Dave Frishberg will be featured this weekend at one of the main concerts of the Portland Jazz Festival. It’s an unusual gig for Frishberg; he frequently plays piano in his adopted 
hometown but rarely sings his songs there. In Oregon Music News, Jack Berry opens his piece about Frishberg with a story of the time Frishberg got a startling surprise when he spotted an old friend. Here’s a link.
To see the PDX Jazz festival schedule, go here.
Other Places: Frishberg In Portland
February 18, 2011 by
The nonagenarian pianist presented de Barros with every biographer’s hope, unrestricted access to his subject’s personal papers and nearly unrestricted access to her private thoughts. He made the most of it, turning exhaustive research and hundreds of hours of interviews into a true story with the sweep of a novel. From the early discovery of McPartland’s musical gift through her wartime service, her ecstatic and stormy marriage to Jimmy McPartland, her growth as a pianist, her deep affair with Joe Morello, and the radio show that made her a national figure, she has had a fascinating life. It makes a splendid read.
Mulligan’s Concert Jazz Band had three fewer musicians than most big jazz outfits. Its size permitted precision, flexibility and subtlety, yet the band had the power of sprung steel. In this concert from a half century ago, the CJB is as fresh as yesterday. Arrangements by Mulligan, Bob Brookmeyer, Al Cohn and Johnny Mandel set standards to which big band writers still aspire. Bassist Buddy Clark and drummer Mel Lewis inspired Mulligan, Brookmeyer, Conte Candoli, Gene Quill and Zoot Sims to some of the best soloing of their careers. This beautifully produced issue of the complete concert is a basic repertoire item.
The link Doug has provided to Dave Frishberg’s hour-long conversation at the Portland Jazz Festival is fascinating, a consolation prize for those of us who can’t be there today for this rare,sold-out gig. He’s eloquent and memorable in recounting experiences with a wide range of musicians and venues, and why he feels the way he does about the huge variety of people and happenings in his rich musical life. We Frishbergians keep hoping he will write more in his blog about his New York and Los Angeles years,why he especially admires certain players and singers and less admires certain others,and those looks inside a musician’s life on the bandstand and on the road..