Bad Plus These Are The Vistas CD

Band Is:Reid Anderson,Ethan Iverson,David King.

The Bad Plus: Ethan Iverson (piano); Reid Anderson (bass); Dave King (drums).
Recorded at Real World Studios, Wiltshire, England.
Personnel: Ethan Iverson (piano); David King (drums).
Audio Mixer: Tchad Blake.
Recording information: Real World Studios, Box, Wiltshire, England (09/30/2002-10/05/2002).
Photographers: Chris Floyd ; Tchad Blake.
Whether or not pianist Ethan Iverson is literally using it, all of the Bad Plus' These Are The Vistas sounds as if it was recorded with the sustain pedal of the piano depressed. It's actually probably mostly the fault of producer Tchad Blake (Soul Coughing, Cibo Matto, Los Lobos), who applies his incredible treatments throughout the album, shining through especially in his work on David King's chaotic drums. Nonetheless, the Bad Plus sound as if they are in a cavernous space. The band rolls out the now-requisite jazz covers of pop tunes (in this case, Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit," Blondie's "Heart of Glass," and Aphex Twin's "Flim"), but it is their attitude (the very fact that they hired Blake to begin with, for example) that carries them the distance. The band itself is quite compelling. Iverson is a complex piano player. His skills come to bear on the abstract epic "Silence Is The Question," which closes the album, as his spidery piano lines melt into chaotic statements, left hand meeting subtly with bassist Reid Anderson, right hand meeting crazily with King. What is impressive is that the trio manages to sound contemporary using only piano, bass, and drums, and without resorting to electronic gimmicks. Whether or not the band is reinventing jazz is irrelevant. These Are The Vistas is good, interesting music. ~ Jesse Jarnow
The Bad Plus threw a lightning bolt at the music scene in 2003 with its major-label debut THESE ARE THE VISTAS, a "jazz" record that rocked hard. GIVE offers more of the same, a potent combination of technical virtuosity and free-jazz adventurousness filtered through a rock sensibility. The group wastes little time in dispelling the notion that it's your run-of-the-mill piano trio, laying out its modus operandi in opening track "1979 Semi-Finalist." Drummer David King pounds a driving backbeat behind Reid Anderson's powerhouse bass while Ethan Iverson coolly rides the waves with graceful pianism.
Iverson moves easily from elegant lyricism ("Frog and Toad") to two-fisted sonic assaults ("Dirty Blonde"). King is the jazz equivalent of Keith Moon, playing with an abandon and intensity that always seems perilously close to crashing out of control. Anderson is a rock-solid anchor but shows he can stretch out, most notably on Ornette Coleman's "Street Woman." Once again, the band looks well beyond the world of jazz for some interesting repertoire choices, this time covering the Pixies' "Velouria" and Black Sabbath's "Iron Man." With GIVE, The Bad Plus again proves that defying conventions can produce artistically satisfying results.

Rolling Stone (12/25/03, p.104) - Included in Rolling Stone's "50 Best Albums of 2003"
Rolling Stone (3/20/03, p.67) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Bad to the bone, hot players with hard-rock hearts..."
Entertainment Weekly (5/2/03, p.71) - "...A piano-bass-drums power trio who's forged a fairly traditionalist jazz sound any rocker could recognize as spiritually akin. Think Vince Guaraldi at CBGB..." - Rating: A-