[Sparks]

As my third pick in the draft, in the Best Jazz Album category, I would like to select The Bad Plus - Prog.

1. "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" (Chris Hughes/Roland Orzabal/Ian Stanley) - 5:34
2. "Physical Cities" (Reid Anderson) - 9:08
3. "Life on Mars?" (David Bowie) - 6:02
4. "Mint" (Ethan Iverson) - 5:20
5. "Giant" (Reid Anderson) - 8:44
6. "Thriftstore Jewelry" (Dave King) - 5:36
7. "Tom Sawyer" (Pye Dubois/Geddy Lee/Alex Lifeson/Neil Peart) - 5:10
8. "This Guy's in Love with You" (Burt Bacharach/Hal David) - 4:43
9. "The World is the Same" (Reid Anderson) - 9:08
10. "1980 World Champion" (Dave King) - 5:03

t's always hard to pick a best album in any category. This might not even be my favourite jazz album, and besides, these guys skirt the conventions of the genre much of the time. The problem is, this band is just so good, I had to pick them somewhere.

They have a lot of good material, but I think this album is the most consistent. There are some great covers (Everybody Wants to Rule the World, Tom Sawyer, etc) and some awesome original material.

Unfortunately, since it's pretty new, youtube is sorely lacking in good quality videos. Here are some older tunes just to give you a taste of this band if you've never heard them:

And Here We Test Our Powers of Observation


Anthem for the Earnest


From this album:
Physical Cities: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81YcNs82kyA
(Not an official video)