BADBADNOTGOOD is a young supremely talented trio of musicians made up of Matthew Tavares on keys, Chester Hansen on bass, and Alex Sowinski on drums. Since their inception at Humber College’s Music Performance program in 2011, the three have challenged the rule book on improvised instrumental music and taken jazz tradition into the future.

With early champions including acclaimed BBC broadcaster Gilles Peterson and Tyler The Creator who helped fuel their discovery with a series of live jams that instantly went viral and dubbed them the “Odd Trio”, the band released their first EP BBNG in June 2011 to wide praise. The marriage of jazz virtuosity and hip hop source material offered a fresh take on the traditional “standard” applied to hip hop classics by taking on choice cuts from the golden era rap cannon and writing inspired arrangements for them instead of one-dimensional covers.

Now, the inseparable friends are prepping to release their biggest project to dateIII on prodigious young label Innovative Leisure, a highly-anticipated project ushering in the group’s newest explorations which are proving to be limitless.

“BADBADNOTGOOD is a hip-hop jazz band from Toronto who’s doing a pretty admirable job at kicking the jazz world’s ass back into relevancy.” Vice

“BABADNOTGOOD’s approach is much less refined and inten- tionally so, with a brash attitude and youthful energy winning out over technique.” NPR

“They deconstruct the four bar loops, understanding how to work crescendos by stretching out and reshaping the music into their own vision” Huffington Post

“…even given the fairly proud lineage of wild musical juxtaposition, these kids are making waves.” The Guardian UK