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All Music Guide:
Named after a child's toy from the 1960s, jazz trio Happy Apple was formed in Minneapolis, MN, in 1996 by saxophonist Michael Lewis and drummer David King, with bassist Erik Fratzke joining soon after. Their clever and melodic small-combo improvisations have been termed "jazz punk," but Happy Apple has a grasp of the entire history of jazz, and the trio's elegant free-bop compositions are full of haunting melodies, delightful flashes of humor, and intelligent, coherent construction. Led by Lewis' amazingly lyrical tenor sax playing and solid melodies written by all three members, Happy Apple keeps out of the fusion trap by implying rock dynamics without actually surrendering to them, giving the group a fresh, bright, and totally unique sound. Things can get hot and searing, certainly, and there is no aversion to sonic and free jazz experimenting, but the band always retains a strong melodic center. Happy Apple has released four independent albums, Blown Shockward and Crash Flow (1997), Part of the Solution Problem (1998), Body Popping, Moon Walking, Top Rocking (1999), and Please Refrain from Fronting (2001). Youth Oriented, the group's first commercial album, was released in 2003 by Universal Music and is distributed in the U.S. by Sunnyside Records. Peace Between Our Companies, again distributed by Sunnyside, came out in 2005. Happy Apple tours regularly and continues to use Minneapolis as a home base.
Wikipedia:
Happy Apple is an American jazz trio.
Formed in 1996 in Minneapolis, members of the band are David King (drums), Michael Lewis (saxophone) and Erik Fratzke (electric bass).
All three members compose music for the group, which places equal emphasis on improvisation. Happy Apple plays a brand of jazz music drawing on several other genres; the group's members play in other bands ranging from indie rock and heavy metal to free jazz and electronic. The best known of these is The Bad Plus, in which King also plays drums.
The name Happy Apple comes from a Fisher-Price toy from the seventies, which King often uses as an auxiliary percussion instrument.
Happy Apple Back on Top (2007)
During an interview with David King's father at the release party concert (Artist's Quarter), Pops King, as he is called, revealed that the pink points at the bottom of the album art are mountains drawn by David King's daughter. He also revealed that the man surrounded by wings in the background is a self-portrait by Matt Friesen from the band Halloween, Alaska.