The Bad Plus - Anthem For The Earnest

The Bad Plus is a fascinating phenomenon of modern music. Their incredible body of work and daring artistry have generated rapid acclaim and attention, both opening the door and raising the bar for many of today’s young musicians. The trio’s fourth album, Suspicious Activity? marks a critical moment in The Bad Plus’s career, and features ear-challenging, genre-bending and highly personal original compositions by all three members. The group succeeds in doing what every major Jazz artist before them has done - expressing themselves freely using any and every possible musical element they feel connected to. Rock, Hip-Hop, 20th century avant-garde, Hollywood movie scores, Jazz, Folk - one can easily get lost trying to trace the countless references, moods and influences that feed The Bad Plus and their impressively vast original repertoire. This track was one of their earliest that I heard that really grabbed me and appealed to me in a special way, and I still consider it one of the most rocking ways to play Jazz piano!

I learned a lot from playing and transcribing this song. The long-arch structure, the progression and building of energy through every part, even the piano solo - not too long, not too short - everything seems to be carefully placed to support the story from start to finish. This is what I like best about transcribing - taking something apart that is so great and fun to listen to and discovering even more surprises and beautiful little moments, musical treasures that are pretty and idiomatic all by themselves. This was a very challenging transcription to make, but all the more satisfying when I finally finished it. I hope it will be of use to you and inspire you to dig deeper into songs you love to listen to and play.