It seems like ever since BBNG’s buzz began building two years ago with the release of their “Odd Future Sessions” video, the boys themselves and perhaps whichever — if any — PR machine is behind them, have been hell-bent on promoting the group’s music as being somehow removed from, or even evolved beyond, the jazz idiom; as if the words “jazz” and “bop” are code for “old-man music.”
[If that’s the case for you, then it’s probably because you, like the BBNG players, are in your early 20s or even younger, but unlike them, you aren’t currently enrolled in a Humber College jazz program and your only exposure to jazz comes from sideways glances at your grandpa’s record collection. What you need to do is realize that your grandpa was/is a bad (grand)motherfucker and go digging through said record collection.]
Pardon me for getting sidetracked there. The point I was getting to is that, contrary to what’s been said in countless interviews and blog posts, BBNG’s music up until now has NOT been removed from the jazz idiom at all, really. The only thing they’re doing differently than the typical modern jazz group, as far as I can tell, is playing popular hip-hop instrumentals. Still, putting one’s own spin on the non-jazz hits of the day is in fact a jazz tradition — one that’s as old as the genre itself.
This new song “CS60,” off their forthcoming III album, might be their farthest step in a new direction, but it still at least nods to fusion. Nevertheless, whether BADBADNOTGOOD is most comfortable being called a jazz trio or a synth-beat-rock outfit or just a group of musicians, they do bring something young and fresh to a genre that’s too often unfairly dismissed as old and stale. Stream it below, daddy-o.
• BADBADNOTGOOD: http://badbadnotgood.com
More about: BADBADNOTGOOD
