July 2, 2019 | About Last Night

When the news broke a few weeks ago that the wife of Kenny Burrell, one of the foremost jazz guitarists of the postwar era, had started a GoFundMe campaign to help cover his medical expenses, contributions poured in. That made me proud. Not that I ever doubted it, but those who love jazz clearly care no less deeply about the hard-working men and women who devote their lives to playing and singing it, many of whom find themselves struggling in old age to make ends meet.

Now comes word that Dave Frishberg, another great jazzman, has fallen on similarly hard times, and that friends have set up a GoFundMe campaign on his behalf. Frishberg is, of course, the octogenarian pianist and singer-songwriter whose catalogue includes such deliciously idiosyncratic tunes as “I’m Hip,” “Peel Me a Grape,” “Blizzard of Lies,” “The Difficult Season,” “Sweet Kentucky Ham,” “Heart’s Desire,” “Our Love Rolls On,” “I Was Ready,” “Slappin’ the Cakes on Me,” “My Attorney Bernie,” “Van Lingle Mungo,” “Eastwood Lane,” “I Want to Be a Sideman,” and the most beautiful and piercingly nostalgic of all his songs, “Do You Miss New York?”

In a better-regulated world, he’d be living comfortably off his royalties. Instead, he’s feeling the pinch—hard. According to his GoFundMe page:

Over the last few years, you may have noticed that your old pal, jazz legend Dave Frishberg, hasn’t graced the stages near you, nor tickled your ear drums and funny bones with new music. That’s because he’s suffered a series of setbacks to his health—some minor, some not-so-minor—that have kept him off the road and out of the studio, and steered him more or less into retirement.
We know; if only you’d been aware that Dave had retired, you would have given him a gold watch and a nice cake, right? Well, now you can give him an even better gift.
As it happens, coming along with Dave’s health setbacks are expensive new medical realities. And though the spirit is more than willing, there’s only so much the wallet can do. In other words, those royalties from his work are nice, but they can’t cover everything.
Your donations will help provide long-term health care to keep Dave comfortable at home.

I pulled out my wallet as soon as I heard the word. I urge you with all my heart to go here and do the same. Please help a true artist live out his days in the dignity he deserves.

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Dave Frishberg sings and plays “My Attorney Bernie” on The Tonight Show in 1983: