Clare Fischer
Encyclopedia
Clare Fischer is an American
composer
, arranger
, pianist
and organist
. His parents were of German, French, Irish-Scot, and English backgrounds.
and piano as his first instruments. At the age of 7 he began to pick out four-part harmony on the piano. After two years of piano lessons the family moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan
, where 12-year-old Clare began composing classical music and making instrumental arrangements for dance bands.
At South High School he took up cello
, clarinet
and saxophone
. His high school instructor, Glenn Litton, took an interest in the boy and, because the family could not afford it, gave him free lessons in music theory
, harmony
, and orchestration
. Clare returned the favor by orchestrating and copying music for him. Whenever the concert band needed an instrument, Clare would be supplied with it and the fingering chart to play it in concert. This gave him a personal training in orchestration that was invaluable.
He started his own band at 15, for which he wrote all the arrangements. After graduating in 1946, he began undergraduate studies in 1947 at Michigan State University
, majoring in music composition and theory, and studying with H. Owen Reed
. During his teens there were no funds for him to study piano, so he was mostly self-taught. Therefore his major instrument in college was cello, and piano a minor. Later he changed his major to piano and minor in clarinet.
Fischer graduated in 1951 with a B.M., cum laude, and began his first year of graduate work in composition. The U.S. Army drafted him the next year, sending him to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri
, for basic training. There he played alto saxophone in the band and ended his service as an arranger at the U.S. Military Academy Band at West Point, N.Y. After the army, Clare returned to Michigan State. In 1955 he received his Master of Music.
Next Clare was living in Detroit, Michigan
, where after a concert he offered his duties to the vocal quartet The Hi-Lo's
. For five years he was pianist and arranger for this group. He wrote his first vocal arrangements and recorded several albums as pianist and sometime vocal and instrumental arranger. Herbie Hancock
once explained that these arrangements were a major influence on him:
While with The Hi-Lo's
, Fischer arranged a record by trumpeter Donald Byrd
, on which well-known standards by subtle use of strings and harps acquired a new, melancholical quality. Even though Byrd's
album September Afternoon remained on the shelves of the record company for twenty-five years, Fischer was so lucky that the trumpeter played a copy for Dizzy Gillespie
. Gillespie in his turn asked him for his own "Portrait of Duke Ellington," which was well received. In 1960 albums for vibraphonist Cal Tjader
and pianist George Shearing
followed as did an eight year career of writing music for commercials. Fischer was ready to sign his first record contract.
and Joe Pass
. These early records are meticulous studies in jazz, bossa nova
and mambo, with the harmonical depth of Bach
, Shostakovich
and Stravinsky
. They were well received by the critics, but commercially not very successful. Fischer presented himself both as pianist and arranger and composed his most famous pieces, "Pensativa" and "Morning". His many talents, however, proved a disadvantage.
Arrangements for Sérgio Mendes
, Willy Ruff and others followed. In the sixties Clare began playing the organ again, having studied the pipe organ at sixteen. He began to record on a Hammond B-3 for Pacific and on an album by Cal Tjader, Soña Libre. Years later, Clare would record "T'DAAA" (1972) which showcased his skill on the Yamaha EX-42 and "Clare Declares" (1977) which once again featured the pipe organ.
Clare's roommates at the Michigan State University were Latin Americans, as were the majority of his friends outside the music department. He was introduced to the music of Tito Puente
, Tito Rodriguez
, Machito
and others. Through his friends he became interested in the Spanish language and took it as a minor on his Masters Degree. Clare's passion for music has always been matched by his love of languages. "The average person has about a fifteen percent understanding of a foreign language. He knows what language it is and is familiar with one or two words. With music it is not different. Most people only hear the lyrics to a song or feel the beat. I have always made music for good listeners, with 65 to eighty percent of musical understanding. That is why with my vocal sextet all pieces are sung in the original language, whether that is German, Spanish or Japanese."
At this time he was not yet playing Latin-Jazz, just listening to it. So when he moved to Hollywood in 1958, he went to East L.A. to play and learn more about the music. He started in a charanga
group with Modesta Duran as leader. Playing with many different groups, he paid his dues in the joints.
