Bad Plus

The Bad Plus were formed in Minneapolis by pianist Ethan Iverson, bassist Reid Anderson and drummer Dave King. The Bad Plus (december 2000) mixes covers of Abba and Nirvana with original compositions, notably Anderson's Love Is the Answer.

These Are the Vistas (october 2002) made news for the covers of Nirvana, Blondie and Aphex Twin but the real highlight is Anderson's Silence Is The Question.

They covered The Pixies and Black Sabbath on Give (october 2003).

Anderson composed most of Suspicious Activity? (may 2005), notably Prehensile Dream, Lost of Love and Forces.

Prog (september 2006) contains covers of songs by Tears for Fears, David Bowie and Rush. but also Anderson's lengthy compositions The World is the Same, Physical Cities and Giant.

They added a vocalist (Wendy Lewis) on For All I Care (april 2008) which contains only covers.

Having greatly improved as composers, they devoted Never Stop (march 2010) solely to original compositions, notably Iverson's Bill Hickman at Home and several by Anderson You Are, People Like You, Snowball, etc).

Made Possible (november 2011) incorporated electronic keyboards and contains Anderson's 14-minute In Stitches.

They even recorded a version of Igor Stravinsky's classic The Rite of Spring (june 2013).

Inevitable Western (january 2014) contains King's Adopted Highway and Anderson's I Hear You and You Will Lose all Fear.

The Bad Plus Joshua Redman (2015), a collaboration with saxophonist Joshua Redman, contains a 13-minute version of Anderson's Silence Is the Question as well as new compositions such as Redman's Friend or Foe and Anderson's As This Moment Slips Away and Lack the Faith But Not the Wine.

It's Hard (april 2016) collects covers.

Iverson was replaced by pianist Orrin Evans for Never Stop II (september 2017), with King's 1983 Regional All-Star and Anderson's Hurricane Birds, and Activate Infinity (may 2019), with a new version of Anderson's Love Is the Answer.

In between, Reid Anderson and Dave King teamed up with pianist Craig Taborn to record Golden Valley Is Now (august 2018), credited to Golden Valley Is Now.

A new lineup debuted on their 15th album, The Bad Plus (september 2021). There was no keyboardist left, and instead two veterans were added to the rhythm section of bassist Reid Anderson and drummer Dave King: veteran guitarist Ben Monder and reed player Chris Speed, but the result is a lame poppy affair.

Complex Emotions (june 2023) was the first album without a pianist but with bassist Reid Anderson also on synthesizer.