Remembering Clare Fischer (1928-2012)

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Douglas Clare Fischer (October 22, 1928 – January 26, 2012) was an American keyboardist, composer, arranger, and bandleader. After graduating from Michigan State University (from which, five decades later, he would receive an honorary doctorate), he became the pianist and arranger for the vocal group the Hi-Lo’s in the late 1950s.

Clare Fischer went on to work with Donald Byrd and Dizzy Gillespie, and became known for his Latin and bossa nova recordings in the 1960s. He composed the Latin jazz standard “Morning”, and the jazz standard “Pensativa”.

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Consistently cited by jazz pianist and composer Herbie Hancock as a major influence (“I wouldn’t be me without Clare Fischer”), he was nominated for eleven Grammy Awards during his lifetime, winning for his landmark album, 2+2 (1981), the first of Fischer’s records to incorporate the vocal ensemble writing developed during his Hi-Lo’s days into his already sizable Latin jazz discography; it was also the first recorded installment in Fischer’s three-decade-long collaboration with his son Brent. Fischer was also a posthumous Grammy winner for ¡Ritmo! (2012) and for Music for Strings, Percussion and the Rest (2013).

Beginning in the early 1970s, Fischer embarked on a parallel (and far more lucrative) career, eventually becoming a much sought-after arranger, providing orchestral “sweeteners” for pop and R&B artists such as Rufus (with Chaka Khan), Prince (a regular client from 1984 onwards, and by far Fischer’s most frequent in pop music), Robert Palmer, Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson and many others.

In 1975, after ten years of studio work and artistically successful yet obscure solo records, Fischer found a new direction. Just like Hancock 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 expanded to include four vocalists billed separately as “2 + 2”.

Once his fame as an arranger was established, Fischer also worked with pop musicians such as 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.”

Starting in 1984, Fischer wrote orchestral arrangements for pop artist Prince. Fischer’s arrangements appeared both on Prince’s albums and in the Prince film soundtrack music for Under the Cherry Moon (Fischer’s first screen credit), Graffiti Bridge, Batman and Girl 6. Prince’s 2005 single “Te Amo Corazón”, a mid-tempo Latin jazz track, is one example of his collaboration with Fischer.

As a jazz educator, Fischer performed solo piano concerts and conducted clinics and master classes in universities and music conservatories in Europe and throughout the United States. In 1995, Fischer released the solo jazz piano album, Just Me, on the Concord Jazz label. In 1997, his Latin-jazz group, which featured six singers, released the album Rockin’ In Rhythm on the JVC Music label.

In addition to his work with Prince, Fischer provided arrangements for Michael Jackson, Amy Grant, João Gilberto, Paula Abdul, Natalie Cole, Chaka Khan and Branford Marsalis. This work enabled Fischer to record his own music with a band of twenty brass instruments called “Clare Fischer’s Jazz Corps”.

The recordings of this band contain an arrangement of Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “Corcovado”. Fischer said of Jobim that “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.’”

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Discography

Main article: Clare Fischer discography (on Wikipedia)

First Time Out (Pacific Jazz, 1962) