Dave Frishberg, the jazz songwriter whose melodic cleverness as a composer placed him in the top echelon of this craft, died Nov. 17 in Portland, OR. He was 88.

Mr. Frishberg, who played piano and sang, managed to outrun the eras of rock, soul, disco punk and hip-hop by writing hyper-literate songs that harkened back to Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer by way of Stephen Sondheim.

His songwriting wit was for grown-ups, yet he reached his widest audience with sharpshooting ditties for kids as a regular musical contributor to ABC-TVs long-running Saturday morning animated show, “Schoolhouse Rock!”