During this period he became interested in Brazilian music through the recordings of Elizete Cardoso
, for whom he wrote the standard "Elizete". Allegedly he cut the very first American Bossa Nova record for Cal Tjader. His liner notes illustrate how uncommon it was that Clare tried to get people to dance to something other than the twist:
(Cal Tjader Plays The Contemporary Music Of Mexico And Brazil, 1962)
Fischer did not want to tour Europe to make his fame because he had just founded a family. In the 1960s he worked frequently in the studios of California as a pianist, recording tunes to films and television advertisements. He experienced that in the studio the producer is often a musician's worst enemy. "They always want you to do something else than what you are good at. Often I was asked to play like the pianist of the Crusaders, Joe Sample. With great difficulty I did what they asked me to do and afterwards felt terrible about it. One time I was working in the studio wìth Sample. During a break he came up to me and said to my great surprise: 'I want to tell you something that really annoys me. Every time I go into a recording session they ask me to lay down some of that stuff that you do!'."
and Chick Corea
he was a pioneer on the electric keyboard, and in that capacity he joined vibraphonist Cal Tjader's group. The reunion with Tjader gave a new impulse to Fischer's love of Latin-American music. He started his own group with Latino musicians, "Salsa Picante," which showed great eclecticism in musical styles. Later he added a vocal group, 2+2. Stravinsky mixed with boogie woogie, country with renaissance music.
The record 2+2 won a Grammy in 1981. Since then he has recorded "And Sometimes Voices" and "Free Fall" with the vocal group. "Free Fall" was nominated in three categories for the Grammy Awards and won under the category of "Best Jazz Album By A Vocal Duo Or Group". "Crazy Bird" was with the instrumental group and "Alone Together", a solo piano album recorded on a magnificent Hamburg Steinway
. It was recorded for Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer and the German company MPS Records. Clare's MPS records have been re-released by Discovery Records. In 1999 Motor Music in Hamburg issued a CD with 24 bits re-mastered highpoints of four of his Latin-flavoured MPS records, called Latin Patterns.
In the seventies, Fischer began doing orchestral sweeteners for R&B groups. Clare's brother's son, André Fischer, was the drummer of the band Rufus with Chaka Khan
. "Apparently the arrangements I made for their early records were appreciated, for in the following years I was hired almost exclusively by black artists." Among the artists Clare worked for are The Jacksons, Earl Klugh
, The Debarges, Shot-gun and Atlantic Star. His walls are now covered with gold and platinum records from these recordings and Grammy Award
Nominations, N.A.R.A.S. MVP Awards culminating in an MVP-emeritus in 1985.
Once his fame as an arranger was established, Fischer also worked with pop musicians like Paul McCartney
, Prince
, Celine Dion
and Robert Palmer. "I am surprised that my arrangements are now considered one of the prerequisites for a hit album. People feel that they make a song sound almost classical."
Classical concert artist Richard Stoltzman
commissioned him in 1983 to write a symphonic work using Duke Ellington
and Billy Strayhorn
themes. The result, "The Duke, Swee'pea and Me", an eleven and a half minute orchestral work, was performed with a symphony orchestra and Stoltzman
on clarinet all around the world.
. Some have appeared on Prince's albums and have been used for his movies Under the Cherry Moon
(Clare's first screen credit), Graffiti Bridge
and in Spike Lee
's Girl 6
. One of Clare's Prince arrangements was also used in a revised form for the movie Batman
. Prince continues to work with Clare on occasion. His December 2005 single "Te Amo Corazon
," a mid-tempo Latin jazz track, featured string arrangements by Clare.
More recently, as a jazz educator, Clare has performed solo piano concerts and conducted clinics and master classes in universities and music conservatories in Europe and throughout the United States. In 1995 Just Me came out, a Concord Jazz
CD with Clare on solo piano. Featuring his Latin-jazz group and six singers, now referred to as "Clare Fischer & Friends", a JVC Music CD appeared in 1997 called Rockin' In Rhythm.
Two gifted Dutch jazz pianists, Cor Bakker and Bert van den Brink, recorded the homage DeClared (1993) which contains nine Clare Fischer compositions. Five years later recordings made in 1991 and 1997 with The Netherlands Metropole Orchestra led by Rob Pronk and Vince Mendoza came out as The Latin Side. Another notable recent CD with Clare is a re-issue of Art Pepper's Tokyo Debut on Galaxy (1995).
At the present time Clare continues to write for Prince and many other renowned artists including Michael Jackson
before his death, Amy Grant
, Brazilian artist João Gilberto
(João), Paula Abdul
, Natalie Cole
and more recently Chaka Kahn and Branford Marsalis
.
With his commercial work Fischer financed a costly band of twenty brass instruments, called "Clare Fischer's Jazz Corps." "I may die a poor man, but I will have a smile on my face" is what he likes to say on this subject. The recordings of this band contain an interesting arrangement of Antonio Carlos Jobim
's "Corcovado". "The death of my friend Tom Jobim
has affected me deeply. Like me he was 68, and I am still alive. After he died I had a dream in which I was conducting his 'Corcovado'. Only it was not a normal version, there were these harmonic countermelodies in the bass. When I awoke I wrote down what I had dreamed. It became Jobim's In Memoriam, a piece I called 'Corcovado Fúnebre.'"
