You`d have to search far and wide to find an odder pair trading licks on the Park West stage than Johnny and Derek Frigo.
In a tuxedo, silver-haired Johnny, 73, conjures soulfully elegant riffs from his violin. Resplendent in full makeup and matching magenta hat and shirt, Derek, 23, coaxes snarls and flurries of notes from his electric guitar, attacking it as much as playing it. The two stand shoulder to shoulder as each tries to top the other`s last solo during an improvised blues tune.
The young crowd at first doesn`t know what to make of the old guy with the violin who`s joined Derek`s group, the metal-glam-psychedelic band Enuff Z`nuff, for their encore. However they`re immediately won over by the virtuosity of a man many critics consider one of the jazz world`s top violinists.
With Enuff Z`nuff`s self-titled debut album lingering near the Top 100, Derek`s musical career isn`t doing too badly either. The recent Park West encore was a milestone for both Frigos: the first time this father and son have ever played together in public. And while their musical worlds may rarely collide, the family ties still bind them.
”Growing up hearing my father playing good music and my mother singing probably explains why I have more of a melodic sense than most rock guitarists,” Derek had said a few days earlier, home for the holidays and enjoying the first break from touring in three months for the Chicago-based band. ”I love my dad`s music, even though some of it is a bit corny. I steal licks from him all the time.
”I go to Toulouse a lot on Mondays to see him play,” said Derek, referring to the stylish Division Street restaurant where Johnny performs jazz and standards with pianist Joe Vito. ”I`m the guy there with the hair sticking up all over the place. One night I brought Jon Bon Jovi there and he loved it.”
Laughs Johnny, ”It`s funny, I tell my contemporaries that Derek came in with Bon Jovi to hear me last night and they all go, `Who`s Bon Jovi?` Yet if you mention that to a 16-year-old girl they go crazy.”
Jazz critics have been going crazy themselves over Johnny`s violin playing. Reviewing one of his performances, Los Angeles Times critic Don Heckman said Johnny ”made a convincing case for himself as the premier violinist in contemporary jazz.” Johnny`s recent album on the Chesky label, Live From Studio B, has received similar accolades.
Not bad for a professional bass player who didn`t get serious about the violin until he was almost 70.
”I decided to wait as long as I could in my lifetime so I wouldn`t have any time left to be a has-been,” Johnny cracks, speaking from his elegantly furnished Gold Coast high-rise home, in between fielding phone calls from Derek`s female admirers (”Derek, it`s Nashville on the phone. And don`t forget to call Sarasota back”).
As a bassist, the South Side native has had a long and distinguished career. He began in the `40s with the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra and Chico Marx`s band, and later was part of the jazz trio Soft Winds, which also included guitarist Herb Ellis and pianist Lou Carter.
”Detour Ahead,” written by Frigo, Ellis and Carter, has become a jazz standard, recorded by such artists as Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan. The trio also penned ”I Told Ya I Love Ya, Now Get Out!” which popped up on an episode of ”Moonlighting” a couple of years ago, sung by Cybill Shepherd.
Tiring of road life Johnny returned home to Chicago in 1949. For the next 28 years he paid the rent as the first-chair bassist in the city`s major recording studios.
He figures he`s played on more radio and TV commercials than any other bass player. He also spent 13 years playing at Mr. Kelly`s in a duo with pianist Dick Marx-father of Winnetka-born rock star Richard Marx. Around that same time Johnny wrote his best-known tune-admittedly less than a musical masterpiece-”Hey, Hey, Holy Mackerel,” the Cubs theme inspired by the ill-fated `69 club.
Learned violin as a child
While he had built his reputation as a bassist, the changing music scene in the `80s made him re-evaluate his career. He felt drawn to the violin, the instrument he first learned as a kid by taking lessons from the neighborhood ragman`s son.
”I was doing well as a studio bass player and making a good living,” he says. ”But I started to realize that I wouldn`t be able to compete much longer with these kids coming up playing electric bass who knew every lick from every bass player. I thought, `With all this knowledge I have on violin, why not pursue that?` ”
While continuing to do sessions as a bassist, Johnny began to work as a strolling violinist in Loop hotels to build up his technique on the instrument.
One night after finishing a gig early at the Hilton, he went across the street to catch a set at Joe Segal`s Jazz Showcase. Johnny`s old Soft Winds`
bandmate, Herb Ellis, was appearing there with pianist Monty Alexander and bassist Ray Brown. Ellis brought Frigo onstage with his violin for a hot, off- the-cuff set.
Shortly after, Alexander asked Johnny to come to Los Angeles to take part in a two-night gig at the Loa Club to be recorded for a live album (”Triple Treat II”) on the Concord Jazz label. The rave reviews Johnny received in the Los Angeles press led to a return appearance at the club fronting the group, as well as two appearances on ”The Tonight Show.”
Music in the genes
At an age when most people have retired, Johnny Frigo Violinist is just beginning his career. ”I haven`t even tapped what I can do on jazz violin yet,” he says. ”Each night I`m getting better and learning new things.”
If anyone doubts that musical ability can be passed down through the genes, they need look no further than the Frigo family.
Derek`s older half-brother, Rick, is a well-known drummer around town, while Johnny`s wife (and Derek`s mother), Brittney Browne, pursues her acting and singing career (she`s at work on an album) from Los Angeles.
Although still in his early 20s, Derek is hardly a neophyte. He made his recording debut at age 14, appearing on the compilation album ”U.S. Metal”
after sending a demo tape to Shrapnel Records` president Mike Varney. At Varney`s urging, Derek moved to the West Coast and formed the group LeMans. The band released two albums, which, like the group, went nowhere.
After returning to Chicago, Derek was tapped by Mick Jagger to play guitar on a solo tour that was canceled after Jagger`s 1987 solo album,
”Primitive Cool,” flopped. He soon fell in with Chicago musicians Chip Z`Nuff, Donnie Vie and Vikki Foxx, who were trying to get a label deal for their band Enuff Z`nuff.
A chance hearing of their song ”For Now” by Jon Bon Jovi led Bon Jovi`s manager, Doc McGhee, to alert Atco Records to the band. A record deal ensued and Enuff Z`nuff was released last summer.
Johnny on rock
While not of Bon Jovi status yet, Enuff Z`nuff has been making waves with their melodic metal approach. Even Rolling Stone lauded the band`s album and spotlighted them as one of the talents to keep an eye on in the `90s.
Says Derek, ”I used to go to sessions with my dad all the time and listen to him do McDonald`s commercials. But I knew that sitting around the studio all day as a session player wasn`t for me.”
With a 50-year gap in age between them, it`s understandable that Derek`s music isn`t the type that the elder Frigo naturally gravitates to, but Johnny tries to remain open-minded.
”People who don`t understand jazz think all jazz sounds alike, so I try not to say that all rock sounds alike to me,” he says. ”I`m not crazy about rock `n` roll, but I`ve gotten to like it. Derek`s band is very exciting to see onstage, and for their type of music they`re as good as any I`ve heard. I even learned the chord changes to their song `For Now.` ” ”Yeah,”
interjects Derek, ”at least that one had more than two chords in it, right dad?”
As Johnny leaves to answer another phone call (”Derek, it`s Flint, Michigan”), the normally cocky Derek turns serious. ”I`d love to do an album with my father, maybe get him to play an electric violin. We`ve had our differences over my lifestyle in the past, but we get along great now. I know I appreciate him a lot more now.”
