The Bad Plus, Edinburgh Jazz Festival review: 'a robust farewell'
In a triumphant farewell tour concert, The Bad Plus said goodbye to Edinburgh in style, writes Jim Gilchrist
The Bad Plus: The Farewell Tour, St Bride’s Centre ★★★★
As fond farewells go, this was a robust one. The Bad Plus, inventive and influential purveyors of full-on prog-rock-infused jazz (or should that be the other way around?), played one of their earliest touring gigs at the Edinburgh Jazz Festival a quarter of a century ago, in their original piano-bass-drums format. Here they were on their ultimate tour in their latter quartet configuration of co-founders bassist Reid Anderson and drummer Dave King, with guitarist Ben Monder and saxophonist Chris Speed, who took to clarinet for their opener, Casa Ben, over a stealthy groove and reverberating guitar chimes that built up fiercely over King’s relentless drumming.
There was tense unison tenor sax and guitar pairing in the enigmatically titled French Horns, Monder’s guitar taking on an echoing resonance that coloured much of their set. Carrier got underway with its wistful sax melody before steadily intensifying over industrious drum work and shrilling guitar.
There were none of the quirky rock and pop covers which used to punctuate the band’s repertoire, but the free bop of an Ornette Colman number, Law Years, took on jagged energy, Speed and Monder working up what became briefly a wild free-for-all before King’s drumming steered them to a conclusion. Then it was on to the beaty pulse of Anthem for the Earnest with its staccato sax signalling and stratospheric guitar break, while a brief drum excursion heralded the quizzical melody of Tyrone’s Flamingo.
To close (almost) there was the winsome melody of You Won’t See Me Before I Come Back over meticulous bass and constantly busy drums. Before it, Anderson declared, with feeling: “Edinburgh has been a very important place for us.” Following a blistering encore, the affection was resoundingly reciprocated.
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