One of Clare's latest projects in his own name is a recording with Brazilian guitarist Hélio Delmiro
called "Symbiosis" which has been released on a "Clare Fischer Productions" recording as has his Clare Fischer's Jazz Corps recording. Both are available on Clare's web site at http://www.clarefischer.com .
2005 Introspectivo
2000 Bert van den Brink invites Clare Fischer
1999 Symbiosis – Clare Fischer & Hélio Delmiro
1999 Latin Patterns – Clare Fischer & The Legendary MPS Sessions
1998 Clare Fischer’s Jazz Corps
1997 The Latin Side - Clare Fischer & Metropole Orchestra
1997 Alone Together - Clare Fischer & the Brunner-Schwer Steinway (Previously released in 1980)
1997 Rockin’ In Rhythm - Clare Fischer & Friends
1995 Just Me - Solo Piano Excursions
1992 Memento
1990 Lembranças (Remembrances)
1988 Waltz
1987 Blues Trilogy (with Gary Foster)
1987 Tjaderama
1987 Clare Fischer Plays
1986 Freefall (Grammy winner)
1985 Crazy Bird - Re-released 1992
1984 Extension (with Jerry Coker) - Re-release
1984 Whose Woods Are These? (with Gary Foster) (Grammy nomination)
1983 Starbright (with Gary Foster)
1982 September Afternoon (with Donald Byrd)
1982 And Sometimes Voices (with 2+2)
1982 Head, Heart and Hands
1981 Clare Fischer & Salsa Picante Present 2+2 (Grammy winner)
1981 Machaca
1980 Alone Together (Du Du track, Grammy nomination)
1980 Salsa Picante
1980 Duality
1979 Clare Fischer & EX-42 orig. rel’d in ‘72 as T’DA-A-A!
1979 ‘Twas Only Yesterday
1979 Jazz Song
1978 America the Beautiful (Previously released in 1967 as Songs For Rainy Day Lovers)
1977 Clare Declares
1976 The State of His Art
1975 Music Inspired by the Kinetic Sculpture of Don Conard Mobiles
1972 Clare Fischer In the Reclamation Act of 1972!
1972 T’DA-A-A! Clare Fischer & the Yamaha Quartet
1972 Tell It Like It Is
1970 Love is Surrender
1970 Great White Hope (& His Japanese Friend)
1969 Thesaurus
1968 One to Get Ready: Four...to-Go!
1966 Easy Livin’
1965 Piano Concert
1965 Manteca!
1965 Só Danço Samba
1964 Surging Ahead
1963 First Time Out
1961 Jazz
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, arranger
Arranger
In investment banking, an arranger is a provider of funds in the syndication of a debt. They are entitled to syndicate the loan or bond issue, and may be referred to as the "lead underwriter". This is because this entity bears the risk of being able to sell the underlying securities/debt or the...
, pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
and organist
Organist
An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists...
. His parents were of German, French, Irish-Scot, and English backgrounds.
Early years
In grade school he started his general music study with violinViolin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
and piano as his first instruments. At the age of 7 he began to pick out four-part harmony on the piano. After two years of piano lessons the family moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. The city is located on the Grand River about 40 miles east of Lake Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 188,040. In 2010, the Grand Rapids metropolitan area had a population of 774,160 and a combined statistical area, Grand...
, where 12-year-old Clare began composing classical music and making instrumental arrangements for dance bands.
At South High School he took up cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
, clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
and saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
. His high school instructor, Glenn Litton, took an interest in the boy and, because the family could not afford it, gave him free lessons in music theory
Music theory
Music theory is the study of how music works. It examines the language and notation of music. It seeks to identify patterns and structures in composers' techniques across or within genres, styles, or historical periods...
, harmony
Harmony
In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches , or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...
, and orchestration
Orchestration
Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra or of adapting for orchestra music composed for another medium...
. Clare returned the favor by orchestrating and copying music for him. Whenever the concert band needed an instrument, Clare would be supplied with it and the fingering chart to play it in concert. This gave him a personal training in orchestration that was invaluable.
He started his own band at 15, for which he wrote all the arrangements. After graduating in 1946, he began undergraduate studies in 1947 at Michigan State University
Michigan State University
Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.MSU pioneered the studies of packaging,...
, majoring in music composition and theory, and studying with H. Owen Reed
H. Owen Reed
Herbert Owen Reed is an American composer, conductor, and author.-Education:Reed was raised in rural Odessa, Missouri, where his first exposure to music was his father's playing of the old-time fiddle...
