The Bad Plus to Call It Quits in 2026 After 26 Years of Genre-Defying Jazz
For over 25 years, The Bad Plus has been forging its own path in jazz by bringing in rock and pop influences. Now, after three distinct lineups, they’re calling it a day.
Founding bassist Reid Anderson and drummer Dave King announced that 2026 will mark the end of the band.
“The Bad Plus has been a band for 26 years,” they share in a joint statement. “That’s quite a long time! As we enter into year 27 – after a great deal of soul searching and consideration – we have decided to bring this chapter to a close. 2026 will be the final year of The Bad Plus. We share this news with heavy hearts, but also with great pride in what we have accomplished. It has been a privilege to share our music with the world and we leave behind a body of work that we could not be more proud of. We look forward to performing our final shows throughout the coming year and hope to see as many of you as possible. This band changed our lives. Thank you all for being a part of that.”
The group will close out its legacy with tour dates featuring its current lineup of Anderson and King alongside guitarist Ben Monder and saxophonist Chris Speed. The schedule begins January 14th in St. Louis, Missouri, with a residency at Jazz St. Louis before hitting the Blue Note in Columbia, Missouri. They will appear at the Montreal Jazz Festival on June 26th. More dates will be announced soon.
Anderson and King will then join forces with pianist Craig Taborn and saxophonist Chris Potter for a special project celebrating Keith Jarrett’s American Quartet. That lineup will tour the U.S. and Europe throughout March and April.
The Bad Plus was formed in 2000 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The original lineup was a trio with pianist Ethan Iverson, and their creative renditions of rock songs like “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” gained them global recognition. Iverson departed in 2017 and was replaced by Orrin Evans. In 2022 they totally revamped the sound with the current instrumentation of bass, drums, sax, and guitar.
“It’s very hard to keep a band working. There’s a steep barrier to entry when you start out and don’t have any gigs,” Anderson told us in an interview at the time. “I understand why people need to take a tour or another gig or whatever. But the first thing is we believed we had something that was unique, and that was a place for us to be ourselves. Everybody got to be themselves. Everybody got to write their own music. Everybody got to play the way they play. That really set the foundation that’s enabled us to continue for these 20-plus years.”
Check out the band’s recent performance on KEXP, and be sure to catch The Bad Plus in their final year.
The Bad Plus Tour Dates 2026:
| Date | Location | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| January 14 | St. Louis, MO | Jazz St. Louis |
| January 15 | St. Louis, MO | Jazz St. Louis |
| January 16 | St. Louis, MO | Jazz St. Louis (Early Show) |
| January 16 | St. Louis, MO | Jazz St. Louis (Late Show) |
| January 17 | St. Louis, MO | Jazz St. Louis (Early Show) |
| January 17 | St. Louis, MO | Jazz St. Louis (Late Show) |
| January 18 | St. Louis, MO | Jazz St. Louis |
| January 21 | Columbia, MO | The Blue Note |
| June 26 | Montréal, QC | Montréal Jazz Festival at Théâtre Jean-Duceppe |
The Bad Plus Chris Potter and Craig Taborn – Tribute to Keith Jarrett’s American Quartet Tour 2026:
| Date | Location | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| March 3 | Lexington, KY | Singletary Concert Hall |
| March 5 | Toronto, ON | Meridian Arts Centre: George Weston Recital Hall |
| March 6 | Boulder, CO | Boulder Theater |
| March 7 | Oakland, CA | Yoshi’s |
| March 8 | Oakland, CA | Yoshi’s |
| March 10 | Los Angeles, CA | Blue Note LA (Early Show) |
| March 10 | Los Angeles, CA | Blue Note LA (Late Show) |
| March 11 | Los Angeles, CA | Blue Note LA (Early Show) |
| March 11 | Los Angeles, CA | Blue Note LA (Late Show) |
| March 12 | La Jolla, CA | The Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center |
| March 13 | Santa Fe, NM | The Lensic Performing Arts Center |
| March 21 | Bergamo, IT | Bergamo Jazz Festival at Auditorium Parco della Musica: Sala Sinopoli |
| March 23 | Roma, IT | Auditorium Parco della Musica |
| March 25 | Gdansk, PL | Jazzjantar |
| March 27 | Madrid, ES | Auditorio Nacional de Musica |
| March 28 | Paris, FR | Maison de la Radio et de la Musique - Studio 104 |
| March 29 | Monheim am Rhein, DE | Aula am Berliner Ring |
| March 30 | London, UK | Barbican |
| April 1 | Budapest, HU | Bartók Spring International Art Weeks @ RaM-ArT Színház |
| April 3 | Leuven, BE | 30CC Leuven |
| April 4 | Heidelberg, DE | Enjoy Jazz @ Kulturhaus Karlstorbahnhof |
| April 5 | Stuttgart, DE | Theaterhaus Jazztage |
| April 7 | Barcelona, ES | L’Auditori |
| April 8 | Cenon, FR | Le Rocher de Palmer |
| April 9 | Utrecht, NL | TivoliVredenburg |
| April 10 | Amsterdam, NL | Muziekgebouw |
| April 11 | Cully, CH | Cully Jazz Festival |
In his time with No Treble, Kevin has met hundreds of amazing bassists and interviewed icons like Jack Casady, Victor Wooten, Les Claypool, Marcus Miller, and more. He's a gigging bassist performing jazz in Northern Virginia and bluegrass with The Plate Scrapers up and down the East Coast. Kevin appreciates all genres of music, from R&B to metal and everything in between. Connect with Kevin on Facebook and check his performance schedule on his website.
