FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
THE BAD PLUS LIFT CURTAIN ON INEVITABLE WESTERN
Audacious Piano-Bass-Drums Trio Unveils Self-Produced New Album,
Their First Collection Of Original Material Since 2012’s Made Possible
US and European Live Dates Slated Through The Fall,
Including August Tour Alongside Joshua Redman
Inevitable Western Available August 26th
New York, NY – OKeh Records/Sony Music Masterworks has announced the release of
Inevitable Western, the much anticipated new album by The Bad Plus. The set arrives in stores and
at all leading digital retailers on August 26th.
The Bad Plus — bassist Reid Anderson, pianist Ethan Iverson, and drummer David King — have
a well-earned reputation for pushing the limits on what is expected of a piano-bass-drums trio. The
past 15 years have seen the genre-smashing band create a distinctive and original repertoire of
inventive and exciting original music, along with iconoclastic covers of artists as divergent as
Nirvana and Neil Young, Aphex Twin and Ornette Coleman. Earlier this year, the acclaimed trio
took on one of the most influential works of the 20th Century, Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring
(Sony Music Masterworks).
The Bad Plus’ tenth studio recording, Inevitable Western, is comprised entirely of originals and
continues the band’s committed belief in what Nate Chinen of The New York Times dubbed ‘avantgarde populism’ — the idea that serious music can be as engaging and accessible as it is forwardthinking and provocative. Inevitable Western sees the group exploring the same set of aesthetic
principles that fired their inception: an exploration of myriad musical forms born of jazz and
advanced using any sonic source that forwards music that is uniquely The Bad Plus. The spark
continues on tracks like Anderson’s lyrical “Do It Again” and the post-rock twists and turns of
King’s “Gold Prisms Incorporated.” This is an album where pop, blues and folk meld with classic
melodies and rhythmic innovation into that rarest of hybrids: intelligent music for the masses.
A genuinely leaderless trio, The Bad Plus is equal in every respect, from composition to
performance to production. The interplay between these collaborators has marked the group’s work
from the jump, infusing it with carefully considered spontaneity, subtlety, style, and depth. An
intense emotional twang permeates pieces like King’s “Adopted Highway” and the Iverson
composition which gives Inevitable Western its title, evokes a spacious milieu redolent of Wim
Wenders’ Paris, Texas and the American West of Richard Avedon, dusty and open, weathered but
free. Rich with mystery, Inevitable Western is The Bad Plus at their best, affirming them as one of
the most audacious and imaginative musical collectives of this or any other era.
Inevitable Western was produced by The Bad Plus in January 2014 at The Terrarium in
Minneapolis alongside engineer/mixer Jason Orris; the Executive Producers are Darryl Pitt and
Chris Hinderaker.
*****
The Bad Plus came together at the end of the 20th century and has avoided easy categorization ever
since, garnering critical acclaim and a legion of fans worldwide with their creativity, idiosyncratic
personality and flair for live performance. Based in New York City, the deeply collaborative trio
constantly searches for rules to break and boundaries to cross, bridging genres and techniques while
exploring infinite possibilities of three exceptional musicians working in perfect sync.
Known for their hard touring schedule, The Bad Plus has slated an array of US and European live
dates through October and beyond (see attached itinerary). Highlights include a series of August
dates alongside Joshua Redman, beginning August 7th at Rockport, Massachusetts’ Shalin Liu
Performance Center, as well as a fall headline tour set to get underway with a two night stand at
Seattle’s The Triple Door on September 22nd and 23rd. Additional dates will be announced soon –
for complete tour information, please visit www.thebadplus.com/tour-dates.php.
The Bad Plus is: bassist Reid Anderson, pianist Ethan Iverson, and drummer David King .
For more
information, please see www.thebadplus.com and www.okeh-records.com.
Sony Music Masterworks comprises Masterworks, Sony Classical, OKeh, Portrait, Masterworks
Broadway and Flying Buddha imprints. For email updates and information please visit
www.SonyMasterworks.com
INEVITABLE WESTERN
(OKeh/Sony Music Masterworks)
Track listing:
1. I Hear You (Reid Anderson)
2. Gold Prisms Incorporated (David King)
3. Self Serve (Ethan Iverson)
4. You Will Lose All Fear (Reid Anderson)
5. Do It Again (Reid Anderson)
6. Epistolary Echoes (David King)
7. Adopted Highway (David King)
8. Mr. Now (Ethan Iverson)
9. Inevitable Western (Ethan Iverson)
Produced by The Bad Plus
###
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Big Hassle / Ken Weinstein / weinstein@bighassle.com / 212-619-1360
Sony Music Masterworks / Angela Barkan / Larissa Slezak
angela.barkan@sonymusic.com, Larissa.slezak@sonymusic.com \ 212-833-8575 / 6075
THE BAD PLUS
US TOUR 2014
* August 7th-29th w/Joshua Redman
AUGUST
7 Rockport, MA
Shalin Liu Performance Center *
8 Great Barrington, MA
Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center *
9 East Hampton, NY
Guild Hall *
29 Detroit, MI
Detroit Jazz Festival *
SEPTEMBER
22 Seattle, WA
The Triple Door
23 Seattle, WA
The Triple Door
24 Portland, OR
Jimmy Mak’s
OCTOBER
2 Little Rock, AR
South on Main
4 Fayetteville, AR
Starr Theater
18 Durham, NC
Duke University
23 New York, NY
NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts
25 Wilmington, DE
World Café Live
26 Vienna, VA
Barns at Wolftrap
Additional Dates To Be Announced
www.thebadplus.com/tour-dates.php
###