3 out of 5

Produced by: The Bad Plus

Label: Okeh Records

Like, I assume, many, The Bad Plus are my rare crossover into “traditional” jazz, and that’s a set of quotes to undoubtedly make purists cringe, as the type of jazz BP has employed while nibbling at name-droppable fame isn’t very traditional at all.  Their initial bids at top sales occurred due to non-kitschy covers of very un-jazz acts like Nirvana and Aphex Twin, and most of their followup albums – while including plenty of brilliant originals and thrilling interpretations of standards – had an underlying rock or pop mentality.  If not for the fact that these dudes were already accomplished session players with proven awareness of the music history to which they owed a debt, perhaps their slipping between genres might not have been as welcomed.  Or maybe that’s why the title of this album is ‘It’s Hard;’ recent efforts have seen BP swerving a bit back toward center, their last release with fellow genre-bender Joshua Redman very clearly jazz; maybe it’s hard to continually figure out how to stay true to all of their musical loves.  The compromise – and for better or worse, that is what I hear on this disc – is to pretty much take recognizable, mainstream tunes, and sprinkle ’em with jazz.  That’s not to dismiss the subtlety applied on this album, but runtimes remain pretty pop-song normal, and I’d say if you’re familiar with any of the covered tracks, you’ll absolutely recognize them.  Not that previous covers were ‘underground’ by any means, but BP seemed to specifically pick stuff mom or dad wouldn’t be singing and then drag them into a whole new light.  They became Bad Plus’ own mighty creations; much of It’s Hard sounds like covers.

It’s a completely pleasant listen, and the group is sure to take steps to make it clear they haven’t just gone for a common denominator by covering Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Kraftwerk, along with tossing a couple standards on their again, but there’s also an undercurrent of restraint at work – the whole album flows together like a laid back jazz jam session, which is impressive given the source material, but not as directly impressive in terms of getting too moved beyond familiarity by the recording.