As time moves along, we notice that many rock bands have integrated a larger number of influences than in years past. Top of the list, of course, is Radiohead who have managed to bring together jazz concepts from Dixieland to Miles Davis, advanced composition and orchestration techniques from modern classical music, electronic influences, and of course rock and roll, particularly via punk. (I don't know if it is common knowledge how much Thom Yorke is indebted to Johnny Rotten in terms of singing style. Check out "Bodysnatchers" or "Electioneering", if you don't believe me.) I'll be writing about them much more in posts ahead, but today's topic is a jazz trio who have, unbelievably, virtually the same diversity of taste as Radiohead. The Bad Plus, an acoustic jazz piano trio from Minneapolis, have done cover versions from every style mentioned above - and more, in fact. They've covered songs by The Pixies, Nirvana, Queen, Heart, David Bowie, The Bee Gees, Stravinsky, Aphex Twin, Ornette Coleman, Black Sabbath, and Roger Miller among many others. Their most recent release, the splendidly titled For All I Care (2009), is an album entirely comprised of covers. It is also their only recording to feature a vocalist: Wendy Lewis, also from Minneapolis, who fulfills her duties brilliantly. Their previous albums were mostly made up of originals - all three members, Ethan Iverson on piano, Dave King on drums, and the bassist Reid Anderson make compositional contributions - but the cover versions got a large portion of the attention. And it wasn't always positive: Many critics felt that they were poking fun at the originals and that they were indulging in a sort of musical irony. The band disagreed, and hence the album (and title) mentioned above. My opinion? There is some humour in their work, but the effort that they put into their versions says it all. They wouldn't spend all that time (doing a jazz cover is an arduous process, particularly with the attention to detail of this group) if they didn't respect the material and its sources. We can look forward to a new album, to be called Never Stop and consisting entirely of originals, in September.