"Jazz It Up" with Ethan Iverson of the Bad Plus

Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

Go Super to Listen

• bossa nova
• avante-garde
• cover
• work out

• acoustic
• rock out
• put your own spin on it
• jazz it up

• straight
• flair

2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

Go Super to Listen

Ethan Iverson, pianist for acoustic jazz trio the Bad Plus, admits that the band “rocks out” on stage. They also play rock clubs and do their own versions of songs by Nirvana, Radiohead and the Bee Gees, among others. All of these things make them one of the most hip and popular jazz acts in the world.

Whenever they cover a song, they put their own spin on it. It sounds totally new. They really jazz it up, not just by making it a jazz song, but by adding a flair the original version doesn’t have.

Now based in New York, the band is originally from Wisconsin, farm country in the middle of the US. These days, they pack up their stand up bass and play their complex compositions as well as improvised music all over the world. This week, they are touring Brazil before a show in Germany (click here for tour dates). Listen to Ethan talk with Jason about the band’s new album, For All I Care, on which they jazz up songs by 11 different artists.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

Log in to Listen

2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Jason

Ethan

Jason:  You guys are about to go to Brazil. It’s a place with a lot of jazz culture. Is it different than playing other places?

Ethan:  We’ve played Brazil a few times and always really enjoyed it. South America in general is a very warm audience.

Jason:  Do you guys work in any bossa novas or anything into the set?

Ethan:  No, we don’t play any Brazilian music, in part because we have too much respect. We don’t want to intrude on their territory.

Jason:  Very cool. Almost all of your new album is rock songs. But there’s a couple classical songs thrown on there too. What do you think ties it together?

Ethan:  What’s important there is that it’s 20th century classical music, in other words, the avant-garde. And there’s the sound of the avant-garde in our music anyway.

Jason:  I was thinking about what you guys do with sort of how you take these tunes and you jazz them up. And so I thought maybe that would be a good idiom for you to teach.

Ethan:  The idea of reinterpretation or cover has, you know, been around a long time. Classical musicians actually, like…Beethoven, would write a variation on a famous opera tune of the day. And then, in the first part of the 20th century, jazz musicians would take the popular songs and improvise off them. You take the melody and the chord changes and you sort of work out your own version of it. So when the Bad Plus plays rock covers, it’s not a straight cover, but it’s something that sounds like the Bad Plus.

Jason:  The phrase to jazz something up isn’t always used with jazz or with music. How would you use it just in regular daily life?

Ethan:  Well, I think you make it sparkly or give it some excitement to jazz something up.

Jason:  Right on.

Quizzes

Go Super to take Quiz

Lesson MP3

Go Super to download full lesson MP3