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Clare Fischer
Born on October 22, 1928 in Durand, Michigan, Clare Fischer is an uncommonly versatile musician, a master with many muses. Trained in the classics, inspired by jazz artists, healed by the rhythms of Latin and Brazilian music, his eclectic sound finds expression in every chart and instrument he touches.
A veteran studio musician and a composer of rare quality, Fischer began his studies in Grand Rapids, Michigan, at South High School with director of music, Glenn Litton. After receiving his master's degree in composition from Michigan State University, where he studied with Dr. H. Owen Reed, he traveled extensively with "The Hi-Lo's" as pianist-conductor for 5 years. About the same time, his musical ascension began with his critically acclaimed arrangements for Dizzy Gillespie's "A Portrait of Duke Ellington." Fischer's influences, absorbed along the way, are as distinct as his music: Stravinsky and Shostakovich, Bartok and Berg, Dutilleux, boogie-woogie pianist Meade Lux Lewis, Nat "King" Cole, Duke Ellington, Bud Powell and early Lee Konitz - Fischer's self-expression knows no boundaries.
"I relate to everything," he explains. "I'm not just jazz, Latin, or classical. I really am a fusion of all of those, not today's fusion, but my fusion."
In 1983 classical concert artist Richard Stoltzman commissioned Fischer to write a symphonic work using Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn themes. The resulting composition, "The Duke, Swee'pea and Me," features Stoltzman on clarinet, and is performed with symphony orchestras around the world. More recently Fischer was commissioned by Stoltzman to write a "Sonatine for Clarinet and Piano" in three movements, which he has recorded with RCA on his album, "American Clarinet" and is being published by Advance Music in Germany.
In 1986 Clare won his second Grammy Award - this one for his album, "Free Fall," the first having been won in 1981 for his album, "Salsa Picante plus 2 + 2." Since that time he has spent more time as a jazz educator, performing solo piano concerts and conducting clinics and master classes in universities and music conservatories in Scandinavia, Europe and throughout the United States.
In the last few years Clare has appeared in Paris, Finland, Norway, Germany with the WDR Big Band, Holland with the Metropole Orchestra, Austria at the Vienna Konzerthaus and in Mexico City at the Ollin Yol�-tzli Concert Hall in a concert commemorating the music of Antonio Carlos Jobim on the anniversary of his death in December, 1996. In October of 1998 he performed at the Choro Festival with Hélio Delmiro in Sáo Paulo, Brazil and returned in July, 2000 for a three-city tour in that country with Delmiro. In May 2001 Clare completed a European tour teaching master classes and performing solo piano concerts in four countries.
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Cal Tjader: Catch The Groove: Live at the Penthouse 1963-1967
by Troy Dostert
It would be unusual to hear vibraphonist Cal Tjader mentioned alongside the all-time greats on his instrument. He is not remembered for being a fearless improviser like Bobby Hutcherson, or as deeply soulful as Milt Jackson, or as hard-swinging a presence as Lionel Hampton. Moreover, one will search in vain in his biography for the hard-fought personal struggles that have typically been the bread and butter of jazz legend: no tortured tales of substance abuse, or bouts with poverty or ...
Continue ReadingClare Fischer Big Band: Pacific Jazz
by Jack Bowers
The late Dr. Clare Fischer enjoyed a long and storied career as a composer, arranger, pianist, bandleader and educator, primarily on the West Coast. Luckily, one of those he educated was his son Brent who was at his father's side as a musician and adviser for more than three decades and has safeguarded the Fischer legacy since Clare's passing in January 2012. Pacific Jazz, the second album by the Clare Fischer Big Band under Brent Fischer's supervision, consists of music ...
Continue ReadingClare Fischer: After the Rain
by Jack Bowers
The late Clare Fischer, best known as a multi-award-winning jazz composer / arranger, also had a classical side, one that is paramount on this engaging album whose themes were written over an extended period of time from Fischer's days as an undergraduate at Michigan State University to his later years as a renowned jazz artist whose extensive body of work has been acclaimed by musicians and fans all over the world. The portfolio is divided into three ...
