Jan 21, 2025 7:54 PM
Southern California Fires Hit the Jazz Community
Roy McCurdy and his wife had just finished eating dinner and were relaxing over coffee in their Altadena home, when he…
Chicago songwriter and bassist-turned-violinist Johnny Frigo died Wednesday of complications relating to a fall. He was 90.
Frigo’s musical life began with the violin, which he played as a child before switching to the tuba in middle school. In high school, in a move he admitted was partly to attract girls, he switched again to the upright bass. The bass would take him on the road with with the big bands of both Dorsey brothers, as well as that of Chico Marx.
After returning from Coast Guard service in World War II, Frigo began to pen and perform tunes for radio and TV background music. His most well-known number was “Hey, Hey, Holy Mackerel,” a song about the 1969 Chicago Cubs.
In the 1980s, Frigo switched instruments yet again, this time back to the violin. He lived out his musical life as a virtuostic jazz violinist, booking regular gigs at Chicago’s Green Mill.
Health problems forced him to cancel some appearances last year, but his wife Betty said he was planning to play festivals in Italy and Holland before he fell in the lobby of his condo building two weeks ago.
Besides his wife, survivors include a son, Rick, a jazz drummer; and a sister, Dolly Bray.
Gerald and John Clayton at the family home in Altadena during a photo shoot for the June 2022 cover of DownBeat. The house was lost during the Los Angeles fires.
Jan 21, 2025 7:54 PM
Roy McCurdy and his wife had just finished eating dinner and were relaxing over coffee in their Altadena home, when he…
“She said, ‘A lot of people are going to try and stop you,’” Sheryl Bailey recalls of the advice she received from jazz guitarist Emily Remler (1957–’90). “‘They’re going to say you slept with somebody, you’re a dyke, you’re this and that and the other. Don’t listen to them, and just keep playing.’”
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In the April 1982 issue of People magazine, under the heading “Lookout: A Guide To The Up and Coming,” jazz…
The Old Country: More From The Deer Head Inn arrives 30 years after ECM issued the Keith Jarret Trio live album At The Deer Head Inn.
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Last November, Keith Jarrett, who has not played publicly since suffering two strokes in 2018, greenlighted ECM to drop…
“The first recording I owned with Brazilian music on it was Wayne Shorter’s Native Dancer,” says Renee Rosnes. “And then I just started to go down the rabbit hole.”
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In her four-decade career, Renee Rosnes has been recognized as a singular voice, both as a jazz composer and a…
As Ted Nash, left, departs the alto saxophone chair for LCJO, Alexa Tarantino steps in as the band’s first female full-time member.
Mar 4, 2025 1:29 PM
If only because openings for JLCO’s 15 permanent positions appear about as frequently as sub-freezing days on the…
