Dave Frishberg discusses his different perspective

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Dave Frishberg discusses his songwriting style

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Dave Frishberg discusses his early songwriting days

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Q: “Was it a gradual thing for you to start writing songs, because you are a jazz piano player, a side man, you like to work with Al and Zoot and Jimmy Rushing and the boys. At what point did you start really writing the music and lyrics?”

A: “When I got to New York, one of the first things I did was start to work with singers and they weren't just jazz singers. I took jobs in places where I would play for six or eight singers a night. And then a lot of theatrical singers would call me to rehearse with them and play auditions and I became acquainted with a whole new ... well, I knew about that world, but I'd never dealt with that literature. I was always just taking choruses on this or taking choruses on that. Everything was translated into jazz, but suddenly I began to look at the songs analytically and really start to appreciate them and that's when I got hang up on Frank Loesser. He was really my real favorite and my real inspiration and I was working for Dick Haymes and Fran Jeffries. I was conducting for them at that time on the road and Fran Jeffries asked me for a piece of special material of a certain kind and then I went home and wrote it. That was my first song I ever wrote.”