Continue ReadingThe Clare Fischer Orchestra: Music for Strings, Percussion and the Rest
by Jack Bowers
Is this beautiful music, wonderfully played? Definitely. Is it jazz (or anything close to it)? Afraid not. Music for Strings, Percussion and the Rest is chamber music with a classical temperament, colorful and captivating, written (presumably over a period of some years) and conducted by one of the giants in that field, the late Dr. Clare Fischer. As the title denotes, strings and percussion are predominant; as for “the rest," Fischer employs a small orchestra composed primarily of reeds (no ...
Continue ReadingClare Fischer Orchestra: Extension
by Dan McClenaghan
The late 1950s and early 1960s saw a change in the approach to big band arranging. Voicings and colorings became more luxuriant, and the palettes began to include more pastels; classical harmonies began to creep in to charts. Gil Evans brought the arranging prowess he developed in the Claude Thornhill Orchestra and the the Birth of the Cool recordings of 1949-50 (compiled and released on Columbia Records in 1957) to his partnership with trumpeter Miles Davis for three ...
Continue ReadingClare Fischer Orchestra: Extension
by Troy Collins
When composer Clare Fischer passed away on January 26, 2012, he left behind a diverse legacy. Spending the late 1950s as pianist and arranger for The Hi-Lo's before working alongside Dizzy Gillespie and Donald Byrd, Fischer finally attained greater recognition in the 1960s for his contributions to the then burgeoning Latin jazz and bossa nova craze, including writing the standard “Pensativa."Conceived and performed exactly as he intended, Extension is his masterpiece. Recorded in 1963, the album is a ...
Continue ReadingClare Fischer: America the Beautiful
by Jack Bowers
America the Beautiful is a union of two unassuming vinyl big-band albums by composer/ arranger/ pianist Clare Fischer: Extension (from the early ’60s) and Songs for Rainy Day Lovers (released in 1978). Although Fischer is widely known for his proficiency in blending Latin temperaments and rhythms into the framework of contemporary jazz, only “Canto Africano” from the earlier album and “I Remember Spring” from the later embody either of those elements. The rest is straight-ahead jazz, essentially of the mellower ...
Continue ReadingThe Fourth Of July, 2017
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
It is always a challenge to decide how Rifftides should celebrate the anniversary of the independence of The United States Of America. In 2017, we are observing it with pieces by artists whose careers began on the west coast of the US before their names and their music became familiar around the world. Both works are short traditional songs that express feelings of profound importance to millions of Americans. The first piece, “America The Beautiful,” is from Clare Fischer’s 1967 ...
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Catching Up, More Or Less…As 2016 Fades
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Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
As the hours left in 2016 dwindle, we briefly acknowledge a few of the hundreds of albums that have accumulated this year at Rifftides world headquarters. Many releases stacked up without reviews. This does not indicate that they are unworthy, only that there are limits to how much music the linear process of listening can accommodate. Science has yet to come up with digital downloading directly into the brain, but I’ll bet someone is working on it. Clare Fischer, Out ...
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Clare Fischer’s “America The Beautiful”
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
Whatever your Fourth Of July weekend plans, the understated perfection in the late Clare Fischer’s arrangement of “America Beautiful” will help you to a calm beginning of what can be a raucous, joyous holiday. It’s from Fischer’s classic 1967 album Songs For Rainy Day Lovers. To Columbia Records’ discredit, the label has never reissued Songs For Rainy Day Lovers on CD. Copies of the LP may be found here and there on various websites, including this one. If you’re an ...
