Back in the day when jazz was America’s popular music, a player jumping ship from one band to another could be big news. The decision by trumpeter Cootie Williams to swap a spot with Duke Ellington for Benny Goodman’s orchestra in 1940, for instance, caused such a stir that Raymond Scott promptly wrote and recorded “When Cootie Left the Duke.”
No one’s composed any songs yet about Orrin Evans taking over the Bad Plus piano chair from Ethan Iverson last year, but on a scene where band drama stays undercover as a rule — because, well, jazz mostly flies far under the pop culture radar — the personnel change did earn widespread notice. For Bad Plus bassist-composer Reid Anderson, the buzz about that news is a tribute to the trio’s status as “one of the few actual bands in the music. Period.”
“We were with Ethan for 18 years, and we wore our group identity as a badge of honor,” Anderson says. “It’s a testament to the power of committing to a group sound.”
Evans makes his first Bay Area appearances as a member of the Bad Plus with a series of gigs around the region, playing Yoshi’s in Oakland on Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 16-17, Santa Cruz’s Kuumbwa Jazz Center on Feb. 18, and Café Stritch on Feb. 21 as part of San Jose Jazz’s Winter Fest.
Part of the coverage’s barely concealed subtext stems from the contrast between the pianists. Evans is a standard-bearer for Philadelphia’s exuberantly creative black music scene, while the original Bad Plus consisted of three Midwestern white guys.
Anderson and Bad Plus drummer-composer Dave King both came out of the Minneapolis indie rock scene, and they shared with the Wisconsin-raised Iverson a regionally inflected poker-face sense of irony that the pianist once described as “a Coen Brothers-like outlook on life.” Applied to slow-burning versions of rock tunes like Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Blondie’s “Heart of Glass” and Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man,” it was an attitude that earned the trio an avid following and a major-label contract at the turn of the century.
埃文斯（Evans）是一位备受推崇的乐队领导者，他的名字以20张专辑的名字，似乎并不是Bad Plus的显而易见的选择，但他与乐队有着密切的联系。他在1990年代初首次与安德森（Anderson）见面，当时贝斯手正在费城音乐学院学习古典音乐，“开始扮演一些爵士乐”，安德森回忆说。“奥林（Orrin）需要贝斯手参加姐姐的毕业晚会时，他从某人那里得到了我的电话。我们在90年代的比赛中发挥了很多作用。”
After studying with National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master Kenny Barron at Rutgers, Evans started releasing a series of acclaimed albums for the indie labels Criss Cross, Posi-Tone and Palmetto. He’s worked with illustrious jazz and hip-hop artists, including tenor sax titan Pharoah Sanders and powerhouse trumpeter Sean Jones, and rappers Common and Mos Def.
埃文斯（Evans）与鼓手Nasheet Waits和贝斯手Eric Revis的一部分与鼓手Nasheet Waits和贝斯手Eric Revis的一部分，获得了格莱美奖的“存在”，这是他的Black Big Big Band的第三次发行。他为2018年的“ Never Stop II”（Nover Stop II）贡献了几首曲调，这是他的第一张专辑，但他仍在弄清楚如何为三重奏写作，这是一种经过精心磨练的有机体，随着每场演出的发展。
“They started when everyone was in their 20s,” Evans says. “I joined the band at 42 and already had a career as a leader — a big difference. The older you get, you pick and choose your battles more carefully, something I say with the utmost love.
“令人难以置信的令人兴奋的是，看到里德和戴夫将如何解释我写的新音乐。”
The Bad Plus:7:30 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 16; 7 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 17. $26-$69. Yoshi’s, 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. 510-238-9200; 7 p.m. Feb. 18. Kuumbwa Jazz Center, 320-2 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. $36.75-$42. 831-427-2227; San Jose Jazz Winter Fest at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. Feb. 21. Café Stritch, 374 S. First St., San Jose. $30. 408-280-6161.sanjosejazz.org/winter-fest
其他5个推荐的演出San Jose Jazz’s Winter Fest 2019, which runs Feb. 14-27:
Tiffany Austin with Adam Shulman, Leon Joyce Jr. and Marcus Shelby:7:30 Friday, Feb. 15. $20. Café Stritch, San Jose. 408-280-6161.
Anton Schwartz and Kenny Washington:7 p.m. Feb. 23. $25. Café Stritch, San Jose. 408-280-6161.
SJZ集体扮演Charles Mingus：晚上9:302月23日。$ 15。圣何塞咖啡馆·斯特里奇（CaféStritch）。408-280-6161。
Catherine Russell with the San Jose State University Jazz Orchestra:5 p.m. Feb. 24. $25/$35. Hammer Theater Center, 101 Paseo de San Antonio, San Jose. 408-288-7557
Charles McPherson:7:30 p.m. Feb. 27. $30. Café Stritch, San Jose. 408-280-6161.
For a complete schedule, go tosanjosejazz.org/winter-fest