Music Review: The Bad Plus, Joined by Wendy Lewis

The Bad Plus, joined by Wendy Lewis – For All I Care – Heads Up HUCD 3148

I suppose one of the best benefits to reviewing CDs is the rare chance to hear something surprising. Even rarer is when you run across something meaningful. “For All I Care,” the latest CD from The Bad Plus manages to be both, surprising and meaningful. It also includes other qualities like smart, accomplished, and maybe even ironic. If you aren’t familiar with this group, The Bad Plus is a standard configuration of the piano jazz trio—piano, bass, and drums. Their usual approach in music is to take standards from other musical genres and reinterpret into a progressive jazz, bordering on the avant-garde, setting. In “For All I Care” they have appropriated pop and rock standards from the 70s and 80s (along with a few 20th Century classical pieces), and they have invited a singer to the endeavor, Wendy Lewis, an indie-rock vocalist from Minneapolis.

All three core musicians are first-rate. Pianist Ethan Iverson plays with inventiveness, fire, and a great sense of rhythm bringing out the innate nature of the piano as a percussion instrument. Reid Anderson, on bass and back-up vocals, coaxes fluid and imaginative lines from his instrument. And as for the drummer, David King, I found myself in an unusual situation. The first time I listened to the recording, about halfway through I thought, “Wasn’t there supposed to be a drummer on this?” So I started the CD again and there he was. King, for the most part, deftly avoids the standard role of most drummers. He doesn’t just keep the beat, he plays music. The performance is so well integrated into what the other musicians are doing, that he sometimes disappears into the music. There are few trios that are this coordinated and complementary to each other. My only criticism of the drums is that occasionally he sometimes sounds as if he’s playing in another room. The sound of the piano and drums were perfectly handled, but the drums tended to sound a bit distant and muffled. Wendy Lewis is a great addition to the mix. More rock than jazz in her approach to the vocals, she brings an earnestness and weight to each song. There’s no pretense here, only honest emotions and straightforward performances. This is also the first time The Bad Plus have used a vocalist for one of their projects. To my ears, this is a superb match and I hope they continue to collaborate.

The choice of material is perhaps the most controversial. You have to understand that these are serious performances delivered with intensity and conviction, but the original tunes weren’t always intended to be the same as we find here. In covering the Bee Gees’ “How Deep is Your Love,” gone is the light and frothy original, and now we have a deeper exploration of commitment and true love. It’s a wonder that it works at all. The only one that doesn’t work for me is “Barracuda,” the song by Heart (it didn’t deviate far enough from the original, for my taste), but that’s one out of 12 songs. Nearly every other track is a revelation. Before listening to this, I’d have said that some of these songs couldn’t have been improved over the original versions, like “Lithium,” “Comfortably Numb,” and “Long Distance Runaround,” but The Bad Plus and Wendy Lewis do indeed have something new to say and I loved hearing it.

If this recording has a failing, it may be this choice of material. I can’t but think that the source material is treated perhaps more seriously than it deserves. After all, we’re talking about “Barracuda” and a Bee Gees tune. However, this CD serves as an excellent example of the value in reinterpreting other’s work. In our litigious, collector-minded world, we attach too much importance to original works and vintage artifacts—the idea that only the original creators of a work can render the best and most authentic rendition of that work. But we all know from classical music that usually the best performances of a score come from some measure of objectivity or a new perspective and that’s what is happening in this recording. The Bad Plus delivers new versions, or covers, of familiar tunes that sometimes exceed the originals, and in most cases, this is a good thing—a very good thing. Highly recommended.

Movie Review: Star Trek (2009)

To be honest, from the first I heard about this movie I never thought there was any reason to make it. I grew up watching the original Star Trek in the 60s and watched every other series and movie that came afterward. The original cast was fine and I couldn’t see a legitimate reason to redo it. However, I just watched the new movie and I can safely say that I was wrong. J.J. Abrams, the director of this reboot of the original series has made a smart, lightning-paced, thrill-a-second reimagining that successfully updates this franchise for the modern audience. That is to say, there is less reflective, philosophical dialog and character development (less yakking) and tons more action and explosions, which is just what modern audiences seem to want. I know this seems like a criticism, but it really isn’t. It’s just an observation. Truthfully, the last several movies and the last few series were tired and boring. And no matter what you think about this movie, this Star Trek is definitely not boring.

As origin movies go, this one digs in earnestly, going as far as to show us the birth of James Tiberius Kirk and this character’s juvenile delinquent past. Time is also spent on Spock’s troubled youth, enduring and sometimes raging against the calculated insults of his full-blooded Vulcan schoolmates. I’m not sure we needed to see all this, but it does serve a purpose as the movie continues. At least we were spared the sight of Kirk’s conception. But it’s not to say that this movie didn’t stumble. It depends on too many coincidences and at times was lazy in its writing and plotting. However, it does have its strengths.

The best thing this movie had going for it was its cast, and that was the biggest surprise for me. Chris Pine, who I was unfamiliar with, by the end of the movie had become James T. Kirk. While he was more impetuous than Shatner, he was also less smarmy. I liked him a lot—maybe even more than Shatner. Zachary Quinto, who plays the evil Sylar on Heroes, played Spock with an icy demeanor and a barely held-back reservoir of anger and disdain. It was an interesting way to play the internal conflict of his two opposing cultural backgrounds. To me, he was neck and neck with Leonard Nimoy, the original Spock, who has a major role in this movie as Spock. Nimoy is the only actor from the original series to be in this movie. Karl Urban really nailed his part as Dr. McCoy. Sometimes it seemed as if he was doing an impersonation of DeForest Kelly, but he played the role with such energy and style that it really worked. Plus, he was just laugh-out-loud funny. Simon Pegg handled the role of Montgomery Scott, the chief engineer of the Enterprise. He wasn’t as laid back as the original Scotty. Instead, he played it as manic and playful with a devilish gleam in his eye. I think I actually preferred his version of this character to the original. He was more fun to watch.

Abrams kept a tight hand on this movie. His direction was perfectly handled and controlled, and even though time travel movies can be confusing, this one was easy to follow. He produced a movie that was funny, exciting, and extremely fast-paced. This was a fun movie to watch and was everything you could want from a summer blockbuster, which I think this one will be. Now that the origins for these characters and this universe are finished, I look forward to seeing what new adventures await this new crew of familiar characters. Star Trek, live long and prosper.