. During his teens there were no funds for him to study piano, so he was mostly self-taught. Therefore his major instrument in college was cello, and piano a minor. Later he changed his major to piano and minor in clarinet.
Fischer graduated in 1951 with a B.M., cum laude, and began his first year of graduate work in composition. The U.S. Army drafted him the next year, sending him to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri
Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri
Fort Leonard Wood is a census-designated place in Pulaski County, Missouri, United States. The population was 13,667 at the 2000 census. It is named in honor of Major General Leonard Wood, who was awarded the Medal of Honor...
, for basic training. There he played alto saxophone in the band and ended his service as an arranger at the U.S. Military Academy Band at West Point, N.Y. After the army, Clare returned to Michigan State. In 1955 he received his Master of Music.
Next Clare was living in Detroit, Michigan
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
, where after a concert he offered his duties to the vocal quartet The Hi-Lo's
The Hi-Lo's
The Hi-Lo's were an a cappella quartet formed in 1953. The group's name is reportedly a reference to their extreme vocal and physical ranges .-History:The group consisted of Gene Puerling , Bob Strasen , Bob Morse...
. For five years he was pianist and arranger for this group. He wrote his first vocal arrangements and recorded several albums as pianist and sometime vocal and instrumental arranger. Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
once explained that these arrangements were a major influence on him:
- ..by the time I actually heard The Hi-Lo'sThe Hi-Lo'sThe Hi-Lo's were an a cappella quartet formed in 1953. The group's name is reportedly a reference to their extreme vocal and physical ranges .-History:The group consisted of Gene Puerling , Bob Strasen , Bob Morse...
, I started picking that stuff out; my ear was happening. I could hear stuff and that's when I really learned some much farther-out voicings -like the harmonies I used on 'Speak Like A Child' -just being able to do that. I really got that from Clare Fischer's arrangements for the Hi-Lo's. Clare Fischer was a major influence on my harmonic concept... He and Bill EvansBill EvansWilliam John Evans, known as Bill Evans was an American jazz pianist. His use of impressionist harmony, inventive interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, and trademark rhythmically independent, "singing" melodic lines influenced a generation of pianists including: Chick Corea, Herbie...
, and RavelMaurice RavelJoseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...
and Gil EvansGil EvansGil Evans was a jazz pianist, arranger, composer and bandleader, active in the United States...
, finally. You know, that's where it really came from. Almost all of the harmony that I play can be traced to one of those four people and whoever their influences were.
While with The Hi-Lo's
The Hi-Lo's
The Hi-Lo's were an a cappella quartet formed in 1953. The group's name is reportedly a reference to their extreme vocal and physical ranges .-History:The group consisted of Gene Puerling , Bob Strasen , Bob Morse...
, Fischer arranged a record by trumpeter Donald Byrd
Donald Byrd
Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II, is an American jazz and rhythm and blues trumpeter. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd is best known as one of the only bebop jazz musicians who successfully pioneered the funk and soul genres while simultaneously remaining a...
, on which well-known standards by subtle use of strings and harps acquired a new, melancholical quality. Even though Byrd's
Donald Byrd
Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II, is an American jazz and rhythm and blues trumpeter. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd is best known as one of the only bebop jazz musicians who successfully pioneered the funk and soul genres while simultaneously remaining a...
album September Afternoon remained on the shelves of the record company for twenty-five years, Fischer was so lucky that the trumpeter played a copy for Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...
. Gillespie in his turn asked him for his own "Portrait of Duke Ellington," which was well received. In 1960 albums for vibraphonist Cal Tjader
Cal Tjader
Callen Radcliffe Tjader, Jr. a.k.a. Cal Tjader was a Latin jazz musician, though he also explored various other jazz idioms. Unlike other American jazz musicians who experimented with the music from Cuba, the Caribbean, and Latin America, he never abandoned it, performing it until his...
and pianist George Shearing
George Shearing
Sir George Shearing, OBE was an Anglo-American jazz pianist who for many years led a popular jazz group that recorded for MGM Records and Capitol Records. The composer of over 300 titles, he had multiple albums on the Billboard charts during the 1950s, 1960s, 1980s and 1990s...
followed as did an eight year career of writing music for commercials. Fischer was ready to sign his first record contract.
Early career as a leader
The first recording under his own name began in 1962 for Pacific Jazz Records: "First Time Out", "Surging Ahead", "Manteca" and "Extension," plus recordings with Bud ShankBud Shank
Clifford Everett "Bud" Shank, Jr. was an American alto saxophonist and flautist. He rose to prominence in the early 1950s playing lead alto and flute in Stan Kenton's Innovations in Modern Music Orchestra and throughout the decade worked in various small jazz combos. He spent the 1960s as a first...
and Joe Pass
Joe Pass
Joe Pass was an Italian-American jazz guitarist of Sicilian descent. He is generally considered to be one of the greatest jazz guitarists of the 20th century...
