Happy Apple, Even Happier

When: CD release show, Aug. 31–Sept. 2
Where: Artists’ Quarter, 408 St. Peter St., St. Paul, 651-292-1359, happyapplemusic.net

Happy Apple Back On Top, improv jazz trio Happy Apple’s follow-up to 2005’s The Peace Between Our Companies, opens with a swanky bass line from Erik Fratzke, followed by saxophonist Michael Lewis and drummer David King simultaneously kicking in to rocket the song into a funkified jazz conversation. The swaggering rhythm felt in the opening song, “The New Bison,” reappears throughout the disk, weaving between the lightest drum brushes and soft soprano sax melodies back to harder, head-bobbing diatribes and back again.

This seventh album in the trio’s eleven-year history has plenty of influences—Latin, electronica, and rock can be plucked out of several tunes. The result is an album that’s not quite schizophrenic, but definitely has bipolar tendencies—in a good way. Its balance of rhythmic tunes (“Very Small Rock,” “Calgon for Hetfield”), ballads (“He’s OK”), and frenetic, often dissonant songs (“1996 A.D.,” “Lefse Los Cubanos,” “Density in Dan’s Fan City”) showcases the band’s versatility and range. It’s not entirely clear which musical mountain Happy Apple is trying to climb, but the ascent is always thrilling, because this is a band that isn’t afraid to flirt with danger.

Happy Apple Back On Top is available in stores August 28.