Search - Happy Apple :: Peace Between Our Companies

Avant-garde accessibility

a superintelligent shade of the col | minneapolis | 02/25/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was at the cd release concert for this album. Here's something you don't see every day... an avant-garde (effectively) acoustic jazz trio playing for an audience of over a thousand twenty- and thirty-something hipsters, filling a large venue two nights in a row! But Happy Apple can do that. Why?



BECAUSE THEY'RE RELEVANT.



Listen up, Stanley Crouch and Wynton Marsalis and all you other necrophiliac pinheads penning your whining editorials about how kids today don't listen to jazz... RELEVANCE MATTERS. We don't want to go along on your nostalgia trip. We want jazz that sounds like it was created in the 21st century. Happy Apple is exactly that. Don't complain that the drums are too loud (ever heard Elvin Jones?) Don't complain that they're white. Just note that this band can draw a serious audience of young, hip intellectuals to listen to some seriously out-there improvisation. Why? Because their music tradition didn't end in 1962!



Bands like Happy Apple are keeping jazz alive and fresh."

Happy Apple--morphed into some kinda ur-jazz/rock zone

Jan P. Dennis | Monument, CO USA | 02/06/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"What a huge advance over their pretty spectacular Youth Oriented.



Every once in a while a band hits on just the right aesthetic. Who knows why. It just seems to happen.



That's what's going on here. The perfectly credible rockish jazzy band Happy Apple, after a number of very good, if somewhat workmanlike discs, here breaks out with a session that blasts their past efforts (not to mention just about all the other contenders) into smithereens.



From the first number's throbbing, insistent, in-your-face, bounding, cavorting, and thrumming sensibility, to the controlled aural chaos of "Go [Base 13]," the final cut, these lads establish a sonic authority and presence of huge proportions.



What they've have done here is fully grow into their initially brilliant but somewhat underrealized rockish-jazz fusion vibe. There's a huge freedom, a kind of devil-may-care insouciant recklessness only hinted at in their previous efforts: They've locked into their particular musical vision so tightly here that they almost sound like a new band, although close listening connects their present moves with past efforts.



Dave King clearly establishes himself as the absolute maven of demented rock/jazz percussion (just listen to his intro to "See Sun Spot Run," the longest and most ambitious number on the disc). As far as artistic growth is concerned, the clear award goes to Michael Lewis, who, with this disc, vaults himself into the very front ranks of young wind players. And e-bassist Erik Fratzke also demonstrates some monster chops.



Just slightly beaten out by Return by Bill Connors as my disc of the year (and who knows; that may change). Highest recommendation."

Understated excellence

Nathan Eliot | Hopkins, MN United States | 09/05/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"While not my favorite Happy Apple album, it is still a masterpiece communicatively and compositionally. From the abstract form and subtle textures of Freelance Robotics (which the drummer wrote and plays waterphone on) to the playful synchopation of Paulie's Quick Temper, to the minimal and soothingly-pronounced grooves of Let's Not Reflect. This CD is best listened to at home with undivided attention, like at their shows. People show up to absorb. It is incredibly powerful stuff if you let it shower your ears heart and soul. If you can't keep up with the forms, stop counting and just let yourself feel it. Many often mistake the really out solo sections to be "free" jazz. NOPE. Listen again musicians. and again. There's a method to what they do. It's a fierce focus married with monster talent. They continue to evolve. Seriously if you get a chance, see them live. I was disappointed that this album did not have many of their newest tunes they had been showcasing for months prior to its release but I've been drawn back to it recently. I have not heard the French release but this version is incredible on its own. That's all for now."