I got to see The Bad Plus at L'Astral last night (the early show) and they were brilliant. They did several songs from their new album - which I picked up yesterday and will be writing about soon - including the album closer, "Super America", which lives up to its title in both wit and wisdom; "My Friend Metatron", which is also by their incandescent drummer, Dave King; and the title track, "Never Stop", by their anchoring bassist, Reid Anderson. Another highlight was the ultra-sophisticated pianist Ethan Iverson's "Guilty" (from 2003's These Are the Vistas), an exploration of the blues, on which he displayed his wide-ranging skills and influences - they opened with a Stravinsky piece ("Variation d'Apollon") and made it swing, for example. (By the way, I highly recommend Iverson's blog; it's called Do The Math - here's the link: http://dothemath.typepad.com/ .) And they saved the best for last: the encore began with "Flim", a beautiful cover of a song by the electronic group Aphex Twin, and was followed by a version of the standard "Have You Met Miss Jones?" that I'm still processing. It's hard to believe what they did with it. I'll try to describe it as follows: they moved, with a logic that's beyond my comprehension, from a medium swing tempo to an ultra-fast one (at least 320 beats per minute) and back down, and then back up, etc. It was like a funhouse mirror show (or whatever those things are called) for the ears. I know two things: I can't really describe it, and I'll never forget it. To hear something comparable in effect, listen to their version of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" from For All I Care (2009), which features Wendy Lewis on lead vocal with a great harmony vocal from Reid Anderson. Other suggested listening: everything else by The Bad Plus.