Posted by I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen The Bad Plus, but it’s a lot. And I tell you, if I was a fan of the band I would be over the moon with the Ottawa Jazz Fest because I’ll be darned if they don’t book the neo-jazz trio every frickin’ year. Given that I meticulously keep track of every show I see I suppose I could tell you how many times I’ve seen them but I shan’t bother looking it up. I feel like I’ve seen them…let’s say seven or eight times, and at least six of those would be at Ottawa Jazz Fest. Or maybe it’s only been three times but it feels like eight? Nah, couldn’t be.
It’s not that I dislike the band; if that were the case I doubt I would have bothered to see them eight or three times. But while I appreciate the musicality and the spirit of what they are doing, The Bad Plus has never grabbed me in any meaningful way so I remain not a fan. There was that one time that they spent their set playing a wacky arrangement of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring; that was pretty damn cool, but generally my ears treat the band as hi-calibre wallpaper music.
Now, before you accuse me of pooh-poohing the band too much allow me to point out that I was one of a very small crowd who took in their jazz fest appearance on June 28th, 2013. I’m sure this was a notable set for The Bad Plus as they were finally headlining the main stage, and on a Friday night no less, but from my perspective I was standing in an intermittent spitting rain that slowly watered down my flattening beers and lackadaisically waiting for something to happen.
That said, The Bad Plus are certainly entertaining enough that they elevate and bring focus to an outdoor summer beer-drinking social experience, even a soggy, rainy, sparsely attended one.
Fortunately there was much relief to be found afterwards in the late night tent. Not only was it sheltered from the rain but chill hip-hop duo/band The Herbaliser spent two hours subtly raising the roof with their trancy hypnotic grooveloops while I stood there swaying myself dry and doing my best to ensure that my beers didn’t flatten out.
(Wow. I looked it up after all and it looks like the real answer actually is three. I’ve seen The Bad Plus three times, all at Ottawa Jazz Fest. I think the real problem is that I always conflate The Bad Plus with Snarky Puppy, who i must have seen…oh, I don’t know…maybe six or seven times?)
Todd Man Out 