I'm Hip lyricist Dave Frishberg has died at the age of 88

The writer of the lyrics of the very droll classic 'I'm Hip' and songs on television series Schoolhouse Rock such as 'The Number Cruncher' and 'I'm Just A Bill' the supremely witty lyricist and songwriter Dave Frishberg has died at the age of 88, his wife April Magnusson confirming news of his death to The New York Times. Interested in boogie-woogie early on pianist Frishberg graduated from the University of Minnesota as a journalism major in 1955.

After air force duty he moved to New York, playing solo piano at a spot called the Duplex in Greenwich Village and began working during this time in the Big Apple with the likes of the great singer Carmen McRae. Frishberg wrote the lyrics of 'I'm Hip' and will also be remembered for the classic 'Peel Me A Grape' first recorded by Anita O'Day with Cal Tjader released in 1962 and which Diana Krall became renowned for interpreting in the 1990s.

'My Attorney Bernie' is also a classic among his work (Bernie's ''a purist not your polyester tourist'') and was again interpreted by Blossom Dearie. In the 70s Frishberg relocated to Los Angeles and worked in the studios. A decade later he made the move to Portland in Oregon where he passed away, Frishberg collaborations included work with Johnny Mandel, Alan Broadbent, Al Cohn and indelibly Dearie who recorded 'I'm Hip' at Ronnie Scott's in a delicious version in 1966.

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So where are we speaking of the celestial? Brandee Younger's Somewhere Different was a little bit of a let-down compared with the harpist's work on Force Majeure last year. And while staying with harp Tori Handsley's excellent record for Cadillac was one of the best in a Dorothy Ashby vein. Even better in terms of an all-round compositional conception, less melodious than Tori's, certainly as archetypal chill-out music these mostly short 'Space' pieces, with a whopping 17-minute-plus 'Space 8' at the end is Space 1.8. The work of Caribbean-Belgian pedal harpist-composer Nala Sinephro, an unknown to most before this significant record, also surfaced remixing Nubya Garcia. Afrofuturist in a sense and sitting alongside spiritual-jazz sounds inevitably, characterised by long involving vamps with only glacial chord changes now and then, the album was recorded at home and in a Wanstead, east London, studio in 2018-19 when Sinephro was still in her early-twenties. Other musicians on the album include saxophonist James Mollison who is excellent, guitarist Shirley Tetteh, drummer Eddie Hick from Sons of Kemet, Dwayne Kilvington and Jake Long of Maisha. Go for the long 'Space 8' as it sums up and is characteristic of the whole album most of all.

Stephen Graham

Nala Sinephro, above

I'm Hip lyricist Dave Frishberg has died at the age of 88

Nala Sinephro, Space 1.8, Warp ****