Question for Larry Kart, Chicago-Area Musicians

[Teasing the Korean]

Hi Larry,

Have you ever crossed paths with any of the following:

Johnny Frigo

Dick Marx

Jerome Slosberg

Ken Nordine

Dick Schory

David Carroll

Mike Simpson

Thanks in advance, TTK

 

[Chuck Nessa]

You will get a bunch of "yesses".

 

[JSngry]

I seem to recall Larry playing golf with Ken Nordine? Or, to be accurate, an anecdote about same?

[Teasing the Korean]

Completely forgot I started this thread!

Edited June 7, 2020 by Teasing the Korean

[Larry Kart]

Frigo. I liked his violin playing, and one of my gripes against Howard Reich  is a vicious idiotic  review he wrote of Frigo -- saying that his playing was inept and  grossly sentimental. It was neither. Can't imagine what lunatic standard Reich was applying. 

 I did play golf once with Nordine. We just arrived at the local public course at the same time and teed off together. He wasn't very good, nor was I. A nice man. It was startling to hear that distinctive deep voice.

[Teasing the Korean]

28 minutes ago, Larry Kart said:

Frigo. I liked his violin playing, and one of my gripes against Howard Reich  is a vicious idiotic  review he wrote of Frigo -- saying that his playing was inept and  grossly sentimental. It was neither. Can't imagine what lunatic standard Reich was applying. 

 I did play golf once with Nordine. We just arrived at the local public course at the same time and teed off together. He wasn't very good, nor was I. A nice man. It was startling to hear that distinctive deep voice.

Thanks! What about Frigo's bass playing? He played with pianist Dick Marx. I realize that some of the guys I listed go back to the 1950s and that they may have been working before your time. Thanks again!

Did Nordine talk to you through a telephone like he did on Word Jazz?

Edited June 7, 2020 by Teasing the Korean

[Larry Kart]

Did Nordine talk to you through a telephone like he did on Word Jazz?

No.

Frigo was a tasty bass player, but not so visible as a member of Marx's rhythm section as he was a violin soloist. (Wish I could find and quote from that Reich review of Frigo; it was sadistIc and stupid too, by his own standards. That is, Howard tends to be very careful about praising  musicians who are well-regarded on the scene, as Frigo certainly was. Why then turn on him like that? He did that at least once before, that I recall, savaging pianist Gene Esposito only, as it happened, a month or so before Gene died. In that case, though, I know what Howard's motive was. He was reviewing  a charity concert that Espositio had mounted to pay tribute to Billy Strayhorn, but Neil Tesser was the emcee, and Howard hates Neil and vice versa, so he attacked Gene in order to get at Neil.)

The other guys on your list certainly overlapped me chronologically (I got into jazz circa 1955), but either I didn't know of them or, a la Schory, I knew of them but paid little or no attention to them. I  was more into Ira Sullivan, Johnny Griffin, Jodie Christian, Wilbur Campbell et al.