Few bands in the jazz world have had the impact of The Bad Plus. The ensemble has changed formats over the years, but they’ve maintained a stronger collective identity and staying power than most. However, all good things must come to an end.
Bassist Reid Anderson and drummer Dave King, who have been the core members for the band’s whole run, have announced that 2026 will be the group’s final year.
“We share this news with heavy hearts, but also with great pride in what we have accomplished,” they wrote in a press release. “It has been a privilege to share our music with the world and we leave behind a body of work that we could not be more proud of.”
The Bad Plus began in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 2000 with Anderson, King, and pianist Ethan Iverson. They caught attention early on with incredible covers of pop and rock songs like Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” and David Bowie’s “Life on Mars.”
Watch how they turned the classic rock song into a sonic painting with improvisation and imaginative textures:
While they are some of the best improvisers in the world, they are ultimately focused on the song. In 2010, they proved it with their first album of all-original songs, “Never Stop.” The title track is a perfect window into the band’s genius: It doesn’t need complex, extended chords or flurries of 16th notes to get your attention.
Instead of technical prowess, they capture the listener with accessible elements arranged in unexpected ways.
Anderson originally wrote the song for fashion shows. In an interview with NPR, he described it as a “very direct piece of pop candy” that’s referential to “techno, almost cliched fashion show music.” However, it is still imbued with The Bad Plus’s harmonic and melodic language.
“The structure, the phrasing is not something that you would find in that kind of music,” he said. “There’s something there that’s familiar, yet unfamiliar if you look at it in terms of the reference that it’s making. That’s something that we like, that kind of complex relationship.”
“Never Stop” blossoms over three and a half minutes with two sections, just like a pop or rock form. Instead of open vamps for free improvisation, the song is through-composed, meaning all the parts are to be played as written.
The melody boils down to mostly single-note lines, syncopated to create a hypnotic groove over the steady quarter-note pulse delivered by the bass and drum kit. The first section, which acts as a kind of “verse,” begins with two 5/4 bars before slipping into 4/4. Written in G minor, the harmonic structure sticks to mostly the I, iv, and v chords – Gmin, Cmin, and Dmin – which Iverson plays in root position triads.
The Bad Plus are not a traditional jazz outfit, but by incorporating popular melodic and harmonic language with jazz instrumentation, they’ve brought a whole generation of listeners closer to the genre.
Check out the original trio’s performance of “Never Stop” from the Dakota Jazz Club and follow along with the sheet music by Klutzeh.
