Sat Nov. 3

       The Bad Plus are one of the bands people who aren’t even normally interested in jazz have heard about. Partly, that’s because they’ve jazzified Nirvana, Aphex Twin, Blondie and others. Now, on their latest CD, "Prog," they tackle Tears for Fears’ "Everybody Wants to Rule the World," David Bowie’s "Life on Mars," Rush’s "Tom Sawyer" and Burt Bachrach’s "This Guy’s in Love with You."

      "It’s an artistic challenge to take contemporary pop music and make it work within a band such as ours and bring improvisation into it," explains bassist Reid Anderson, just before the band leaves for a European tour. "There’s no roadmap for that kind of stuff. It also connects with us and the audience as well. It’s an inclusive energy. We’ve been baffled by people thinking it’s a joke or ironic." Take "Life on Mars." "It fit our set of invisible criteria," says Anderson. "We like the song, we feel like we can do something with it, it has a distinctive melody and it’s interesting on its own as piece of music. We’re interested in complex emotions. And with David Bowie, you already You have a relationship. There’s a rich emotional texture." Anderson plays the Regattabar Saturday Nov. 3 at 7:30 and 10 p.m. (the second of a two-night stand) with his mates, keyboardist Ethan Iverson and drummer David King. Anderson and King were buddies going back to high school in Minnesota; the three have known each other since 1990. But it wasn’t until 2001 that they came together as the Bad Plus – and took a certain part of the world by storm.

"I think that what we did was to lay claim to the idea that we have the right to channel our life experiences through this music," explains Anderson. "That’s something jazz has been struggling with in recent decades – the emphasis on tradition. Jazz musicians are often put under pressure to recreate this thing that came out of a social environment in a different time from today. I think we pretty firmly planted our flag in the present, and I firmly believe we will continue to do so. We believe this music can reach everybody. We don’t believe in jazz as a niche. When I was learning about jazz, I hadn’t been turned onto Coltrane, it was a stop I made on the way, just as I was looking for things other than (pop music). It was just curiosity. David and I were from same part of world, and we’d check things out of the library like Earl Hines and bring it home. It spoke to me on a couple different levels. I was passionate about music and playing the instrument – so one level was it was ‘Wow this is real virtuosity! Oh my god, how did they do that?’ It was motivating and inspiring. The things I liked – Ornette, Keith Jarrett, Monk, Coltrane – were things that had a real pop sensibility, music that was about the song, delivering something cohesive."

"Prog," says Anderson is an obvious "reference to prog rock which was really important to me and Dave. It was a gateway to jazz, with all these guys are pushing the envelope. The inspiring thing is the exploration, the key."

Of the original tunes, Anderson has the most songwriting credits on "Prog," but he says, "We’re a collective in every way. There is a core cloud of emotions I try to define with a piece of music, and I try to be objective about it. I try to write music I’d like to listen to myself. We play older material all the time and really enjoy it."

Some people think a lot of jazz is ascetic. That, well, there’s not that much heart and soul. Not Anderson. "There’s no other reason to do it. I think people are exposed to a lot of jazz that doesn’t have a lot of heart and soul or isn’t coming from the right place spiritually. … With us, when we got back together, it was pretty immediate. We were friends all that time, so when we got back together there were three fairly established personalities and we happened to have that chemistry. That’s the core of what we do. We each trust each others musical instincts. Everyone has trust at such a high level, a constant push and pull. In every given performance, the ball the is passed around constantly. Improvisation is the essence of what we’re doing. Tickets: $26.