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These Are The Vistas

It only ever happened once that I impulse-bought an album because I heard it playing while I was in a record shop. It was at the Virgin Megastore in Cardiff, where, on the first floor of an otherwise open-plan store, there was an enclosed room where the classical and jazz recordings could be found. I was browsing through the classical CDs paying scant attention to the music until I discerned a distinctive melody: a jazz trio version of Aphex Twin's 'Flim'?

That caught my ear, and, when it was followed by an impressively manic arrangement of Blondie's 'Heart of Glass' I made my mind up to buy the album, conveniently on display at the counter: These Are the Vistas by The Bad Plus. It was the first time a contemporary jazz record had grabbed me so forcibly. I loved the whole thing, and found there was a third cover version on the disc in the shape of the trio's take on 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'.

The remaining eight tracks are all original compositions by the band-members. Of those, my favourites are 'Keep The Bugs Off Your Glass And The Bears Off Your Ass', written by drummer David King, but with bassist Reid Anderson taking the lead; and the sublime ballad 'Everywhere You Turn', a composition of Anderson's which blossoms out from (and back into) the quietest of pianissimos, with the melody delivered beautifully by Ethan Iverson at the piano.

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