A homonymous 2022 album fully integrated guitarist Ben Monder and tenor saxophonist Chris Speed; Complex Emotions strengthens the musically spiritual connections between this quartet and the previous trios. Now as then, the band members converse and negotiate through the instruments until each track becomes a collective treaty on jazz idioms.

Because of the skill and experience of the players—Monder and Speed’s first bandleader albums came out in the mid-1990s, and Monder’s resume includes David Bowie’s final album, 2016’s Blackstar—the idioms shift kaleidoscopically and the conversations verge on the multilingual.

“Grid/Ocean” features Speed exhaling mellowly over King’s bossa nova-suggestive beats; “Cupcakes One” gives Monder a groove over which he can make like a jazz Joe Satriani; and “Carrier” lets Anderson slip into bebop cool.

As on the quartet’s first full-length, its second folds these historical and musical references into compositions undertaken entirely within the band: four by Anderson, two by King, and one apiece by Speed and Monder. Each composition is distinct, yet each sounds as though each player had a say in how to execute the work.

Not atypically for a band that believes in the ethos of jazz as well as in the many styles that might be considered jazz, the players challenge one another, sometimes with considerable aggression, without pushing aside ideas that might develop among the overall ensemble.

With that openness, The Bad Plus does fulfill the title of Complex Emotions, whether rocking the waves of “Deep Water Sharks” or slowly submerging into the eight-minute finale, “Li Po.” The listener gets to float, simply.  

from https://shepherdexpress.com