Clifford Benjamin Brown was an American jazz trumpeter, pianist and composer. He died at the age of 25 in a car crash, leaving behind four years' worth of recordings. His compositions "Sandu", "Joy Spring", and "Daahoud" have become jazz standards. Brown won the DownBeat magazine Critics' Poll for New Star of the Year in 1954; he was inducted into the DownBeat Hall of Fame in 1972.
Silje Nergaard is a Norwegian jazz vocalist and songwriter. She is one of the best-selling jazz artists on the official sales chart in Norway. She became known worldwide after the release of the international bestseller Tell Me Where You're Going featuring Pat Metheny on guitar.
Wilbur James "Jimmy" Cobb was an American jazz drummer. He was part of Miles Davis's First Great Sextet. At the time of his death, he had been the Sextet's last surviving member for nearly thirty years. He was awarded an NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship in 2009.
David King is an American drummer from Minneapolis. He is known for being a founding member of the jazz groups The Bad Plus and Happy Apple. King is also active in many other projects including free jazz collective Buffalo Collision with NYC "downtown" musicians Tim Berne and Hank Roberts and the electronic art/pop group Halloween, Alaska. He is also a member of the noise/prog band The Gang Font with former Hüsker Dü bassist Greg Norton. He also has a jazz quintet called Dave King Trucking Company.
Suspicious Activity? is the fourth studio album by the American jazz band The Bad Plus. The band had previously garnered attention for covering well-known rock songs in an "acoustic power trio" style, but Suspicious Activity? includes only one cover version: the theme to the 1981 movie Chariots of Fire. Instead, the album focuses on the band's original music, including the track "O.G. ," which is a tribute to the legendary jazz drummer Elvin Jones.
These Are the Vistas was the second studio album released by the jazz trio The Bad Plus, and the band's first album for a major label. The album was the listening public's first widespread opportunity to hear the band, which Jim Fusilli of the Wall Street Journal called a "jazz power trio with a rock-and-roll heart." The album features several cover songs: Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit," Blondie's "Heart of Glass," and Aphex Twin's "Flim". In November 2009, NPR's All Songs Considered selected the album as one of the 50 "most important" recordings of the decade.
Reid Anderson is a bassist and composer from Minnesota. He is a member of The Bad Plus with drummer Dave King, pianist Ethan Iverson, saxophonist Chris Speed, and guitarist Ben Monder. The original lineup of The Bad Plus first played together in 1989 and formally established the band in 2000. Anderson attended the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music.
Ethan Iverson is a pianist, composer, and critic best known for his work in the avant-garde jazz trio The Bad Plus with bassist Reid Anderson and drummer Dave King.
A jazz trio is a group of three jazz musicians, often a piano trio comprising a pianist, a double bass player and a drummer. Jazz trios are commonly named after their leader, such as the Bill Evans Trio.
Orrin Evans is an American jazz pianist. Evans was born in Trenton, New Jersey and raised in Philadelphia. He attended Rutgers University, and then studied with Kenny Barron. He worked as a sideman for Bobby Watson, Ralph Peterson, Duane Eubanks, and Lenora Zenzalai-Helm, and released his debut as a leader in 1994. He signed with Criss Cross Jazz in 1997, recording prolifically with the label. He was awarded a 2010 Pew Fellowships in the Arts.
For All I Care is a studio album by American jazz trio The Bad Plus with Wendy Lewis on vocals. The album was released in Europe on October 20, 2008, by EmArcy and in the U.S. on February 3, 2009, by Heads Up. This is the first Bad Plus album to include a vocalist, as well as the first to feature no original songs. Although the Bad Plus are known for playing cover versions of rock songs, this is their first album with nothing but cover songs, including a few 20th-century classical pieces. David King explained to Star Tribune that the main inspiration for the record was the seminal 1963 album John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman. As he mentioned, "The band still played like it was the John Coltrane Quartet, with or without Hartman. That's what we really aimed for."
Never Stop is the seventh studio album by American jazz trio The Bad Plus, released on September 14, 2010 by E1 Music label. This album is the first by the band to consist entirely of original compositions. The album consists of 10 original tracks written by bandmembers. A follow-up originals-only album, Never Stop II, was released in 2018.
Jorge "Jordi" Rossy is a spanish jazz drummer, pianist and vibraphonist.
Bill McHenry is an American jazz saxophonist and composer. He is the leader of the Bill McHenry Quartet and has released over a dozen albums under his own name, in addition to collaborating on many more.
The Rite of Spring is a 2014 studio album by American jazz trio The Bad Plus. It is the group's ninth studio album. It is an interpretation of the Igor Stravinsky orchestral composition.
Inevitable Western is a 2014 album by jazz trio The Bad Plus. It is the group's tenth studio album and it only contains original compositions. The rear CD insert features a photo of "Big Tex", the marketing icon of the State Fair of Texas.
The Bad Plus Joshua Redman is a 2015 album by jazz trio The Bad Plus and saxophonist Joshua Redman. The album was generally positively received, achieving a Metacritic score of 84%.
It's Hard is a 2016 studio album by American jazz trio The Bad Plus released by Okeh Records label. It is the group's twelfth studio album, and contains only covers. Allmusic selected it as one of their Favorite Jazz Albums of 2016.
Never Stop II is the thirteenth studio album by American jazz trio The Bad Plus, released on January 19, 2018 by Legbreaker Records label.
Activate Infinity is an album by American jazz trio The Bad Plus that was released by Edition on October 25, 2019. The album contains eight original compositions written by band members.
