The Bad Plus
On Sacred Ground: Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring

Saturday, March 26, 2011 | 8:00 pm

Reynolds Industries Theater

In this world premiere event, America’s most “audacious, rule-breaking jazz trio” (Billboard) unveils its take on the most notorious work in the history of music. Stravinsky’s modernist bombshell draped ancient folk rites in churning polyrhythms, pitting ruthless advocates of new art against old-guard connoisseurs. Its insurrectionary 1913 premiere remains a touchstone of revolutionary music. Its 2011 rebirth is commissioned exclusively by Duke Performances from The Bad Plus, “an acoustic jazz trio for the future” (Blender), genre-blasting experimentalists “about as badass as highbrow gets” (Rolling Stone). As Durham shifts into spring, Stravinsky’s defiant ambition flowers again.

“With the most distinctive sound of any three-piece outfit since Nirvana, The Bad Plus…demonstrate vitality few bands—rock, jazz, or whatever—can match.”
—Amplifer

Presented in association with Duke University’s Music Department. The Bad Plus’ residency at Duke is funded, in part, with a visiting grant from the Council for the Arts, Office of the Provost, Duke University. 

The Bad Plus Residency at Duke University:
Fall Residency—Monday & Tuesday, October 25 & 26
Spring Residency—Tuesday & Wednesday, January 25 & 26
Culminating Residency—Thursday through Saturday, March 24-27

Thursday, March 24
The Bad Plus: Conversation and Demonstration
moderated by UNC Professor Mark Katz
Reynolds Theater, Duke’s West Campus, 7 pm

The Bad Plus will discuss and play samples of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and compare the original to segments of their arrangement of the work, On Sacred Ground: Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, which The Bad Plus will world premiere on Saturday, March 26, 2011.

Presented in conjunction with The Jazz Loft Project on view through July 10, co-sponsored by the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University and Duke’s Center for Documentary Studies.