. These early records are meticulous studies in jazz, bossa nova
Bossa nova
Bossa nova is a style of Brazilian music. Bossa nova acquired a large following in the 1960s, initially consisting of young musicians and college students...
and mambo, with the harmonical depth of Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
, Shostakovich
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....
and Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
. They were well received by the critics, but commercially not very successful. Fischer presented himself both as pianist and arranger and composed his most famous pieces, "Pensativa" and "Morning". His many talents, however, proved a disadvantage.
- Whenever I played with a trio, people said: 'Fischer owes a lot to Bill Evans'. Who I had never heard playing. My big musical example at the time was Lee Konitz. And when I orchestrated a record it was Gil Evans, the arranger, that I copied. I called this my Evans Brothers syndrome.
Arrangements for Sérgio Mendes
Sergio Mendes
Sérgio Santos Mendes is a Brazilian musician. He has released over thirty-five albums, and plays bossa nova heavily crossed with jazz and funk....
, Willy Ruff and others followed. In the sixties Clare began playing the organ again, having studied the pipe organ at sixteen. He began to record on a Hammond B-3 for Pacific and on an album by Cal Tjader, Soña Libre. Years later, Clare would record "T'DAAA" (1972) which showcased his skill on the Yamaha EX-42 and "Clare Declares" (1977) which once again featured the pipe organ.
Clare's roommates at the Michigan State University were Latin Americans, as were the majority of his friends outside the music department. He was introduced to the music of Tito Puente
Tito Puente
Tito Puente, , born Ernesto Antonio Puente, was a Latin jazz and Salsa musician. The son of native Puerto Ricans Ernest and Ercilia Puente, of Spanish Harlem in New York City, Puente is often credited as "El Rey de los Timbales" and "The King of Latin Music"...
, Tito Rodriguez
Tito Rodriguez
Tito Rodríguez was a popular 1950s and 1960s Puerto Rican singer and bandleader. He is known by many fans as "El Inolvidable" , a moniker based on his most popular interpretation, a song written by composer Julio Gutierrez.-Early years:Rodríguez , born in Santurce, Puerto Rico,...
, Machito
Machito
Machito , born as Francisco Raúl Gutiérrez Grillo, was an influential Latin jazz musician who helped refine Afro-Cuban jazz and create both Cubop and salsa music...
and others. Through his friends he became interested in the Spanish language and took it as a minor on his Masters Degree. Clare's passion for music has always been matched by his love of languages. "The average person has about a fifteen percent understanding of a foreign language. He knows what language it is and is familiar with one or two words. With music it is not different. Most people only hear the lyrics to a song or feel the beat. I have always made music for good listeners, with 65 to eighty percent of musical understanding. That is why with my vocal sextet all pieces are sung in the original language, whether that is German, Spanish or Japanese."
At this time he was not yet playing Latin-Jazz, just listening to it. So when he moved to Hollywood in 1958, he went to East L.A. to play and learn more about the music. He started in a charanga
Charanga
Charanga is a term given to traditional ensembles of Cuban dance music. They made Cuban dance music popular in the 1940s and their music consisted of heavily son-influenced material, performed on European instruments such as violin and flute by a Charanga orchestra....
group with Modesta Duran as leader. Playing with many different groups, he paid his dues in the joints.
During this period he became interested in Brazilian music through the recordings of Elizete Cardoso
Elizete Cardoso
Elizeth Moreira Cardoso , was a singer and actress of great renown in Brazil....
, for whom he wrote the standard "Elizete". Allegedly he cut the very first American Bossa Nova record for Cal Tjader. His liner notes illustrate how uncommon it was that Clare tried to get people to dance to something other than the twist:
- Last spring I was introduced to a friend of bassist Ralph PeñaRalph PeñaRalph Peña is a founding member and the current artistic director of Ma-Yi Theater Company, an Obie Award and Drama Desk winning Asian American theatre group based in New York City...
[...] he talked to us about a new kind of music that was being played in Brazil called the 'Bossa Nova' which in slang terms might be like saying 'the new bag' or 'new aptitude'. [...] The rhythms were so infectious that, even though I usually don't dance much myself, I felt compelled to respond and found myself dancing away several hours.
