R.I.P. Johnny Frigo

[EKE BBB]

Johnny Frigo 1916 - 2007

Jazz legend switched from bass to violin

Chicago musician also played background for commercials, co-wrote songs and penned 'Hey, Hey, Holy Mackerel' in honor of '69 Cubs

By John Keilman

Tribune staff reporter

Published July 5, 2007

Johnny Frigo, 90, a musician whose skill, encyclopedic song recall and late career switch from bass to violin made him a legend in jazz joints from Chicago to Europe, died Wednesday, July 4, of complications related to a fall, his family said.

Born on Chicago's South Side, Mr. Frigo took up the violin as a kid at the suggestion of the local junkman, whose son taught the instrument for 25 cents per lesson.

It turned out to be the first step on a serpentine musical path. In a 1992 interview with the Tribune, Mr. Frigo said his junior high orchestra was filled with violin players, so he had to switch to the tuba. He changed instruments again in high school, taking up the string bass so he could attract girls by playing in dance bands.

It turned out to be a shrewd decision -- as soon as he graduated he found work playing the bass in clubs across town. He sang too, though one of his bosses might have had a different word for his vocal ability.

"We were on radio, and one night while I was singing the song 'One Minute to One,' my voice cracked as I hit a high note," Mr. Frigo had recalled. "The owners apparently didn't like what they heard, because the next night I went on the air and right in the middle of my song, one of the bouncers grabbed me by the neck and dragged me off by my heels."

He went on to play with the big bands of Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey and with an orchestra led by Chico Marx, one of Hollywood's Marx Brothers. After serving in the Coast Guard in World War II, he returned to Chicago and became a specialist in the burgeoning field of background music for radio and TV commercials.

"He was the kind of musician that people in the business look for -- somebody who can improvise a little jazz, read around corners, play anything that's put in front of him," said Dick Buckley, a longtime jazz radio host in Chicago.

Mr. Frigo was at a casting call for a commercial in the 1960s when he met the girl who would become his third wife. Brittney Browne, then a teenage aspiring actress, said they married a few years later and maintained an unusual long-distance relationship: She pursued her career in Los Angeles and New York and he stayed in Chicago, busy with his gigs and studio work.

Mr. Frigo also co-wrote such songs as "Detour Ahead" and "I Told Ya I Love Ya, Now Get Out!" But his best known tune was probably "Hey, Hey, Holy Mackerel," a novelty piece he wrote in honor of the 1969 Cubs -- before they collapsed.

Though Mr. Frigo made a good living from the bass, he never stopped practicing the violin. And in the 1980s, when he was approaching 70, he switched instruments yet again.

"I started to realize that I wouldn't be able to compete much longer with these kids coming up playing electric bass who knew every lick from every bass player," he said in an interview. "I thought, 'With all this knowledge I have on violin, why not pursue that?'"

Jazz violinists are a rare breed and Mr. Frigo swiftly established himself as the best, said Chicago jazz impresario Joe Segal.

"Johnny had a great sound when he was playing," he said. "Most of the youngsters now have that electric sound, like a couple of cats fighting on a tin roof."

Mr. Frigo booked regular gigs at the Green Mill Jazz Club, and owner Dave Jemilo said he was like a human jukebox, capable of playing everything from jazz standards to show tunes to more obscure fare.

"An old guy would call out, 'Play Hungarian Waltz No. 5,' and he'd do it," Jemilo said. "How many guys can do that?"

Other musicians recalled Mr. Frigo's virtuosic technique. Pianist Joe Vito said jazz and classical musicians filled the room at the Toulouse Cognac Bar to hear him play. Pianist and harmonica player Howard Levy remembered how the tune "My Romance" brought out the best in both of them.

"Whether it was recorded or live, it always felt extremely special," he said. "Things you can't put into words came out in the music."

Mr. Frigo wasn't stuck in the past, but kept trying to move his music forward by playing with new people and different bands, Jemilo said.

Health problems forced him to cancel some appearances last year, but his wife said he was planning to play festivals in Italy and Holland before he fell in the lobby of his condo building two weeks ago.

He went to the hospital with fractured vertebrae and a broken pelvis and never recovered.

Mr. Frigo was preceded in death by his son Derek, a rock guitarist who died in 2004.

Besides his wife, survivors include a son, Rick, a jazz drummer; and a sister, Dolly Bray.

Memorial services have yet to be arranged.

[White Lightning]

[Big Al]

Wow, sounds like he led quite a life!

[Free For All]

Wow, first Eldee Young and now Johnny Frigo. Sad news. Johnny Frigo was a great musician with a great sense of humor. Also, he was in part responsible for the great jazz standard "Detour Ahead" (IIRC, there was a framed lead sheet in Andy's).

The legends are leaving us.

RIP.

[Hot Ptah]

His "Live at the Floating Jazz Festival" album, released in the late 1990s, should not be missed. It is one of the better jazz violin albums I have heard, by anyone.

[sheldonm]

Wow, first Eldee Young and now Johnny Frigo. Sad news. Johnny Frigo was a great musician with a great sense of humor. Also, he was in part responsible for the great jazz standard "Detour Ahead" (IIRC, there was a framed lead sheet in Andy's).

The legends are leaving us.

RIP.

Johnny was a funny guy and wonderful player. I had the chance to talk with him for a few minutes at Joe Segal's 80th Birthday party in 2006....I have some nice photos I'll post of him later today.

R.I.P. Johnny

[sal]

How sad! A wonderful musician has left us.

[Larry Kart]

Johnny Frigo story from another site. The poster is former Down Beat editor/record producer Jack Tracy:

Johnny was not only a fine, creative musician, a talented painter, poet and

songwriter, but as my friend Don Gold so nicely put it, "great company between

sets."

One of my favorite Frigo moments came one day when he and I stood chatting at

Universal recording studios in Chicago and an auto driver who was editing some

racing tapes excitedly asked us to come into the editing room to hear what he

had recorded.

"Hear that?" he said, "Hear that? ...... That was my car coming down the

stretch."

Johnny looked over and remarked dryly, "Sounded like you were rushing."

[Free For All]

I'm trying to remember the piano player who Johnny worked with a lot- there's a picture of them on the piano at the Green Mill. I'm thinking it was Joe Vito- did I get the name right? I played with him a few times at the Mill.

[Larry Kart]

Yes, Joe Vito.

[mikeweil]

R.I.P.

I "discovered" him only last year - great violinist!

[paul secor]

90 years & playing up til the end - doesn't sound like a bad life.

[sheldonm]

Here are a few photos from the last time I saw Johnny. Although he didn't play this night he had the crown in stitches with his stories!

m~

Edited July 6, 2007 by sheldonm

[sheldonm]

...another

[sheldonm]

...and that's all! R.I.P. Johnny!

[alocispepraluger102]

now listening to him in a bass, piano, guitar trio from the 50's. beautiful beautiful music. shearing, early peterson, type music.