(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass.) – Hard-driving modern jazz trio the Bad Plus joins forces with dynamic saxophonist and improviser Joshua Redman for a unique program at the Mahaiwe on Friday, August 8 at 8pm.

The Bad Plus initially gained fame for its innovative jazz versions of modern tunes by rock bands including Blondie, Nirvana, the Bee Gees, Radiohead and Queen; it also tackles pre-rock standards and Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring.”

After winning the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition In 1991, Joshua Redman garnered a major-label recording deal and was hailed as one of the new young lions of jazz, getting college students to flock to concert halls (including William College’s Chapin Hall) to hear original and improvised music in the same way Dave Brubeck once did several generations earlier. The son of jazz saxophonist Dewey Redman and dancer and librarian Renee Shedroff, Joshua Redman cites John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Cannonball Adderley, as well as the Beatles, Aretha Franklin, the Temptations, Earth, Wind and Fire, Prince, the Police and Led Zeppelin as musical influences on his post-bop style, according to Wikipedia.

“Redman’s intense and fiery tenor sax meshes with The Bad Plus’s skewed takes on standards, modern rock anthems, and their own compositions,” says Mahaiwe executive director Beryl Jolly. “

Tickets are $29 to $79. The Mahaiwe is located at 14 Castle Street in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Box office hours are Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 6:00pm and three hours before show times. A limited number of $15 tickets are available for patrons ages 30 and younger through the Mahaiwe ArtSmart Tix program, sponsored by Greylock Federal Credit Union. For tickets and information, see theMahaiwe or call 413.528.0100.