the bad plus

These guys, The Bad Plus, are a fairly new group, started in 2000. This is a video of a live performance of their first recorded song, a cover of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit." They're basically a jazz trio, but they're music sounds unlike any other jazz. Leaning more toward rock and roll, they perform their own renditions of works from pop musicians such as Black Sabbath, Aphex Twin, Bjork, and Blondie; but they also claim the influence of classical composers such as Stravinsky. As jazz musicians each member plays a role in composition as they adapt the songs of other musicians and in creating their own individual works. I first heard them after buying their CD, "These are the Vistas," out of curiosity; I was pleasantly surprised. I thought their stuff was pretty innovative, but I did not realize the complexity of the music until I saw this video. They're all musical badasses! It's rare to find musicians who sound better live than in the edited, produced tracks on the CD; these guys are on of the few who fall into that category. Now that you've watched the video of these three, check out the Nirvana version. The two are so different that they're almost incomparable, but it's fun to try. This is an unusually experimental version, but the best video I could find.

If you had fun with that, now compare these two. The first is the original version of "Flim" by Aphex Twin--Richard D. James who is revered as one of today's most influential electronic musicians. The second is a live recording of a performance of the same song as interpreted by the bad plus. I find the comparison between these two even more impressive, especially in the technicality of the drummer's virtuosic playing.