The Bad Plus - Complex Emotions (Mack Avenue)

Jazz quartet The Bad Plus continues its aggressive evolution on its latest album_Complex Emotions_. Ever since bandleaders Reid Anderson and Dave King decided to abandon the piano trio format and recruit saxophonist Chris Speed and guitarist Ben Monder, the group has pushed its music past expectations – those set by its own past as much as those raised by “jazz tradition.”

The uncommon time signatures and spiraling harmony lines of Anderson’s “French Horns” help it sound little like anything TBP has attempted before. The bassist’s “Carrier” rides an undulating groove built out of swooping bass runs and real-time glitchy drum parts that give it a lilt different than the group’s usual M.O., not to mention that of their peers. King’s “Tyrone’s Flamingo” enters an ethereal realm from a pocket dimension, while Monder’s “Li Po” (also on Monder’s latest solo album Planetarium) drifts even further into the outer heavens. Meanwhile, Anderson’s driving “Deep Water Sharks” and Speed’s frantic “Cupcakes One” are practically rock & roll.

Though Speed often leads the melodic way, as former pianists Ethan Iverson and Orrin Evans did, it’s Monder’s spacey guitar tone and odd-metered riffs that set the vibe here, taking each song further and further from the band’s accepted canon. Kudos to Anderson and King for being eager to work with their compadres’ individual talents, and understanding exactly how to use them to make the band even better than before. It’s difficult to state that Complex Emotions is such an eclectic and original band’s most accomplished record yet, but it’s certainly a new highlight in The Bad Plus’ everchanging career.