[JPL] Johnny Frigo RIP

[Doug Crane]

By John Keilman
Chicago 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.