Jazz enthusiasts knew pianist and songwriter Dave Frishberg for the refined humor that marked both his lyric writing and his live shows. His keyboard touch carried the robust elegance of 1920s stylists such as Fats Waller and Jelly Roll Morton yet tempered those roots with contemporary poise, revealing a gift for pairing levity with sophistication. Frishberg’s lyrics stood out for their playful literacy and sharp timing, which endeared him to cabaret performers and jazz singers. One encounters him in peak form on the 1984 solo recording Live at Vine Street, an evening built largely around his own pieces, although his debut album Oklahoma Toad from 1970 experimented with placing those songs inside a modern jazz setting, and The Starlit Hour in 2001 joined a long line of collaborative dates that featured vocalist Rebecca Kilgore.
Dave Frishberg entered the world in St. Paul, Minnesota on March 23, 1933. As a youngster he took conventional piano lessons, yet he soon gravitated toward classic blues and boogie-woogie, admiring players like Pete Johnson and Jay McShann. While still in his teens he proved skilled enough to sit in the house band at the Flame, a St. Paul nightclub that regularly welcomed Art Tatum and Billie Holiday. After high school he attended the University of Minnesota to study journalism. Following graduation and a stint in the Air Force, he moved to New York City in 1957 intent on breaking into its jazz scene. Steady work followed at the Duplex in Greenwich Village, where his reputation as a first-rate pianist quickly grew; before long he was appearing alongside Ben Webster, Zoot Sims, and Gene Krupa and serving as accompanist for vocalists including Anita O’Day, Carmen McRae, and Irene Kral. Extended collaborations with singers sparked his interest in songwriting, and he began pairing melodies with wry lyrics on numbers such as “I’m Hip,” “My Attorney Bernie,” “Peel Me a Grape,” “I Want to Be a Sideman,” and “Van Lingle Mungo,” the last a baseball tribute whose words consisted entirely of names of long-forgotten players.
By the close of the 1960s Frishberg had established himself as both pianist and composer, and in 1970 he recorded his first album, Oklahoma Toad, for CTI Records, merging his signature vintage approach with updated production and charts. Armed with credits as both leader and sideman, he shifted to Los Angeles in 1971, where studio calls and club dates kept him busy. His piano appears on recordings by Herb Alpert, the Manhattan Transfer, Jimmy Rushing, Bud Freeman, and numerous others. Greater recording opportunities in Los Angeles led to his second leader date, Solo and Trio, issued on Seeds Records in 1974. Subsequent albums appeared on several prominent jazz imprints: Concord Jazz released Getting Some Fun Out of Life in 1977 and You’re a Lucky Guy in 1978; Fantasy issued Live at Vine Street in 1984 and Can’t Take You Nowhere in 1986; Arbors Records brought out Double Play with Jim Goodwin in 1992, Quality Time in 1993, and Do You Miss New York in 2003; Blue Note offered Who’s on First with Bob Dorough in 2000. Additional sessions paired him with vocalists Rebecca Kilgore on Not a Care in the World in 1997 and Jessica Molaskey on At the Algonquin in 2012.
In 1973 Frishberg launched one of his best-known endeavors, contributing songs to the Saturday-morning educational series Schoolhouse Rock that included “I’m Just a Bill,” “Conjunction Junction,” and “Elementary, My Dear.” He relocated to Portland, Oregon in 1986 and kept composing and performing, making regular appearances on the public-radio program A Prairie Home Companion and playing clubs and festivals nationwide. He also created the musical play Quality Time, which premiered at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater in 1996. Dave Frishberg died in Portland, Oregon on November 17, 2021 after an extended illness; he was 88.
