It was Dave King who came up with the name the Bad Plus. "It's about nothing," he said. "I thought — what if it was sort of graphic, like Pop Art, where it sounds like it means something, but it's not really direct? It's almost an oxymoron. The first logo was 'The Bad' and a plus sign. It was based on something simple and memorable that might mean something and might not, but it really doesn't."

Iverson said, "Lorraine Gordon of the Village Vanguard called it a report card, which is about as good as I ever heard."

Pamela Espeland