Johnny Frigo (December 27, 1916 – July 4, 2007) was an American jazz violinist and bassist. He appeared in the 1940s as a violinist before working as a bassist. He returned to the violin in the 1980s and enjoyed a comeback, recording several albums as a leader. He was considered to be perhaps the premier violinist in contemporary jazz up until his final days.
Frigo was born of Italian stock on Chicago's South Side; he had a poverty-stricken upbringing and supplemented the family income by collecting rags and scrap metal. A ragman talked Frigo's mother into allowing her son to study the violin. "I started taking lessons with the ragman's son when I was seven-and-a-half. Twenty-five cents a lesson," he remembered.
In high school he started to play double bass in dance orchestras. While still a schoolboy, Frigo sang and played in Chicago hotels, nightclubs and amusement parks and occasionally sat in at Club DeLisa with the great boogie-woogie pianist, Albert Ammons. He performed with a popular cocktail combo, the Four Californians, and did radio work, until he was spotted in 1942 by Chico Marx, then leading a Ben Pollack-style dance band. Marx liked the idea of a bass player who dabbled with the violin, and built Frigo into his comedy act. The 17-year old Mel Tormé, who was also with the band, collaborated with Frigo in a vocal quartet.
It was during the Second World War that Frigo served in the US coast guard band, playing alongside bebop stars pianist Al Haig and trombonist Kai Winding, later travelling to Europe to entertain troops. After his discharge, he toured with the Jimmy Dorsey orchestra for a year; when Dorsey announced a two-month layoff, Frigo, pianist Lou Carter and guitarist Herb Ellis formed a trio, and persuaded a hotelier in Buffalo, New York, to give them a run.
The Soft Winds Trio specialised in tightly rehearsed instrumental routines and achieved great success both live and on record, with Detour Ahead, the song Frigo wrote with Carter in 1947. It was much covered by other jazz artists, among them Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald. During that time, he also wrote the sardonic swing tune "I Told Ya I Love Ya Now Get Out" which was recorded by June Christy and the Stan Kenton Orchestra.
Here’s “What A Difference A Day Made” from above 1957 album
In 1951, Frigo returned to Chicago, where he settled into a comfortable, if obscure, life as a studio bassist, composing and playing jingles, and recording with everyone from Mahalia Jackson to Frank Sinatra, sometimes on electric bass while doing violin gigs on the side.
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| Johnny Frigo & Dick Marx |
He also led the band at Mr. Kelly's, a popular Rush Street nightspot. Between 1951 and 1960 he played fiddle hoedowns and novelties with the Sage Riders, the house band for the WLS radio program National Barn Dance. He played with the Sage Riders for another fourteen years after WGN revived the show in 1961, though the bass remained his main instrument until the 1980s.
In that time he worked with Chicago jazz vocalist Anita O'Day in live and studio recordings done in Chicago. He was featured (on bass) on O'Day's quartet version of "No Soap, No Hope Blues". Frigo is credited as playing fiddle for the track "A Rectangle Picture" on the Mason Proffit album Wanted released in 1969 on the Happy Tiger label.
In the mid-1980s Frigo was encouraged by pianist Monty Alexander and writer Leonard Feather to concentrate on the violin. He recorded as a jazz soloist for the Concord label with Alexander, and for the Chesky and Arbors labels, where his output included a Soft Winds reunion session with Ellis and Carter; his swing attack and rich, warm sound was comparable to that of Stéphane Grappelli. Johnny Carson asked Frigo why it took so long to start his career as a violinist. Frigo replied, "I wanna take as long as I could in my life so I wouldn't have time to become a has-been".
He performed as a jazz violinist at festivals worldwide, including the Umbria Jazz Festival and North Sea Jazz Festival. He wrote and performed the 1969 Chicago Cubs fight song "Hey Hey, Holy Mackerel". He lived out his musical life as a virtuostic jazz violinist, booking regular gigs at Chicago’s Green Mill.
In addition to his music, Johnny was also an artist and composed poetry and crossword puzzles. A book of his poetry and pastel drawings titled When My Fiddle’s in the Case was published.. Johnny said, “I’m in love with all things. Jazz is a part of what I do, but my life is much more than just that.”
