Frishberg Dave

Dave Frishberg has enjoyed a career remarkable for both its quality and its diversity. Long known as one of the outstanding pianists in jazz, Frishberg has also established himself as an internationally recognized composer and lyricist as well as a solo performer with a loyal following.

After journalism school at the University of Minnesota and service in the Air Force, he left St. Paul and headed east to become part of the New York City jazz scene of the 1960s. He was a busy pianist in New York City, playing regularly with the major jazz artists of the time, including Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, Ben Webster, Gene Krupa and Bobby Hackett. As a singers’ accompanist, he played for such diverse stylists as Carmen McRae, Dick Haymes, Anita O’Day and Irene Kral. His piano work is featured on recordings by The Manhattan Transfer, Herb Alpert, Lani Hall, Jimmy Rushing, Bill Berry, Bud Freeman, Susannah McCorkle, Rebecca Kilgore, and many other jazz and pop artists.

Long known as one of the outstanding pianists in jazz, Frishberg has since the early 1980s established himself as an internationally recognized composer and lyricist as well as a solo performer with a loyal following in both jazz and cabaret circles. Four of his albums have won Grammy nominations for best jazz vocal.

Frishberg’s unclassifiable but ever-identifiable songs, including cult classics “Peel Me A Grape”, “I’m Hip”, “You Are There”, “My Attorney Bernie” and “Heart’s Desire”, are now widely performed and have been recorded by Blossom Dearie, Mel Torme, Rosemary Clooney, Michael Feinstein, Diana Krall, Bette Midler, Suzannah McCorkle, Tony Bennett, and many others.

His songs are carefully designed pieces that are often wry and witty, occasionally tender and bittersweet, and sometimes contain pointed observations and characterizations of people we all seem to know. Typified by verbal and musical craftiness, they are songs written for adults, or at least for audiences that wouldn’t mind growing up. They are stamped with his unique musical personality: quirky lyrics you can’t get out of your head, memorable melodies that work so well with the words, and often a harking back to the America of his childhood in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Described by critics as a cross between Hoagy Carmichael, Woody Allen, and Noel Coward, and linked as a craftsman with Mercer, Porter and Sondheim, Frishberg describes himself as “a pianist who has always written songs and finally summoned up the nerve to sing them in public.”

His songs appeared regularly on ABC Television’s popular Schoolhouse Rock series, including “Seven-Fifty Once A Week”, “Walkin’ On Wall Street” and the well-known “I’m Just A Bill”. Frishberg’s three-character musical show “Quality Time” premiered at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater in 1996.

Thanks to his four Grammy-nominated albums and his appearances on The Tonight Show, CBS’ “Sunday Morning”, and public radio’s “Prairie Home Companion”, and “Fresh Air”, Frishberg has become an increasingly familiar figure as a solo performer at festivals and clubs, on cabaret stages and in concert halls in America and abroad.

His current recordings are on the Arbors Jazz label. Earlier Frishberg albums are available on the Concord and Fantasy labels.

“Few contemporary writers have produced as many songs that have been embraced by nightclub cognoscenti. In the refinement of his language, he is equalled only by Stephen Sondheim among contemporary American songwriters.” Stephen Holden – New York Times

“a Woody Allen of song” The London Daily Telegraph

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