The Bad Plus

The acoustic New York jazz trio The Bad Plus earned crossover attention for their deconstructed covers of unlikely rock songs, most famously Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” but that attention has too often overshadowed their reputation as genuine jazz virtuosos, players with a knack for blurring the line between composition and improvisation. It’s probably for the best, then, that The Bad Plus eschewed covers altogether on their latest album, last fall’s Never Stop, opting instead for clever piano-based originals. This is great jazz music without the novelty factor.