BadBadNotGood

BadBadNotGood (stylized as BADBADNOTGOOD, abbreviated as BBNG) is a post-bop, instrumental hip hop jazz trio from Toronto, Ontario. The group includes Matthew Tavares on keys, Chester Hansen on bass, and Alexander Sowinski on drums. The trio is known for their interpretations of hip hop tracks and their collaborations with Tyler, The Creator and Frank Ocean.

Beginnings
Matthew Tavares, Alexander Sowinski, and Chester Hansen met in 2010 through the Humber College jazz program in Toronto. The young threesome united over a shared love for hip hop music, including that of MF DOOM and Odd Future. Hansen plays acoustic and electric bass in the group, while Sowinski, who often dons a pig mask during performances, is on drums and sampler. Tavares rounds out the trio, banging out rhythms on a Prophet '08 and electric piano.

One of BadBadNotGood's first collaborations was a cover of "Lemonade" by Gucci Mane. They played a piece based on Odd Future's music for a panel of their jazz performance instructors, who did not find that it had musical value. After they released the track on YouTube as The Odd Future Sessions Part 1, it got the attention of rapper Tyler, The Creator, who felt differently and helped the trio's video go viral.

BBNG
BBNG uploaded their debut album to Bandcamp in June 2011, which included covers of songs from A Tribe Called Quest, Waka Flocka Flame and several tracks from Odd Future. The trio had their first show at The Red Light in Toronto. In September 2011, they released their first album, BBNG, recorded in a three hour session. Dante Alighieri on Sputnikmusic called the album "a welcome reinterpretation of modern jazz without the pretense of snotty wine parties and thick rimmed hipster dinosaurs."

BBNG recorded a live jam session with Tyler, The Creator in Sowinski's basement in October 2011. Videos from the session received more than a million views between them on YouTube.

The trio opened for Roy Ayers at the Nujazz Festival in January 2012 and played for Gilles Peterson's Worldwide Awards in London. At a February tribute to J Dilla in Toronto, their covers of "Lemonade" and "Hard in da Paint" had hundreds moshing.

BBNG2
BadBadNotGood released their second album, BBNG2, in April 2012. Recorded from a ten hour studio session, it features Leland Whitty on saxophone and Luan Phung playing electric guitar. The notes to the album indicate that "No one above the age of 21 was involved in the making of this album." The album has original material as well as covers of songs by Kanye West, My Bloody Valentine, James Blake and Feist.

The trio was the band-in-residence at the 2012 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and backed Frank Ocean of Odd Future both weekends.

Other Projects
BADBADNOTGOOD assisted in production and musical composition for the soundtrack of The Man with the Iron Fists.

Future
Both Tavares and Hansen have since withdrawn from Humber, while Sowinski remains enrolled "for the school's dental plan." BBNG plans to release their third album, BBNG3, in 2013. They are also planning a tour of the East Coast that Spring. They have also announced that one of their future releases will be on vinyl. The group produced "Hoarse" on Odd Future member Earl Sweatshirt's studio debut, Doris, and "GUV'NOR", a remix on JJ DOOM's Key to the Kuffs (Butter Edition). On June 20, the band released the first single from BBNG3, "Hedron".

Reception
Paula Mejia, in a Prefix magazine review, called BADBADNOTGOOD "a jazz trio on paper -- but often strange, forever imaginative, and ultimately revolutionary hip-hop and electronic beatmakers at heart." NOW magazine's Anupa Mistry has lauded BBNG's "spastic, sonorous, genre-fucking rap covers." Jerell Tongson, in describing BADBADNOTGOOD's hip hop influences, wrote that the group "deconstruct the four bar loops, understanding how to work crescendos by stretching out and reshaping the music into their own vision of silky smooth key progressions, pounding drums, and tasty bass lines."

Band members

 * Matthew A. Tavares - Keyboards
 * Alexander Sowinski - Drums, percussion
 * Chester Hansen - Double bass, bass guitar

Studio albums

 * BBNG (September 2011)
 * BBNG2 (April 2012)
 * BBNG3 (TBA 2013)

Live albums

 * BBNGLIVE 1 (November 2011)
 * BBNGLIVE 2 (February 2012)

Singles

 * BBNGSINGLE (December 2011)
 * Hedron (June 2013)

Productions

 * Idle Warship - "Get Your Way (Sex Is a Weapon)" from The Man with the Iron Fists (2012)
 * Wu-Tang Clan & Kool G Rap - "Rivers of Blood" from The Man with the Iron Fists (2012)
 * Earl Sweatshirt - "Hoarse" from Doris (2013)

Remixes

 * Soulja Boy - "Pretty Boy Swag Remix" (2012)
 * JJ DOOM - "Guv'nor (BADBADNOTGOOD Version)" from Key to the Kuffs (Butter Version) (2013)