Saturday,
January 26 at 8pm
Ars
Nova Workshop in Residence
Happy
Apple
with
David
King,
drums;
Michael
Lewis,
saxophones;
Erik
Fratzke,
Fender bass
New
Orleans, Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York
are bona fide jazz capitals. You can add Minneapolis
to that illustrious list, thanks to groups
like Madhouse, The Bad Plus, and Happy Apple
– that town’s non-traditional trio consisting
of bassist Erik Fratzke, soprano-alto-tenor
saxophonist/keyboardist Michael Lewis, and
drummer David King – with Happy Apple Back
on Top, the long-awaited follow up to their
2005 Sunnyside release, Peace Between Our
Companies. On this eleven-track recording,
their genre busting, take-no-prisoners approach
to the “tradition” continues to change the
shape of jazz in the twenty first century.
Think
of Happy Apple as a hyper-band, created from
the DNA of the Sonny Rollins Trio, Dreams,
Tony Williams’s Lifetime, and the Police,
and you’ll begin to comprehend how this towering
triad, molds, shapes, constructs, and deconstructs
jazz, rock, fusion, avant-garde, and Latin
genres. “The New Bison,” is the midtempo opener
awash with dark and lovely, industrial style
improvisations, followed by the rockish ostinato
driven number, “Very Small Rock.” “1996 A.D”
is perhaps the “freest” track on the date,
with a spirited drum/sax dialogue, contrasted
by the urban backbeats on “Rise! Marc Anthony”
and the Dr. Dre grooved “Calgon for Hetfield.”
“Lefse Los Cubanos,” shows that not even the
Cuban clave remains unscathed from their transformative
touch. “He’s Okay” is a twilight-toned ballad,
and “Hence the Turtleneck” is a selection
that gives the aural imagery of Pharaoh Sanders
backed by Led Zeppelin on a slow drag!