(Cal Tjader Plays The Contemporary Music Of Mexico And Brazil, 1962)
Fischer did not want to tour Europe to make his fame because he had just founded a family. In the 1960s he worked frequently in the studios of California as a pianist, recording tunes to films and television advertisements. He experienced that in the studio the producer is often a musician's worst enemy. "They always want you to do something else than what you are good at. Often I was asked to play like the pianist of the Crusaders, Joe Sample. With great difficulty I did what they asked me to do and afterwards felt terrible about it. One time I was working in the studio wìth Sample. During a break he came up to me and said to my great surprise: 'I want to tell you something that really annoys me. Every time I go into a recording session they ask me to lay down some of that stuff that you do!'."
Salsa Picante years
In 1975, after ten years of studiowork and artistically successful yet obscure solo records, Fischer found a new direction. Just like Herbie HancockHerbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
and Chick Corea
Chick Corea
Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer.Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever...
he was a pioneer on the electric keyboard, and in that capacity he joined vibraphonist Cal Tjader's group. The reunion with Tjader gave a new impulse to Fischer's love of Latin-American music. He started his own group with Latino musicians, "Salsa Picante," which showed great eclecticism in musical styles. Later he added a vocal group, 2+2. Stravinsky mixed with boogie woogie, country with renaissance music.
The record 2+2 won a Grammy in 1981. Since then he has recorded "And Sometimes Voices" and "Free Fall" with the vocal group. "Free Fall" was nominated in three categories for the Grammy Awards and won under the category of "Best Jazz Album By A Vocal Duo Or Group". "Crazy Bird" was with the instrumental group and "Alone Together", a solo piano album recorded on a magnificent Hamburg Steinway
Steinway & Sons
Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway , is an American and German manufacturer of handmade pianos, founded 1853 in Manhattan in New York City by German immigrant Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg...
. It was recorded for Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer and the German company MPS Records. Clare's MPS records have been re-released by Discovery Records. In 1999 Motor Music in Hamburg issued a CD with 24 bits re-mastered highpoints of four of his Latin-flavoured MPS records, called Latin Patterns.
In the seventies, Fischer began doing orchestral sweeteners for R&B groups. Clare's brother's son, André Fischer, was the drummer of the band Rufus with Chaka Khan
Rufus (band)
Rufus was an American funk band from Chicago, Illinois best known for launching the career of lead singer Chaka Khan. They had several hits throughout their career, including "Tell Me Something Good," "Sweet Thing," and "Ain't Nobody."-Origins:...
. "Apparently the arrangements I made for their early records were appreciated, for in the following years I was hired almost exclusively by black artists." Among the artists Clare worked for are The Jacksons, Earl Klugh
Earl Klugh
Earl Klugh is an American smooth jazz/crossover jazz/jazz fusion guitarist and composer.At the age of 13, Klugh was captivated by the guitar playing of Chet Atkins when Atkins made an appearance on the Perry Como Show. Klugh was a performing guest on several of Atkins' albums...
, The Debarges, Shot-gun and Atlantic Star. His walls are now covered with gold and platinum records from these recordings and Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
Nominations, N.A.R.A.S. MVP Awards culminating in an MVP-emeritus in 1985.
Once his fame as an arranger was established, Fischer also worked with pop musicians like Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
, Prince
Prince (musician)
Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...
, Celine Dion
Celine Dion
Céline Marie Claudette Dion, , , is a Canadian singer. Born to a large family from Charlemagne, Quebec, Dion emerged as a teen star in the French-speaking world after her manager and future husband René Angélil mortgaged his home to finance her first record...
and Robert Palmer. "I am surprised that my arrangements are now considered one of the prerequisites for a hit album. People feel that they make a song sound almost classical."
Classical concert artist Richard Stoltzman
Richard Stoltzman
Richard Stoltzman is an American clarinetist. Born Richard Leslie Stoltzman in Omaha, Nebraska, he spent his early years in San Francisco, California and Cincinnati, Ohio, graduating from Woodward High School in 1960. Today, Stoltzman is part of the faculty list at the New England Conservatory...
commissioned him in 1983 to write a symphonic work using Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
and Billy Strayhorn
Billy Strayhorn
William Thomas "Billy" Strayhorn was an American composer, pianist and arranger, best known for his successful collaboration with bandleader and composer Duke Ellington lasting nearly three decades. His compositions include "Chelsea Bridge", "Take the "A" Train" and "Lush Life".-Early...
themes. The result, "The Duke, Swee'pea and Me", an eleven and a half minute orchestral work, was performed with a symphony orchestra and Stoltzman
Richard Stoltzman
Richard Stoltzman is an American clarinetist. Born Richard Leslie Stoltzman in Omaha, Nebraska, he spent his early years in San Francisco, California and Cincinnati, Ohio, graduating from Woodward High School in 1960. Today, Stoltzman is part of the faculty list at the New England Conservatory...
on clarinet all around the world.
Later years: jazz inspirator and pop arranger
Since 1985 Clare has been writing orchestral arrangements for pop artist PrincePrince (musician)
Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...
