Happy Apple is an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

trio from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Initially formed in 1996 by David King (drums),

Michael Lewis Michael Monroe Lewis (born October 15, 1960) Gale Biography In Context. is an American author and financial journalist. He has also been a contributing editor to '' Vanity Fair'' since 2009, writing mostly on business, finance, and economics. H ...

(saxophone), Anton Denner (saxophone) and Cully Swansen (bass), since 1998 the lineup has consisted of King, Lewis, and bass guitarist Erik Fratzke. All three members compose music for the group, which places equal emphasis on

improvisation Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...

. Happy Apple plays a brand of

music drawing on several other

genres Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

; the group's members play in other bands ranging from

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

and heavy metal to

free jazz Free jazz is an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventions, such as regular tempos, tones, and chord changes. Musicians during ...

and

electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic co ...

. The best known of these is

The Bad Plus ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

, in which King also plays drums. The name Happy Apple comes from a

Fisher-Price Fisher-Price is an American company that produces educational toys for infants, toddlers and preschoolers, headquartered in East Aurora, New York, East Aurora, New York (state), New York. The company was founded in 1930 during the Great Depressio ...

toy from the 1970s which King often uses as an auxiliary

percussion instrument A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

Discography

Studio albums

* ''Blown Shockwaves & Crash Flow'' (Self-Released, 1997) * ''Part of the Solutionproblem'' (No Alternative, 1998) * ''Body Popping Moon Walking Top Rocking'' (No Alternative, 1999) * ''Please Refrain from Fronting'' (Self-Released, 2001) * ''Youth Oriented'' (Sunnyside, 2003) * ''The Peace Between Our Companies'' (Sunnyside, 2004 Europe, 2005 North America) * ''Happy Apple Back on Top'' (Sunnyside, 2007) * ''New York CD'' (Self-Released, 2020)

Live albums

* ''Jazzercise with the Elders/E Equals What I Says It Does/God Bless Certain Portions of the USA'' (Self-Released, 2000)

References

External links

Official site
{{Authority control American jazz ensembles from Minnesota Musical groups from Minnesota