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Vocalist Roseanna Vitro Follows Up Her 2011 Grammy-nominated Randy Newman CD With "Clarity: Music Of Clare Fischer," Due Sept. 30
Source:
Terri Hinte Publicity
The richly harmonic, deeply melodic music of pianist and composer/arranger Clare Fischer (1928-2012) has proven to be fertile terrain for many jazz and pop artists over the last half-century. Vocalist Roseanna Vitro puts her passionate stamp on nine of Fischer’s compositions (and a favorite of his by Ary Barroso) on her gorgeous new CD Clarity: Music of Clare Fischer, which will be released September 30 by Random Act Records. As on her 2011 Grammy-nominated disc, The Music of Randy Newman, ...
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Independence Day with Fischer and Cohn
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
Today, the United States of America is celebrating the 238th anniversary of its independence. Rifftides observes the 4th of July with two versions of the song that many Americans wish was the national anthem. Pianist Clare Fischer arranged the first for his 1967 album Songs For Rainy Day Lovers. The second version is by tenor saxophonist Al Cohn with Barry Harris, piano; Sam Jones, bass; and Leroy Williams, drums. footnote: Al Cohn recorded “America The Beautiful” in 1976 as part ...
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Jazz Musician of the Day: Clare Fischer
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Clare Fischer's birthday today!
Born on October 22, 1928 in Durand, Michigan, Clare Fischer is an uncommonly versatile musician, a master with many muses. Trained in the classics, inspired by jazz artists, healed by the rhythms of Latin and Brazilian music, his eclectic sound finds expression in every chart and instrument he touches. A veteran studio musician and a composer of rare quality, Fischer began his studies in Grand Rapids, Michigan... Read more.
Place our ...
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Jazz Musician of the Day: Clare Fischer
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Clare Fischer's birthday today!
Born on October 22, 1928 in Durand, Michigan, Clare Fischer is an uncommonly versatile musician, a master with many muses. Trained in the classics, inspired by jazz artists, healed by the rhythms of Latin and Brazilian music, his eclectic sound finds expression in every chart and instrument he touches. A veteran studio musician and a composer of rare quality, Fischer began his studies in Grand Rapids, Michigan... Read more.
Place our ...
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Clare Fischer: Extension (1963)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
West Coast jazz artists of the '50s and early '60s tend to be viewed stereotypically as plaid-shirted hot-dog musicians relentlessly recording upbeat contrapuntal originals. In truth, West Coast labels produced quite a number of heavy dates during this period, including Russ Garcia's Wigville (1955), Jimmy Giuffre's Seven Pieces (1957), Ornette Coleman's Something Else!!! (1958) and Fred Katz's Folk Songs for Far Out Folks (1958). One such album you may not know is Clare Fischer's Extension, a Pacific Jazz release which ...
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Remembering Clare Fischer
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
After Gary Foster informed me of Clare Fischer's death on Friday at 83, I went to the LP shelves, got out Dizzy Gillespie's 1960 recording A Portrait of Duke Ellington and listened to all of it. For perhaps the hundredth time, I was moved by the originality thatFischer brought to the daunting task of recasting pieces by the acknowledged master of jazz composition. In an irony of Fischer's career, the understated brilliance of his arrangements for that remarkable collection went ...
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Extension: Clare Fischer in the 1960s
Source:
Michael Ricci
Clare Fischer is a pianist, composer and bandleader whose influences are wide-ranging--the post-World War II bebop and progressive jazz of pianist Bud Powell and saxophonist Lee Konitz, the dissonance flavorings of classical composers such as Bartok and Shostakovich, the tonal colors of Duke Ellington, and the rhythms of Latin jazz and bossa nova. Though he's focused primarily on jazz throughout his career, in recent decades Fischer has written for pop artists such as Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney and Prince, and ...
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"He is one of those rare musicians who truly understands music, not only with his mind but first and most importantly with his heart and soul. His music never stops evolving." —Daniel Cytrynowicz, Feb. 1999
Frank Macchia
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Lisa Rich
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John Nyerges
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Michael Pagán
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Brent Fischer
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Quinn Johnson
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David Post
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Tyler Henderson
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