. Some have appeared on Prince's albums and have been used for his movies Under the Cherry Moon
Under the Cherry Moon
Under the Cherry Moon is a 1986 film directed by and starring Prince as a gigolo named Christopher Tracy and Time member Jerome Benton as his partner, Tricky. Together, the pair swindle wealthy French women...
(Clare's first screen credit), Graffiti Bridge
Graffiti Bridge (film)
Graffiti Bridge is a 1990 drama/musical written, directed, and starring Prince. It is a sequel to his first film, Purple Rain, though notorious for its relatively low quality and poor performance at the box-office...
and in Spike Lee
Spike Lee
Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee is an American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His production company, 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, has produced over 35 films since 1983....
's Girl 6
Girl 6
Girl 6 may refer to:*Girl 6, a 1996 film by Spike Lee*Girl 6 , the soundtrack for the film, composed by Prince*“Girl 6” , the title song for the soundtrack...
. One of Clare's Prince arrangements was also used in a revised form for the movie Batman
Batman (1989 film)
Batman is a 1989 superhero film based on the DC Comics character of the same name, directed by Tim Burton. The film stars Michael Keaton in the title role, as well as Jack Nicholson, Kim Basinger, Robert Wuhl and Jack Palance...
. Prince continues to work with Clare on occasion. His December 2005 single "Te Amo Corazon
Te Amo Corazón
"Te Amo Corazón" is a song by Prince, released as the first single from his 2006 album, 3121. It was officially released by the NPG Music Club on December 13, 2005...
," a mid-tempo Latin jazz track, featured string arrangements by Clare.
More recently, as a jazz educator, Clare has performed solo piano concerts and conducted clinics and master classes in universities and music conservatories in Europe and throughout the United States. In 1995 Just Me came out, a Concord Jazz
Concord Jazz
Concord Jazz is a subsidiary of Concord Records, owned by Concord Music Group.-Dozens of albums:*Charlie Byrd*Ruby Braff*Dave McKenna*Marian McPartland*Rosemary Clooney*Scott Hamilton*Tito Puente*George Shearing*Gene Harris*Mel Tormé*Monty Alexander...
CD with Clare on solo piano. Featuring his Latin-jazz group and six singers, now referred to as "Clare Fischer & Friends", a JVC Music CD appeared in 1997 called Rockin' In Rhythm.
Two gifted Dutch jazz pianists, Cor Bakker and Bert van den Brink, recorded the homage DeClared (1993) which contains nine Clare Fischer compositions. Five years later recordings made in 1991 and 1997 with The Netherlands Metropole Orchestra led by Rob Pronk and Vince Mendoza came out as The Latin Side. Another notable recent CD with Clare is a re-issue of Art Pepper's Tokyo Debut on Galaxy (1995).
At the present time Clare continues to write for Prince and many other renowned artists including Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
before his death, Amy Grant
Amy Grant
Amy Lee Grant is an American singer-songwriter, musician, author, media personality and actress, best known for her Christian music. She has been referred to as "The Queen of Christian Pop"...
, Brazilian artist João Gilberto
João Gilberto
João Gilberto Prado Pereira de Oliveira, known as João Gilberto , is a Brazilian singer and guitarist. His seminal recordings, including many songs by Antônio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes, established the new musical genre of Bossa nova in the late 1950s.-Biography:From an early age, music...
(João), Paula Abdul
Paula Abdul
Paula Julie Abdul is an American singer-songwriter, dancer, choreographer, actress and television personality.In the 1980s, Abdul rose from cheerleader for the Los Angeles Lakers to highly sought-after choreographer at the height of the music video era before scoring a string of pop music-R&B hits...
, Natalie Cole
Natalie Cole
Natalie Maria Cole , is an American singer, songwriter and performer. The daughter of jazz legend Nat King Cole, Cole rode to musical success in the mid-1970s as an R&B artist with the hits "This Will Be ", "Inseparable" and "Our Love"...
and more recently Chaka Kahn and Branford Marsalis
Branford Marsalis
Branford Marsalis is an American saxophonist, composer and bandleader. While primarily known for his work in jazz as the leader of the Branford Marsalis Quartet, he also performs frequently as a soloist with classical ensembles and has led the group Buckshot LeFonque.-Biography:Marsalis was born...
.
With his commercial work Fischer financed a costly band of twenty brass instruments, called "Clare Fischer's Jazz Corps." "I may die a poor man, but I will have a smile on my face" is what he likes to say on this subject. The recordings of this band contain an interesting arrangement of Antonio Carlos Jobim
Antônio Carlos Jobim
Antônio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim , also known as Tom Jobim , was a Brazilian songwriter, composer, arranger, singer, and pianist/guitarist. He was a primary force behind the creation of the bossa nova style, and his songs have been performed by many singers and instrumentalists within...
