From: "Doug Bright" <75366.2463@compuserve.com> To: Subject: Article: April, 1982 Date: Saturday, October 15, 2005 7:14 PM APRIL, 1982 DAVE FRISHBERG'S AMERICA By Doug Bright All performers, it seems to me, can be divided without much difficulty into two categories: the entertainers and the artists. The entertainer simply tries to give his audience what it wants; he sees himself as primarily a crowd-pleaser. The clubs and taverns are literally crawling with them, and within their chosen context they all sound about the same. The goal of the artist, on the other hand, is to make the audience want what he has to give; he sees himself as a crowd-maker. It is in this rare and grossly underpopulated class that Dave Frishberg unquestionably belongs. Frishberg's early career involved such notables as Ben Webster, Bobby Hackett, and Jimmy Rushing. For the last few years, though, he's been working as a soloist. His third album, a collection of original songs called THE DAVE FRISHBERG SONGBOOK, VOL. 1, has recently been released on Omni-Sound Records. Having traveled all over America and appeared in Europe, he's beginning to get some long-overdue media recognition. All this week Dave appears at Jazz Alley, and his show is an event that no devotee of classic jazz can afford to miss. Dave Frishberg is an inventive performer with roots planted firmly in the great jazz heritage of the past. He takes particular delight in resurrecting obscure classics such as Duke Ellington's "What Am I To You" or Hoagy Carmichael's "Riverboat Shuffle" written in 1923. He neither confines himself nor the songs that he plays to any rigid stylistic setting. Jelly Roll Morton's "Kansas City Stomp", for example, often jumps from its original context to much more advanced phrases and rhythms. Frishberg's piano style ranges all the way from old-time stride to the mellow and economical bop-swing that characterizes most of his compositions. It's a rather unusual style that's intricate enough to make you sit up and take notice but sufficiently laid back to perfectly accent the clever lyrics and captivatingly nonchalant vocals. He doesn't try particularly hard to reproduce the voice quality of the Mortons and Wallers from whom his traditional material is drawn; he just sounds like Dave Frishberg, but the style is so free and natural that it doesn't matter. Other reviewers have hailed him as the new Hoagy Carmichael, and with good reason. Like Carmichael, Frishberg is both solidly in and distinctly apart from the medium he has chosen--very much in its mainstream but not afraid to take it in new directions. His admiration for Carmichael is quite obvious in his vivid portrayal of both the sophisticated and the down-home side of the legendary composer and performer. While the jazz composers of today seem to do most of their writing from some other part of the cosmos, Frishberg's songs are a masterful stream of consciousness with real-life themes and contemplative music. It's just what Tom Waites tries to do and can't. A few songs like "Listen Here" are warm, intimate, and introspective. Others, like the unforgettable Sports Medley, involve the application of perceptive, tongue-in-cheek humor to a wide variety of subjects. Common to all of Frishberg's songs is their piercing honesty, their sophisticated charm, and their brilliantly intricate rhyme. "Swan Song" is about the frustrations of a songwriter struggling to maintain his creativity. Another composition wittily admits the redundancy of "Another Song About Paris". When you hear his hilarious and thought-provoking observations, your inevitable reaction is a surprised exclamation of, "He's right!" It's long been my conviction that what this country needs--even more than a good five-cent cigar--is more articulate songwriters who can make us look at ourselves and our culture, chuckle, and pause to check our premises. In that case, we need wait no longer: Dave Frishberg is here! ----------------------------------------