The Bad Plus

An acclaimed, genre-bending jazz trio, the Bad Plus play a maverick combination of originals and covers that blur the line between post-bop jazz and instrumental rock. Formed in 1989, their self-titled 2001 debut included reinventions of pop songs by ABBA and Nirvana. While that feat followed them through press clippings over the years, the band continually sought to redefine jazz piano as a work in progress. On 2007's Prog, they juxtaposed jazz with classical music and pop, while 2008's For All I Care was comprised entirely of covers performed with vocalist Wendy Lewis. In 2014, they recorded a note-for-note piano trio version of Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, and in 2019, with pianist Orrin Evans, they delivered Activate Infinity. After his departure in 2021, they recorded The Bad Plus as a pianoless quartet with guitarist Ben Monder and saxophonist Chris Speed. That quartet toured the U.S. and European festivals. They signed with Mack Avenue for 2024's Complex Emotions.