's "Corcovado". "The death of my friend Tom Jobim
Antônio Carlos Jobim
Antônio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim , also known as Tom Jobim , was a Brazilian songwriter, composer, arranger, singer, and pianist/guitarist. He was a primary force behind the creation of the bossa nova style, and his songs have been performed by many singers and instrumentalists within...
has affected me deeply. Like me he was 68, and I am still alive. After he died I had a dream in which I was conducting his 'Corcovado'. Only it was not a normal version, there were these harmonic countermelodies in the bass. When I awoke I wrote down what I had dreamed. It became Jobim's In Memoriam, a piece I called 'Corcovado Fúnebre.'"
One of Clare's latest projects in his own name is a recording with Brazilian guitarist Hélio Delmiro
Hélio Delmiro
Hélio Delmiro is a Brazilian guitar player and composer.Delmiro started playing the guitar in early childhood.Since then, he has played with many of the best Brazilian musicians, among whom are Moacyr Silva, Márcio Montarroyos, Luíz Eça, Elis Regina, Elza Soares and Elizeth Cardoso...
called "Symbiosis" which has been released on a "Clare Fischer Productions" recording as has his Clare Fischer's Jazz Corps recording. Both are available on Clare's web site at http://www.clarefischer.com .
As leader
2006 A Family Affair2005 Introspectivo
2000 Bert van den Brink invites Clare Fischer
1999 Symbiosis – Clare Fischer & Hélio Delmiro
1999 Latin Patterns – Clare Fischer & The Legendary MPS Sessions
1998 Clare Fischer’s Jazz Corps
1997 The Latin Side - Clare Fischer & Metropole Orchestra
1997 Alone Together - Clare Fischer & the Brunner-Schwer Steinway (Previously released in 1980)
1997 Rockin’ In Rhythm - Clare Fischer & Friends
1995 Just Me - Solo Piano Excursions
1992 Memento
1990 Lembranças (Remembrances)
1988 Waltz
1987 Blues Trilogy (with Gary Foster)
1987 Tjaderama
1987 Clare Fischer Plays
1986 Freefall (Grammy winner)
1985 Crazy Bird - Re-released 1992
1984 Extension (with Jerry Coker) - Re-release
1984 Whose Woods Are These? (with Gary Foster) (Grammy nomination)
1983 Starbright (with Gary Foster)
1982 September Afternoon (with Donald Byrd)
1982 And Sometimes Voices (with 2+2)
1982 Head, Heart and Hands
1981 Clare Fischer & Salsa Picante Present 2+2 (Grammy winner)
1981 Machaca
1980 Alone Together (Du Du track, Grammy nomination)
1980 Salsa Picante
1980 Duality
1979 Clare Fischer & EX-42 orig. rel’d in ‘72 as T’DA-A-A!
1979 ‘Twas Only Yesterday
1979 Jazz Song
1978 America the Beautiful (Previously released in 1967 as Songs For Rainy Day Lovers)
1977 Clare Declares
1976 The State of His Art
1975 Music Inspired by the Kinetic Sculpture of Don Conard Mobiles
1972 Clare Fischer In the Reclamation Act of 1972!
1972 T’DA-A-A! Clare Fischer & the Yamaha Quartet
1972 Tell It Like It Is
1970 Love is Surrender
1970 Great White Hope (& His Japanese Friend)
1969 Thesaurus
1968 One to Get Ready: Four...to-Go!
1966 Easy Livin’
1965 Piano Concert
1965 Manteca!
1965 Só Danço Samba
1964 Surging Ahead
1963 First Time Out
1961 Jazz
As sideman
With Moacir SantosMoacir Santos
Moacir Santos was a Brazilian composer, multi-instrumentalist and music educator. Baden Powell de Aquino and Wilson das Neves both studied under him...
- MaestroMaestro (Moacir Santos album)Maestro is an album by Brazilian composer Moacir Santos recorded in 1972 and released on the Blue Note label.-Reception:The Allmusic review by Jason Ankeny awarded the album 3½ stars stating "For his Blue Note debut, Maestro, Brazilian composer Moacir Santos assiduously avoids his homeland's...
(Blue Note, 1972) - Carnival of the SpiritsCarnival of the SpiritsCarnival of the Spirits is an album by Brazilian composer Moacir Santos recorded in 1975 and released on the Blue Note label.-Track listing:# "Quiet Carnival" - 5:52# "Jequie" - 2:53# "Kamba" - 4:30...
(Blue Note, 1975)