Johnny Frigo, a jazz violinist and bassist who helped start the Soft Winds Trio and co-wrote such standards as “Detour Ahead” and “I Told You I Love You, Now Get Out,” died Thursday at Weiss Memorial Hospital in Chicago. He suffered complications from a fall. He was 90.
After playing in Jimmy Dorsey’s big band, Frigo formed the Soft Winds jazz trio in 1947 with two Dorsey colleagues, guitarist Herb Ellis and pianist Lou Carter.
The Soft Winds were not a major commercial success during their five-year existence, but the trio recorded many songs and developed a fine reputation in later years among aficionados.
Frigo spent much of his career in Chicago, his hometown, as a backup bass player in radio and studio bands as well as on commercial jingles and in nightclubs. Starting in 1951, he was a fiddler for 13 years on the country radio program “National Barn Dance,” backed by his band, the Sage Riders.
He accommodated a variety of musical styles, performing with such strikingly different jazz entertainers as clarinetist Pee Wee Russell, guitarist Charlie Byrd and bassist Oscar Pettiford as well as singers Barbra Streisand, Dinah Washington, Helen Merrill and Mahalia Jackson.
During World War II, Frigo served in the Coast Guard and formed a band with several others stationed on Ellis Island, including such leading bebop musicians as pianist Al Haig, baritone saxophonist Serge Chaloff and trombonist Kai Winding.
After the war, he spent two years with Dorsey and appeared in the biographical film “The Fabulous Dorseys.”
As a bandleader, Frigo recorded one album in his prime, “I Love Johnny Frigo … He Swings” (1957) featuring his Soft Winds guitarist Ellis as well as bassist Ray Brown, pianist Dick Marx and trumpeter Cy Touff.
Although he recorded regularly, Frigo did not enjoy much recognition as a leader until the late 1980s, when he started making several well-received jazz albums that featured, among others, father-son guitarists Bucky and John Pizzarelli.
In 1995, he orchestrated a Soft Winds reunion on a jazz cruise that included Ellis, Carter and bassist Keter Betts. They subsequently released the album “Soft Winds Then and Now.”
Frigo remained a vital figure at jazz summits and other musical gatherings.
