The Bad Plus: 'Give'

If you have any previous work by The Bad Plus, all you probably need to know is that they have a new album out today...and, well, you're likely going to stop reading this entry right now to go get it. (Click the picture to the right to go to Amazon.)

For everyone else: The Bad Plus, a jazz trio, does interpretations of preexisting works just like, oh, say, DJ Danger Mouse does, and, like Danger Mouse's, their interpretations diverge wildly from the style and intent of the original artist (compare their kick-ass version of Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" to the original for a clear example--by the end it's in a major key and barely has the same melody). It's probably safe to say that you haven't heard versions of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "Every Breath You Take" that are anything like what the Bad Plus does with them.

The Bad Plus takes works written by others and treats them like its prison bitches, but somehow their interpretations get out to the public without legal trouble. In fact, neither a songwriter nor a publisher nor a record company could successfully suppress The Bad Plus's derivative recordings (unless The Bad Plus failed to pay a royalty). Their interpretations cannot be banned. Even if Courtney Love, who owns the copyright to "Smells Like Teen Spirit," were to take six Vicodins, ten Oxies, two Xanax and a quart of pure grain alcohol and still not get how cool The Bad Plus version of that song is, she's s.o.l. on the matter. She can just pass out in her own vomit, because even litigious Courtney Love is not allowed to control that song to such an extreme degree that she can suppress cover versions of it. The Bad Plus will be heard.

That's because The Bad Plus's remixes of the author's original intent start with the sheet music instead of a sound recording. Even though The Bad Plus creates works that, for all their irreverence, are actually closer to the originals--from start to finish even using similar arrangements in some cases--than DJ Danger Mouse's use of The Beatles' songs, it is DJ Danger Mouse's work that a record company can effectively ban from commercial distribution, not the work of The Bad Plus. (And, yes, "ban" is the right word--as unpleasant as it is, it's not hyperbole. A friend suggested yesterday that I use "notification of infringement" instead of "ban." Sorry, "ban" is the more accurate description.)

Sheet music vs. sound recording is a specious distinction in this day and age. I own copyrights in both, and am a member of ASCAP, and I couldn't possibly justify the disparate legal treatment to you. On the one hand, sheet music, which can be instantly translated into a MIDI file that is essentially a sound recording, is fair game. On the other hand, a sample of a studio sound recording, even just 1 or 2 seconds long, is not fair game. For one, you need only to follow the rules: Pay a fair, set royalty to the original author whose work you are using. For the other, you need a lawyer and some serious financing for that lawyer, or you might as well not even try. The huge disparity--one interpretative use is possible, the other all but impossible (for an individual of modest means)--makes no sense at all, especially in a world where other artificial barriers, such as to access to a studio and distribution channels, are disappearing for the average person.

But in reality it's the difference between Grey Tuesday for Danger Mouse and Profitable Album Release Day for The Bad Plus. Today a whole bunch of people bought and heard The Bad Plus's music. I was one of those people.

If Danger Mouse's "The Grey Album" had also been available on iTunes, I'd have presented that receipt here, too.

Anyway, I recommend both--The Bad Plus's "Give," which innovatively builds on the work of others, and DJ Danger Mouse's "The Grey Album," which innovatively builds on the work of others. Because "Give" is available legally, I recommend buying it (iTunes now, Amazon March 9).

Because "The Grey Album" is not available legally, and EMI apparently does not want it to be available legally, I recommend downloading it right here.

UPDATE: A reader writes in to say I should mention The Bad Plus also does originals. True. In fact, on "Give" only three songs are covers.