Found a most interesting piece of news yesterday on the NPR music site which informs us that the Bad Plus, the American jazz trio with the repertoire of astonishing variety, has taken on a commission to rework Stravinsky's watershed, modernist masterpiece, The Rite of Spring, for their instrumentation and style. You can read more about the project and hear both a sample and an interview here: http://www.npr.org/2011/03/20/134666157/the-bad-plus-tackle-stravinskys-spring. Judging from the clip, it's going to be a tremendous recording when it's completed, and I hope they tour it, too - that would be amazing. During the interview, they call the Rite "the Monster", which is a fair description, both in terms of its technical content and cultural importance. The 2009 film, Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky, got mixed reviews, and I would concur, but the opening scenes which portray the events surrounding the ballet's Paris premiere are terrific. Imagine a time when an orchestral work (along with Nijinsky's choreography) could bring in the riot police; those were the days. The music, though, still sounds both challenging and awesomely beautiful. Here's a link to the Joffrey Ballet's recreation of the original: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjX3oAwv_Fs.

The title track from the Bad Plus' most recent release, Never Stop (2010), is a blast. A composition by their bassist Reid Anderson, it was originally written for a fashion show that the band was commissioned to score, and you can hear how its rhythms might have been inspired by imagined parades of models. The tune is straightforward in one way, but it's kind of tricky in another, because the beat gets turned around several times via the use of asymmetrical figures. Of course, this device is one of the secret weapons of Radiohead, a band that the Bad Plus have covered several times during their fascinating career, and it's not impossible that they picked up the idea as a result. But maybe not, because they have done tunes by a few other artists as well. In fact, I wonder if there's ever been a band that have covered such an eclectic list of sources, which includes Black Sabbath, Queen, Yes, The Pixies, Neil Young, Nirvana, Roger Miller, Blondie, Led Zeppelin, Heart, Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Ornette Coleman, Rush, David Bowie, Wilco, Pink Floyd, the Bee Gees, The Flaming Lips, and several others. It's quite amazing, really. Oh, and I didn't even mention the classical composers that they've covered - Stravinksy, Babbitt, Ligeti among them. But perhaps the most astonishing thing about the group is the fact that their most compelling music is found in their original compositions, which are contributed by all three members. We're talking about a great group here. Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfSEVk8f2Co

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.

A short note today to tell you what I'll be posting on in the next little bit. I haven't written much about punk, particularly the American variety - so upcoming will be some thoughts on the MC5, The Velvet Underground, The Ramones, The Replacements, and perhaps more. Tonight, I'll be going to see The Bad Plus, who could perhaps be categorized as jazz-punk. (If I ever meet one of them, I'll try to get their OK for this.) Obviously, their virtuosity precludes them from being considered as real punkers - Paul Robinson, singer of The Diodes, once told me that for him a punk band has to learn to play together - but their confrontational, anti-style attitude puts them in the honourary category, for me anyway. Also, they've covered songs by The Pixies, Blondie, Nirvana, Wilco... I'll be writing about their new album, Never Stop, and tonight's concert in the days ahead, as well. (Suggested listening: "Physical Cities", "Everywhere You Turn")

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.