The Bad Plus blow up a storm at Ronnie Scott’s

Back in the year 2000, The Bad Plus was originally founded as a trio consisting of pianist Ethan Iverson, double bassist Reid Anderson, and drummer Dave King. Since Iverson left the trio in 2017, the group has, after a period of flux, morphed into a pianoless quartet now featuring new members Ben Monder on electric guitar and Chris Speed on tenor saxophone. Showcasing their new-look lineup and fresh sound live at Ronnie Scott’s, the group demonstrated real creative freedom and artistic courage at boundaries of avant-garde jazz, rock, pop, and noise music.

The band performed a number of tunes that harked back to earlier days as a trio, including ‘Everywhere You Turn’ (These Are The Vistas, 2003) and ‘Giant’ (Prog, 2007). Even with the new bandmembers, Anderson’s powerful basslines and King’s crisp drumming provided recognisable continuities with the past. The addition of Monder’s crunchy distorted guitar and Speed’s adventurous sax has only heightened the grunge-rock fusion influences that has been an important dimension of the band’s sound since its inception.

These older compositions were interspersed with newer originals from their latest album The Bad Plus (2022), including the sardonically named ‘Not Even Close to Being Far Off’ and ‘You Won’t See Me Before I Come Back’. These compositions were built around repeated driving basslines, chorus-drenched guitar chords, and winding sax melodies, and throughout the group explored the atmospheric, soundscape side of jazz composition. Anderson even stepped away from his bass at one point to play synths, adding a thick-textured swirling drone as a backdrop to Speed’s improvisations.

The group will be releasing their next album sometime next year, and they gave the audience an early preview of some new compositions such as ‘Tyrone’s Flamingo’ and ‘Deep Water Sharks’. Featuring twisting, cerebral melodies, these tunes signalled exciting new directions for a band who feel like they are finally beginning to settle once again after an extended period of transformation.