For longtime fans of genre-bending jazz piano trio the Bad Plus, the group's twelfth studio album It's Hard will feel pleasantly familiar. Once again showcasing the talents of pianist Ethan Iverson, bassist Reid Anderson, and drummer David King, It's Hard finds the Bad Plus reworking a set of well-known pop covers.
Their take on Crowded House's "Don't Dream It's Over" is nothing short of brilliant and reminds us of a modern day Keith Jarrett composition. Peter Gabriel's "Games Without Frontiers" gets a "Thelonious Monk-like" approach. Indie rock anthem "Maps," by Yeah Yeah Yeahs gets transformed into an avant-garde/broadway spectacle.
It's as if the Bad Plus are demonstrating their longstanding belief that all good music can be interpreted in a jazz style, whether it's Prince's "The Beautiful Ones," Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time," or Kraftwerk's "The Robots," all of which are elegantly tackled here.
The Bad Plus continue to make the process of transforming modern pop songs into jazz standards sound both deceptively easy and endlessly enjoyable.
