CD: For All I Care
Artist: The Bad Plus
Label: Heads Up


Reviewed by Kevin Wilson,
Host of nightcap

Listen to samples from For All I Care:
(In order to listen you must have Windows Media Player. To install the latest player, click here.)

Comfortably Numb
Lithium
How Deep Is Your Love

When acoustic bassist Reid Anderson opens up "Barracuda" on his acoustic bass, you may momentarily compare his nimble-fingered version of its well-known signature riff to the chugging guitar of Heart's original. But not for long. When The Bad Plus move into your tune, the trio leave the superstructure standing but redecorate with gusto... and chutzpah. Anderson, Ethan Iverson (piano) and Dave King (drums) turn the rock chestnut into a swirling, time-bending maelstrom.

Likewise, when you hear The Plus's alternately heartfelt and bittersweet version of "How Deep is Your Love," only a distant echo remains of The Bee Gees' insensibly earnest version. No, these aren't cutejazz covers, rendered with a wink: they're smart, potent, marrying the sound to the sense of— yes—the words. The Bad Plus have, for the first time, enlisted the help of a vocalist. Wendy Lewis clicks with The Plus: neither rock nor jazz in her style, she keeps it simple but eloquent, rooted in the personal.

Absolutely not for purists, but who needs 'em? The collection's title is borrowed from the lyrics of Cobain's "Lithium," also covered here, but its double meaning suits the trio's catholic musical sensibilities admirably. Jazz plus Rock plus Pop plus Modern Masters, Pink Floyd plus Wilco plus Stravinsky plus Flaming Lips: For All I Care is Bad Plus Plus Plus.

Click here for a video on the making of For All I Care.