The Bad Plus and Marc Ribot
On February 25, 2023, the Crystal Ballroom in Boston hosted the renowned New York jazz legend, Marc Ribot, and the Minneapolis Avant jazz Quartet, The Bad Plus. For a town known for its thriving music scene, many universities and prestigious music schools, it's baffling how small and elusive the jazz scene in Boston is. When major Jazz acts like Marc Ribot and the Bad Plus come to town it's an event, and that was certainly the case Saturday night at the Crystal Ballroom. Even with temperatures dropping to the low single digits, Jazz fans braved the elements and lined up early to see Ribot and his Jazz-Bins trio and the latest version of the avant jazz band The Bad Plus.
The Crystal Ballroom has a long history that dates back to the early 1990s. While other small music venues have struggled due to Covid, and some permanently shutting their doors, the Crystal Ballroom surprisingly reopened in the fall of 2021 in its original location, on top of the Somerville movie theater.
The newly renovated Ballroom with a standing capacity of about 500 retains much of its old charm while maintaining an intimate and contemporary, speakeasy vibe. In many ways it’s an ideal venue for the spirited yet sophisticated jazz of Ribot and The Bad Plus.
The pairing of Ribot with The Bad Plus makes for an interesting double bill. Both have logical crossover appeal, attracting jazz and rock fans alike. Ribot has worked with an impressive list of rock musicians including Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, The Black Keys and Robert Plant, while The Bad Plus have gone out of their way to cover a wide variety of rock and pop songs. In 2016 the band released "It's Hard”, an album pf cover songs by everyone from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Prince to Johnny Cash, Peter Gabriel and Crowded House.
In addition to their rock and roll affiliations, both Ribot and The Bad Plus have played with some of the most adventurous and notable jazz musicians of our time. However. despite their shared affinity for rock and roll, the evening was a stark contrast in styles that illuminated the difference in how each artist approaches their craft.
The Ballroom was filled to capacity by the time Ribot took the stage at a little after 8:00 pm. On this current tour Ribot is playing with longtime associate Chad Taylor on drums and NYC B-3 organist Greg Lewis. It's no stretch for Ribot to play with a funky organ trio as he got his start with Hammond B-3 legend Captain Jack McDuff. Hunched over his guitar most of the evening, Ribot conducted his bandmates through an impassioned set of covers that were in equal parts melodic, funky, sharply aggressive, raucous, soulful and sweet. Ribot was singularly focused on his guitar, only lifting his head occasionally to motion to his bandmates or flash them a quick knowing smile.
Working off a chicken scratched, handwritten set list that included "Ain't it funky", "Drum and Bass", "Aftershower Funk" and the fast and funky "Grandstand" Ribot delivered traditional jazz lines, softly playing beautiful jazz melodies while also at other times aggressively attacking his instrument as if to coax as much sound from it as he could. On“Drum and Bass” Ribot soloed abrasive guitar leads with fire and fury. Immediately after he played soft jazz chords behind Lewis' soulful organ on "Aftershower Funk" .
Under Ribot’s direction the trio played a joyous mix of material with passion, urgency and soul. The set ended with a traditional version of "Twisted”, Taylor playing a slow and moody beat with mallet drum sticks, while Ribot and Lewis layered down a slow and smoldering slow groove.
The band's performance was electric and full of passion and energy whether playing fast or slow and when it was over, there was no doubt Ribot had brought something fresh, new and exciting.
After a short intermission The Bad Plus took the stage and began a set that consisted mostly of songs from their most recent, self titles album. The change in mood and sound was striking.
The Bad Plus from Minnesota was founded as a trio in 2000 by Ethan Iverson, Reid Anderson and David King. After several the exit of Iverson and several personnel changes, the band reinvented itself as a quartet in 2021, adding saxophonist Chris Speed and guitarist Ben Monder.
One of the defining characteristics of The Bad Plus has been their use of cover songs from other popular bands including Nirvana, Pink Floyd, and Aphex Twin, often completely transforming the original composition into a new and fresh sound that is entirely their own. The band has been able to seamlessly blend the covers into their original compositions, creating a cohesive and unique sound that has set them apart from other jazz bands and contributed to their popularity. Their second album “These Are the Vistas,” released in 2003, which included covers of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and Blondie’s “Heart of Glass” was named the number one jazz album of the year by The New York Times.
With the addition of Monder and Speen the band has more flexibility to explore a greater variety of sounds but the basic approach hasn’t changed much. Anderson and King are clearly the leaders, handling most of the song writing responsibilities. Anderson acted as MC during Saturday's performance and King's frenetic drumming is an obvious driving force behind the band. King's frenetic drumming never let up during the entire evening and his drumming is a focal point of much of the band's live show.
Together, Anderson and King make a powerful rhythm section, and you would think that with the addition of Monder on electric guitar the band would be able lean harder into rock and further explore an even wider terrain of music and improvisation, but The Bad Plus 3.0 remains more chamber jazz than avant-garde.
Most of the material played during the 60 plus minute set included traditional song structure with evocative melodies. Although there were plenty of off-kilter and some more progressive passages, like the cacophonous guitar solo during "Sick Fire", these moments seemed more intentional and calculated than an expression of the true nature and spirit of the band. "You won't see me before I come back", which followed "Sick Fire" had a modern, warm and lyrical sound made popular in the mid 80s by the EMC jazz label.
Although the band is known for irregular time signatures and polyrhythmic patterns, things never reached the level of
unpredictability and tension that Ribot was able to achieve during his set. Fans who came to see reinvented rock music or explosive experimental jazz may have been disappointed by the new version of The Bad Plus. However, the band continues to experiment but now with even more focus on structure, melodic hooks and catchy themes.
There was hope that Ribot would join The Bad Plus during their set, but it was not to be and after the band played their final encore, took their bows and left the stage, fans were left wondering what could have been.
We can only hope with the addition of the Crystal Ballroom to Boston's thriving music scene there will be many more opportunities to see more jazz and exciting and innovative musicians like Marc Ribot, Reid Anderson, Dave King and The Bad Plus.
