not a cover if it's appropriation

Chris Varias
Enquirer contributor
Bad Plus

The Bad Plus is a next-level cover band. Or they’re not really a cover band at all.

The leaderless jazz trio made a splash in 2003 with its first Columbia Records album, which included a go at Nirvana’s “Smells Like Team Spirit.” It was deemed something of a novelty at the time, even though pop compositions have been fodder for jazz players for as long as there has been jazz music.

“I think there must have been something about how we appropriate rock, it was a very convincing appropriation,” says Bad Plus pianist Ethan Iverson.  “When jazz guys play rock songs, sometimes they’ll just jazz it up. This has been happening in jazz for decades. There are even some Beatles songs on some ‘60s Blue Note albums by Stanley Turrentine and so forth. When The Bad Plus came on with a couple of our tunes, I think there must have been something kind  of serious about the rock side, which I think made it either more scandalous or innovative.”

The band recently released another collection of covers titled “It’s Hard.” That name is a “cover,” too, taken from the 1982 album by the Who.

“It’s a great title then, and it’s a great title now,” Iverson affirms.

“It’s Hard” includes nods to Prince, one of many musical giants who’ve died this year, and to Ornette Coleman, the iconic free-jazz figure who passed away in 2015. The Prince connection runs through Minnesota; Iverson’s bandmates Reid Anderson (bass) and Dave King (drums) are from Minneapolis. King chose Prince’s “The Beautiful Ones,” and The Bad Plus cut it before Prince died.

“Dave lives in Minneapolis. I wouldn’t say he knew Prince, exactly, but he met him over the years. Prince is the linchpin of a whole musical scene there. It’s really a blow to the Minneapolis scene that he passed away. It was paying our dues. Dave loves Prince’s music. We all do in the band,” Iverson says.

Their version of Coleman’s “Broken Shadows” was recorded after he died. A tribute was in order, considering the influence he had on The Bad Plus. The band has a side project, with horns added, in which they play Coleman’s music.

“Ornette was elderly and had been sort of sick for a little while,” Iverson explains. “We all sort of knew that one was coming. However, it’s telling that he actually outlived all of his great contemporaries, many of whom we all knew. We knew Dewey Redman. We knew Charlie Haden. There was Billy Higgins. There was Ed Blackwell. This whole sort of scene – Don Cherry. Coleman was the originator, the innovator.”

Then Iverson dropped in a little nugget: “We all met him, and I went to his apartment a couple times back in the day.”

We couldn’t let that one pass without amplification.

“I don’t mean to be too casual, but Ornette Coleman’s door was always open to other musicians, so if you were willing to go over there, or call maybe in advance, and show up, he would talk with you and play with you,” he says. “I got to play with him a little bit there, and it was a great learning experience for sure, but I have to say relatively commonplace for New York jazz musicians.”

What isn’t common for The Bad Plus is this date at Xavier.

“I believe we’ve been on the road for 16 years, but I believe this is the first time we are playing Cincinnati proper,” Iverson says, “So it’s a real thrill.”

If you go

What: The Bad Plus with JD Allen Trio

When: 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 9

Where: Gallagher Theater, Xavier University, 3800 Victory Parkway, Evanston; 513-745-3939

Tickets: $25-$28