Music

BadBadNotGood: The progressive jazz band you need to know about

Refreshing + electrifying

27.11.2016

By Su Fen Tan

BadBadNotGood: The progressive jazz band you need to know about

BadBadNotGood started out as trio back in 2010, when keyboardist Matthew Tavares, drummer Alexander Sowinski and bassist Chester Hansen met while studying jazz at Humber College in Toronto. The three bonded over their love for hip-hop music and began incorporating it into their collaborations, which included jazzy Odd Future-inspired pieces. Their experimental sounds, while not well-received by their jazz performance instructors, caught the attention of Tyler, The Creator (leader of Odd Future) on YouTube. Tyler helped the trio’s instrumental cover video of his group’s tracks go viral, and even recorded a live jam session with them in Sowinski’s basement.

 

From there, the trio went on to work with the likes of Earl Sweatshirt and Danny Brown, and appearing on Drake and Rihanna’s songs – they also played Frank Ocean’s backing band at Coachella in 2012. Their newest addition, saxophonist Leland Whitty, featured in their second album BBNG2 before officially joining the band in 2016, completing the lush, layered sounds of BadBadNotGood seamlessly. The band’s live sets are “improvised and crazy”, as described by Tavares on keys, and are not to be missed, as the members bring a compelling brand of refreshing breakneck punk energy to their genre-defying tracks. 

Five albums in five years, and BadBadNotGood shows no signs of stopping in pushing the boundaries of their progressive jazz endeavours. Young and creatively fearless, they are definitely a band to keep an eye (or ear) out for.

 

BadBadNotGood plays at Le Noir KL on Tuesday, 29 November. For more information, visit the Facebook event page.

 

 

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