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Sex Mob:

Steven Bernstein

Steven Bernstein is a trumpeter/slide trumpeter, bandleader, arranger, and composer who lives outside of musical convention. He formed Sex Mob in 1995 and since then, the band has been touring the world, winning numerous awards, and has had their music featured on MTV, Saturday Night Live and NPR. Sexotica, recorded for Thirsty Ear's Blue series, and produced by Good and Evil is their most recent release. Their previous recording, Dime Grind Palace (Ropeadope), features legendary trombonist Roswell Rudd.

Briggan Krauss

Briggan Krauss attended Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, Washington where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in music performance in 1992. In 1994 Briggan moved to Brooklyn, New York where he still lives today.

Briggan Krauss

Briggan has performed and recorded with musicians such as John Zorn, Wayne Horvitz, Bill Frisell, Eyvind Kang, Robin Holcomb, Anthony Coleman, Madeski Martin and Wood, Ikue Mori, Bobby Previte, Jim Black, Joey Baron, the New York Composer’s Orchestra, Levon Helm, Trey Anastasio, Joan Wassser, and many others. He is also a founding member of Sex Mob which is celebrating it's tenth year as an ongoing, progressive and productive band. Briggan also plays in the Hal Willner project "Came So Far For Beauty" that is currently featured in the Loin's Gate movie "Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man".

Tony Scherr

Bassist Tony Scherr was born in New Haven, Connecticut and is self taught. He is best known as a bass player (both acoustic and electric), but he also plays slide and electric guitar. Tony has lived in New York for many years. He stays busy recording and touring in many bands including Sex Mob, Jesse Harris and the Ferdinandos, Joey Baron’s Killer Joey and The Maria Schneider Orchestra. In addition, Tony has played with Bill Frissell, John Scofield, John Lurie and The Lounge Lizards, Dakota Staton, Woody Herman, Chris Brown and Kate Fenner, Slowpoke, Al Grey, Jon Faddis, The Village Vanguard Orchestra, Sophie B. Hawkins, Junior Cook, Brad Shepik & the Commuters, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Stanley Turrentine, Steve Kuhn and Tricky. Tony also writes and sings his own songs accompanying himself on guitar. This material can be heard on his self-produced CD entitled, Come Around. Tony has contributed to film scores by John Lurie, Evan Lurie, Howard Shore and with members of Sonic Youth.

Kenny Wollesen

Kenny Wollesen grew up in Santa Cruz, California, moved to San Francisco early in his career and has since lived and worked in New York City. He has performed regularly with Bill Frisell as a member of his trios, the New Quartet and his septet with which he appeared on the album Blues Dream. He has played with John Zorn, Marc Ribot, John Medeski, Tom Waits, John Scofield, Jesse Harris and the Ferdinandos, Sean Lennon, Mitchell Froom, Big John Patton, John Lurie, Jim Hall, Jessica Williams and Myra Melford, and tours occasionally with Zorn’s Electric Masada. He also leads his own band, The Wollesens.

Happy Apple:

New Orleans, Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York are bona fide jazz capitals. You can add Minneapolis to that illustrious list, thanks to groups like Madhouse, The Bad Plus, and Happy Apple – that town’s non-traditional trio consisting of bassist Erik Fratzke, soprano-alto-tenor saxophonist/keyboardist Michael Lewis, and drummer David King – with Happy Apple Back on Top, the long-awaited follow up to their 2005 Sunnyside release, Peace Between Our Companies. On this eleven-track recording, their genre busting, take-no-prisoners approach to the “tradition” continues to change the shape of jazz in the twenty first century.

Think of Happy Apple as a hyper-band, created from the DNA of the Sonny Rollins Trio, Dreams, Tony Williams’s Lifetime, and the Police, and you’ll begin to comprehend how this towering triad, molds, shapes, constructs, and deconstructs jazz, rock, fusion, avant-garde, and Latin genres. “The New Bison,” is the midtempo opener awash with dark and lovely, industrial- style improvisations, followed by the rockish ostinato driven number, “Very Small Rock.” “1996 A.D” is perhaps the “freest” track on the date, with a spirited drum/sax dialogue, contrasted by the urban backbeats on “Rise! Marc Anthony” and the Dr. Dre grooved “Calgon for Hetfield.” “Lefse Los Cubanos,” shows that not even the Cuban clave remains unscathed from their transformative touch. “He’s Okay” is a twilight-toned ballad, and “Hence the Turtleneck” is a selection that gives the aural imagery of Pharaoh Sanders backed by Led Zeppelin on a slow drag!

In today's age, when every type of musical genre, from "fusion" to "jam band" has been reduced to marketing clichés, it is a rare occasion to hear an ensemble like this Minneapolis trio. On Allmusic.com, Steve Leggett writes, “... [l]ed by Lewis’ amazingly lyrical tenor sax playing and solid melodies written by all three members, Happy Apple keeps out of the fusion trap by implying rock dynamics without actually surrendering to them, giving the group a fresh, bright, and totally unique sound. Things can get hot and searing, certainly, and there is no aversion to sonic and free jazz experimenting, but the band always retains a strong melodic center.”

Iconoclastic explorations have been par for the course for this trio ever since they burst on the scene in 1996. Named after a Fisher-Price toy, Happy Apple’s previous releases: Blown Shockwaves & Crash Flow (which featured Cully Swansen on upright bass and Anton Denner on saxophone and flute), Part of the Solution Problem, Body Popping, Moon Walking, Top Rocking, Please Refrain From Fronting, Youth Oriented, and Peace Between Our Companies, were released from 1997 to 2005.

Happy Apple has built a loyal and diverse fan base from their hometown, to Manhattan and France. The New York Times wrote that they are "one of the best new jazz groups," while Down Beat hailed them as "intelligent, freewheeling fusion with rock energy." Whatever side of the musical spectrum you come from, Happy Apple will radiate you with their bopish licks and byte- happy beats. Put another way, this trailblazing trio uses jazz improvisation to drive from the gritty downtown dance beats to the sonic suburbs of the New Thing!

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