Happy Apple bassist Erik Fratzke: “A lot of mysteries”

Happy Apple, photo credit Andrea Cantor

Three years ago, I was in Boston at Harmonix Music Systems, visiting a composer who works there. Harmonix is a studio known for making video games tied to music, like Guitar HeroRock Band and the fantastic motion-based game Fantasia: Music Evolved.*

When the composer, Steve Pardo, found out we were from Minneapolis, he starting professing his love for Happy Apple, a Twin Cities-based trio. He talked at great length about the influence that trio had on him as a musician, and that stuck with me. I agree with Steve: Happy Apple is a special group. Dave King is the drummer, Michael Lewis plays saxophone and Erik Fratzke is the bassist.

Erik came to the Jazz88 studio to talk about the trio’s upcoming shows at the Dakota on Friday, Aug. 24 at 7:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. Since Happy Apple hasn’t released an album in a while, I wondered what the occasion was for the Dakota shows. He said he wasn’t sure, and you can hear the rest of our conversation below.

Originally aired Friday, Aug. 24, 2018 on the Morning Show with Emily Reese.

 

*Harmonix has a great story, and you can hear an interview I did that day with one of the founders of Harmonix, Alex Rigopulos, here.


More Posts for Show: The Morning Show

Related Posts