Rocky Frisco, R.I.P.

Rocky Frisco, 77, a piano-playing legend in the Tulsa music scene, died Tuesday.

Rocky_FriscoIn a career that spanned almost 60 years, Frisco probably was best-known as a longtime collaborator with another Tulsa music legend, J.J. Cale. But also played piano for a wide range of Tulsa musicians several nights a week, including this month.

Frisco, born Don Roscoe Joseph III in St. Louis, also did voice work for film and television, raced cars for a time, wrote novels, and restored British cars.

This performance in the film “Red Dirt on 66” — an examination of Oklahoma music — at Leon Russell’s old Church Studio in Tulsa is as good as an epitaph as any:

(Image of Rocky Frisco by Wolfmantheo via Wikipedia)

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