Photo by Guy Le Querrec
The Sons d'Hiver Festival, 2002: For the first time, a European audience saw the Minneapolis trio Happy Apple, who opened for Minnesota pianist Bill Carrothers. The trio was a smash. Happy Apple liked the reception, came back to Europe, and then went to Morocco. Working with producer Jean Rochard, they released their first European album, “Youth Oriented,” in the spring of 2003, after four self-produced records in the U.S. “Youth Oriented” hit home.
For the last few years in Minneapolis, Happy Apple has managed to touch the hearts of youngsters of both genders as well as their elders, and they’ve appeared not only in clubs seriously devoted to jazz, but also in shrines and other alternative spaces where hair-raising punk-rockers came to worship. Yet synthesis was not what they sought – not with any obstinacy, at least. They just made things happen. Happy Apple, of whom the New York Times’ Ben Ratliff wrote that they were “unquestionably one of the very best new jazz groups," were living brazenly through a period in which people were often content to use codes. The group, however, never ceased to dare, refusing both conventional politeness and polished conventions.
One evening, during a concert in Paris, they experienced the American invasion of Iraq in real time. It made them feel sick. Their memory of that evening is still charged with emotion. In France they’ve been looking for, and finding, those same feelings, marks that link them to their Twin Cities audience in offering hope that’s just. Their concerts are joyous little events. Curiosity led them back to Morocco and Marrakech, where, for one magical afternoon in a Riad, they renewed their acquaintance with the group of female Berber singers called B'net Houariyat, whom they’d met the previous year in Casablanca.
It’s that wandering spirit, mingled with their “home” roots, that makes up the tale told in The Peace Between Our Companies, a record of transits between Marrakech - Minneapolis - Paris, a record that has no qualms over shuffling the cards of reality and the imaginary together so as to make the deck even spicier.
Since Youth Oriented appeared, these young people have grown, and each of them has been involved in other personal projects – drummer David King with The Bad Plus, saxophonist Michael Lewis with Fat Kid Wednesdays, and bassist Erik Fratzke with Zebulon Pike – making Happy Apple a place for get-togethers filled with warmth and experience.
Last year, Happy Apple invited François Corneloup to share stage with them, and together they created a sensation.
