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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZFRISHBERG, Dave(b 23 March 1933, St Paul MN; d 17 November 2021, Portland OR) Songwriter, pianist, singer. Began on piano as a child; intended to be a journalist, but was inspired by Jimmy Rowles on Woody Herman small-group records '46 to be a professional pianist. Studied journalism at college, elected music courses; served in USAF '55-6, started jingle company and worked at WNEW radio NYC; toured with Kai Winding, played with Al Cohn and Zoot Sims, Ben Webster; recorded with Jimmy Rushing on ABC-Paramount and RCA; accompanied Carmen McRae, Blossom Dearie, Johnny Tillotson, Odetta; met and learned from Johnny Mercer and Frank Loesser. He wrote 'Peel Me A Grape' for Dick Haymes and Fran Jeffries '62. Back when there was a cabaret smart set, saloon singers sang his songs; Dearie's version of 'Peel Me A Grape' was his favorite. Another acerbic paean was 'My Attorney Bernie'. He wrote 'I'm Hip' to a tune by Bob Dorough, and funny songs to order for TV show The Funny Side '71 with Gene Kelly; he was a regular contributor to the long-running Saturday morning animated show Schoolhouse Rock. He worked with Herb Alpert, made an unreleased album with Anita O'Day '75. An underrated pianist who had obviously learned from Earl Hines, he began writing for himself and performing his own work with a trio, opening a Bing Crosby show in Concord CA '77. His are good American songs, marriages of music and words meant to be understood: witty, satirical and nostalgic at the same time, some are love songs in disguise, as Whitney Balliett described them. He told Balliett that Mercer and Loesser 'knew that good lyrics should be literate speech that says something in a lyrical way. They knew that good lyrics come up to the edge of poetry and turn left.' He wrote the tender, compassionate words to a Johnny Mandel tune that became the beauriful 'You Are There' '78; another bittersweet offering was 'Do You Miss New York?' Frishberg's voice was what Woody Allen might sound like if he were a cabaret singer, but he swung, and the slightly wimpish aspect helped the witty songs to complete success. The songs have been recorded by Dearie, Cleo Laine, etc; his own albums include an octet set '68 on CTI, Solo And Trio '75 on Seeds; two volumes of Songbook on Omnisound; Getting Some Fun Out Of Life and You're A Lucky Guy (Classics is probably a CD compilation) and Let's Eat Home '89, all on Concord; Live At Vine Street '84 and Can't Take You Nowhere '87 on Fantasy (made live in Hollywood and San Francisco); Where You At? '92 on Bloomdido. He accompanied Rebecca Kilgore on Not A Care In The World on Arbors. He was interviewed in a prize-winning documentary about the trumpeter-singer-actor in 2008 called Trying To Get Good: The Jazz Odyssey of Jack Sheldon. He published a memoir, My Dear Departed Past, in 2017. |