The Bad Plus Release “Made Possible”

by Kevin Johnson Friday, September 28th, 2012

The Bad Plus have released their eighth studio album, Made Possible, on the Entertainment One Music label. The effort may mark a new era for the band as they chose to include electronic percussion and synthesizers, which is a first for their traditionally acoustic sonic palette. The new layer was brought in mostly by bassist Reid Anderson, who played synthesizer for the tracks.

“It’s something I’ve been passionate about for a long time,” the bassist told Brian Howe of Duke University’s The Thread. “A lot of my personal time away from the band is spent on electronic music. It’s just something we felt like it would be interesting to try and bring into the band. It’s not done in a really overt way; we didn’t make an electronic music record. But it’s sort of orchestrated by these various sound elements.”

Though piano/bass/drums trio gained notoriety by covering popular songs with a jazz inflection, the new CD showcases their original compositions, similar to 2010’s Never Stop. The only exception is a rendition of Paul Motian’s “Victoria.” Motian, who passed away earlier this year, had a large influence on The Bad Plus.

“His playing alone really changed the way we thought about music,” Anderson stated. “Starting from his time with Keith Jarrett and then through his own music, especially his trio with Joe Lavano and Bill Frisell, he had a really big impact on us. He’s also somebody we got to know a little bit and played with some in recent years. He was sick in the hospital during the making of the record and passed shortly, so he was on our minds and we wanted to make a tribute to him.”