Interview with David King The Bad Plus

Gökçen Sena Duman: What it is like to be a core member of The Bad Plus and in what ways it transformed your life?
David King: The Bad Plus has given us a career in music for over 20 years and has allowed us to do it on our own terms. We feel a responsibility to what we’ve built and try to always hold ourselves to a high standard.
What has been your biggest source of inspiration while creating music throughout the years?
Creative artists in general and anyone who truly cares about what they do and who tries to do it as best they can.
As The Bad Plus, you introduced a different notion of jazz by blending genres in a smooth manner. How would you comment on the position of The Bad Plus in the jazz scene?
Hopefully we’ve made a statement about group music and broadened the spectrum of musical possibilities a bit.
And when compared to your first releases, how has your sound evolved in terms of your approach towards jazz music?
Other than the obvious change in instrumentation I don’t think it has changed much. We still approach our music with the same philosophy.
After twenty-one years of being a piano trio, The Bad Plus can now be defined as a quartet. What was the most challenging and rewarding aspect of the transition process?
I think the rewards outweigh the challenges by far. The core of this band has always been the compositions and this was an opportunity to reframe what The Bad Plus has always been about. It’s rewarding to see this new version of the band with Ben Minder and Chris Speed take on a life of it’s own and claim it’s own identity.
Could you please talk a bit about your new album titled as “The Bad Plus”? How has the line-up change affected the band’s creation process of the new release?
The creative process is still basically the same. The important thing is to create a space where everyone gets to be themselves while simultaneously arriving at a “personal” sound as a group. Calling the album The Bad Plus is definitely a statement of intent in the sense that The Bad Plus is whatever we say it is.
What would you do differently if you were to start over again as a musician and a band member?
I can’t really speculate. Everything that has happened has brought us to where we are and this feels like an exciting moment for us.
What lies ahead for The Bad Plus in the upcoming years?
It’s hard to look that far ahead.
What can listeners expect from your concert in Ankara?
For anyone who already knows our music they will see us with a new energy and sound. But I dare say we still sound very much like ourselves. For new listeners hopefully we have something unique and engaging to offer.