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"Progressive jazz for a safer America..." Formed in 1996 in Minneapolis, members of the band are David King (drums), Michael Lewis (saxophones) and Erik Fratzke (electric bass).
All three members compose music for the group; which places equal emphasis on improvisation. Happy Apple plays a unique 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.
Their name comes from a Fisher-Price toy from the sixties, which King often uses as an auxiliary percussion instrument.
“Fiercely independent, fiery, fun, endlessly creative and effortlessly melodic, Happy Apple are the perfect jazz ensemble for the 21st century, keeping one foot pointed forward toward the stars and the other knowingly planted in the rich jazz tradition of improvisation around structure. These guys are the real thing.” Allmusic.com
"There's a small subgenre of bands right now that are making a tricky but inevitable connection: the combustible energy, sardonic attitudes and harsh, crackling timbres of indie rock and the musicianship, improvisational logic and humanism of jazz. ... [THE PEACE BETWEEN OUR COMPANIES] comes in like a lion with "Starchild Cranium," but that full-on clank has nothing to do with the serenity of the winding ballad "Ella by Nightlight," near the end. It's nice to hear a band with such radically different dispositions." New York Times
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