Indie Attitude

Upright player Reid Anderson is a fully equal participant in the band’s three-way instrumental conversations, anchoring the band while also pushing and steering it from below. His approach is not one of biding time while waiting for his moment in the sun, but instead of being fully engaged in all aspects of the music at all times. It is a testament to the idea that the function of the bass in an ensemble can be just as engaging, exciting, and fulfilling—if not more so—than any flashy solo.

What was your first experience of being drawn to the bass?
I was in junior high school. I had bought a guitar and was starting to take guitar lessons, and I was listening to some music and it dawned on me that I just understood the bass and its function, and I loved the way that it influenced the music around it. And, so after a couple of weeks into taking guitar lessons I bought a bass, and that was kind of it, really.

Who were some of your early influences?
[Bad Plus drummer] Dave King and some other friends and I would kind of turn each other onto stuff, and eventually that led to things like John Coltrane, Keith Jarrett, and Ornette Coleman. Actually, hearing Charlie Haden for the first time really made me want to play acoustic bass. His sound just makes you want to play the bass. I would say Charlie Haden and Jimmy Garrison are my guys—the ones who inspire me as a bass player.

Did you study formally or were you self-taught?
I went to a state school in Wisconsin, because I wanted to be a music major, and they made me play in the orchestra. I was looking for a ticket out of the Midwest, so the next year, I went to the Curtis Institute [classical conservatory] in Philadelphia and studied classical bass. I was pretty miserable the whole time, because I was on this course to becoming a classical bass player—something that I realized just wasn’t going to be right for me. So after three years I left and then just committed myself to being a jazz musician.

How did the Bad Plus come into being?
We had always talked about getting something together with the three of us, and finally we just made it happen and got our first gig in Minneapolis. From our first notes together, it didn’t sound how it does now, but we knew there was something there worth committing to.

It’s rare to see a piano trio functioning as a rock band, both musically and professionally. How did you all come to have that approach?
The model was to say, “Hey, we can be a band of equal members, all contributing music and all having equal say, instead of it being the so-and-so trio or whatever.” So we committed to this idea, and when we could get gigs we stuck to it. We committed to the band, and even though individual opportunities would come up where we could actually make money, we would instead choose to do the Bad Plus show. At that point it was pretty clear what the options were: You can try to go it alone and be a bandleader, or you can do freelancing things as well—but we just wanted something else, kind of like an indie-rock attitude in a way.

How would you define the group’s musical concept?
It’s a place for the three of us to be exactly who we are. It’s not a situation where we have to fulfill one person’s vision of how it should be; we’re all there to play the way we want and to have a group sound, and we all have a lot of diverse musical interests, and we’re very unapologetic about the way we bring all of those influences and filter them all through the band. We try not to say, “We’re a jazz band, so we need to smooth out the rough edges of the more rock-oriented things,” or whatever. We embrace sort of a pan-stylistic ethos. For us it’s about having an inclusive energy and attitude about music; we try to present music without putting any obstacles or doubts in the way of self-expression.

The Bad Plus sound has some weight and volume. How do you deal with the problem of amplifying the upright onstage?
Well, playing with an amp is not ideal—but you have to, especially with the Bad Plus. Years ago I was a hardcore purist—you know, mic only and that kind of thing. You can feel good about yourself for maintaining your purist aesthetic, but if no-one can hear you . . . ? It depends on the music you’re playing, of course, but the Bad Plus needs loud bass, and I think pretty much everything these days needs some amplification on the bass. We play music differently these days, and we live in an age of amplification. I think that’s cool, and you just do your best to find the best sound. It varies from room to room and it’s never consistent, but these days I believe you’ve got to embrace how to get the best sound for the situation.

How do you view your role in the band?
I’ve always loved the bass function; that’s what always moved me about the instrument. I’m very happy to be in there doing that, and I really don’t care if I have any bass solos or not. But within that bass function I’m always thinking melodically, so to myself, I’m always down there singing these songs all the time.