The Bad Plus: Yoshi's Oakland

First off, Thank you very dear cousin Nelson for always opening my eyes to music I fall in love with. If I had to make a guess, Nelson's first love is Jazz. I bet if he tried, he could still blow a tune or two on a trumpet!! So thanks cuz..for inviting me along with Tin and Josh last night!

To understand and enjoy Jazz is complicated. You simply can't just follow it like a smooth R&B song, or a folk song. Jazz has different levels, layers and intensity. Over the years Jazz has welcomed and included all the different types of music genres, and The Bad Plus makes it sound like butta!

The Bad Plus: 3 very particular and very talented men, who remind me of 3 ex-band directors that branched out to do what they know and love best.. Each note they played were very specific and, the 10 years they have played together really show how their perfect timing and how their talents compliment each others to make such a sound!

Dave on the drums is a maniac! He plays like there's no tomorrow, It's exciting to watch him get into each drum note he played. It seemed like he had an expression with every beat!! His beats were very unique to jazz and excellent with backing up the different pace to each song. I love love love the sound of the bass. I always love hearing a strong and loud bass, and if I can feel it inside my chest I love it even more. Reid on the bass played his strings with perfect placement and did not at all utilize the bass as a background sound. His music stood firm and up front with the rest. Ethan on the piano, was amazing! To come up with cords and to keep the story told by his music is pure magic. Although I had hoped they would have played a couple of covers, I still enjoyed each original song they played! They encored with a cover to Iron man,... pretty damn different to the original that's for sure..but none the less just as hard core as the original too! If you haven't heard of them...check them out. If you don't enjoy Jazz...this could be your baby steps to a whole new world of music.