3 out of 5

Label: Nonesuch

Produced by: The Bad Plus Joshua Redman

As a rock fan who likes The Bad Plus’ because of their rock influences, ‘The Bad Plus Joshua Redman’ isn’t going to be my favorite album.  My review is also flavored by those preferences; having peeked at a couple of reviews that namedrop jazz blips and bloops, maybe if you’re on the opposite side of that jazz/rock fence, this is the album for which you’ve been waiting, ever since telling your jazz friends about that quaint ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ cover.  Which, for the record, kept me away from the band, initially, and I still don’t find the (rock) covers to by my favorite point of their releases that I own.  Rather, just as my tastes branch off into various other genres, I dig when something emerges as a unique blend, and BP sometimes nail a truly Them formula that steps through rock, funk, pop, jazz, etc.  But this is, absolutely, a jazz disc.  And due to that (in my judgments of jazz), it’s prone to the indulgences of that scene: wandering, paced structures (The Mending) and absolute freak-outs (Faith Through Error).  I dig the latter; regarding the former, it might be that I just don’t like wind instruments, that when applied in that style, it feels too… “jazz.”  Too peacefully finger-snappin’.

And so the disc proceeds, see-sawing back and forth between who takes the lead, and thus, what the song sounds like.  A good half of the disc’s songs are split, with Anderson / Iverson / King laying down a good rhythm that Redman enhances – playing off each instrument in turn – before the boys give him the reigns for a few minutes and sit back and let him do his thing.  Opener As This Moment Slips Away is like this, and, perhaps as the best (and most frustrating) example: Friend Or Foe, which feels like something truly special and contemplative and new and then it just goes all wandering jazz for too long.  Sometimes, though – and these are, of course, my favorite tracks – Redman stays mostly within the lines, letting things lean more toward feeling like a Bad Plus jam than the group backing Redman.  Beauty as It Hard does this, and when things do disassemble in the last minute or so to let Redman gather up the pieces, because we’ve been driven hard by the other instruments for the majority of the song, the contrast in styles (yes, again, to me) is more effective and palatable overall.  And sometimes – Country Seat, looking at you – it feels like toe-tapping jazz filler.

Creeping up at the end of the disc, though, is the masterful 12-minute Silence Is The Question.  Yeah, I own some Zu albums, so I guess I’m partial to this, but I wish the disc had had more of this style – slow, disparate build-up that gets progressively more and more insane as the tracks goes on.  At about the eight minute point, when EVERYONE is letting loose, the keys just occasionally reminding us of the song, it’s freaking magic, and you remember how skilled everyone in the band is.

Overall, stylistically, The Bad Plus Joshua Redman is probably the most ‘album’ feeling of the BP releases.  Despite my breaking down the different dynamics above, all of these songs undoubtedly belong together.  But, depending on what your favorite moments are from the group’s career will determine whether or not this disc – significantly more reserved and jazzy than anything since their debut – gets frequent spins or just occasional listens.