The Bad Plus.

"I've never owned a radio, really, or really listened to it," says Ethan Iverson, piano player in Minnesota-by-way-of-New York jazz "power trio" the Bad Plus. "I've always pursued all sorts of music just through getting records and stuff."

One form of music, though, that had escaped Iverson until recently is rock. "It's...not my first language," he explains. "I still don't know that much about [it]. I'm the nerd of the band." Nonetheless, because his bandmates, upright bassist Reid Anderson and drummer David King, are also rock musicians with a "real understanding of the language," the Bad Plus are able to add "genuine rock 'n' roll heft" to their jazz compositions.

The end result, as showcased on their second album, These Are the Vistas (their major-label debut, released in February), is music that, arrangement-wise, keeps both feet planted firmly in the world of jazz but, thanks to aggressive, spirited phrasing, also maintains a rock heartbeat. Additionally, the Bad Plus sidestep the more traditional approach of featuring the piano as the main instrument. The equal prominence of their three instruments is, again, something that Iverson, King and Anderson borrow from rock. On Vistas, it becomes immediately apparent how level the sonic playing field is between them, and for the record's duration, it's as if all three are playing two inches from your head.

"So often, [with] this instrumentation," Iverson says, "it's like the piano player is up front and the bass and drums are quietly accompanying in the background. That is not the situation in the Bad Plus-and I wouldn't have it any other way."

Iverson is refreshingly unpretentious when he talks about the band's intentions and overall approach, so it's no surprise to find that, like players in jazz's early days, the Bad Plus have no aversion to pop culture. Thankfully, their nods to popular music are devoid of irony and do not ask for over-analysis.

Combine all these traits and the Bad Plus are positioned to play an ambassador role for jazz, not unlike the way Medeski, Martin & Wood, Drums & Tuba and Charlie Hunter (among others) draw crowds from seemingly disparate camps. But unlike those first two bands, the Bad Plus really aren't creating overt new fusions of different forms-at least not so far. They share more with Charlie Hunter in that their style is more traditionally rooted. It's their energy that can potentially bring them-followed, perhaps, by a trail of other artists-into the home of the average person.

"If you play with a lot of energy," says Iverson, "it doesn't matter how abstract your music is. If you look at jazz in the 50s and the 60s or even earlier, this is something that they understood really well. [With] some great jazz groups today, there isn't a whole lot of heat coming off the stage in some senses."

For their upcoming six-night return to the Village Vanguard (their second such engagement there this year),the Bad Plus will be playing a wealth of material from the next album, Give, which they begin recording in October. Ear plugs are advised