The Bad Plus Farewell Tour
The Bad Plus has been a band for 26 years. That’s quite a long time! As we enter into year 27 — after a great deal of soul searching and consideration — we have decided to bring this chapter to a close. Twenty-twenty-six will be the final year of The Bad Plus. We share this news with heavy hearts, but also with great pride in what we have accomplished. 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.
We look forward to performing our final shows throughout the coming year and hope to see as many of you as possible. This band changed our lives. Thank you all for being a part of that.
With love and gratitude,
Reid and Dave
The Bad Plus are the ultimate originals. A democratic unit with a clear vision and a refusal to conform to convention. For the past two decades they have played with spirit and adventure, made their own rules and done so with a bold sense of creativity and intent. Avoiding easy categorization, The Bad Plus has won critical acclaim and a legion of fans worldwide with their unique sound and flair for live performance.
Now in their 25th year, The Bad Plus continues to push boundaries as founding members Reid Anderson (bass) and Dave King (drums) embark on a new piano-less incarnation of the band with Ben Monder (guitar) and Chris Speed (tenor saxophone) – instigating a new wave of excitement and anticipation within the band that is re-energizing their sound and inspiration. The Bad Plus have constantly searched to bridge genres and techniques while exploring the infinite possibilities of exceptional musicians working in perfect sync.
The Bad Plus released their 16th studio recording, Complex Emotions, via Mack Avenue on Friday, November 8th, 2024.
The release is the boundary-defying quartet’s second LP with its current lineup of founding members Reid Anderson (bass) and Dave King (drums) along with Ben Monder (guitars) and Chris Speed (saxophones).
“With this new album and this new batch of music, we’re planting a flag to say that this version of the band has really come into its own,” Anderson explains. “A big part of what the sound of this band is is the willingness to explore complex emotions. That’s something that we’re not only comfortable with but that we’ve embraced from the beginning of the band.”
The title comes from a phrase that Anderson and King have used since the early days of the band – a mission statement to describe the wide range of territory they’ve always explored. Just as calling its predecessor The Bad Plus made a statement about continuity in the midst of change, finally branding an album with this long-held mantra declares that the reconfigured group has discovered ways to delve deeper and venture further.
Somewhat paradoxically, Complex Emotions strikes out in stunning new directions, often sounding radically different than anything The Bad Plus has done before, while at the same time maintaining the band’s vital and unmistakable identity. Credit that to all four members’ instinctual attraction to song form, the compelling immediacy of their collective improvisations, and, yes, their willingness to drill down into the full gamut of emotional complexity. That the band can veer into so much unexplored terrain yet still emerge sounding like The Bad Plus on Complex Emotions is a testament to their finely crafted identity and insistence on constantly evolving.
Since their debut in 2000, The Bad Plus have pushed the boundaries of what jazz music could and should be. From their earliest days, their indelible compositions coexisted with an unconventional array of covers from outside of the strictly-policed jazz bubble: everything from Ornette Coleman to Black Sabbath to Aphex Twin, Cole Porter to the Pixies to Nirvana. Their eclecticism was often misinterpreted as snark, when in actuality it was a means to reach for expression unachievable through other avenues – something very much in keeping with the dauntlessness of the true jazz tradition. Their now-legendary 2003 LP These Are Vistas was named one of the 50 Most Important Recordings of the Decade by NPR’s All Songs Considered, and now on their 18th album, the band is still making music that is wild and unexpected, with a refusal to conform to convention.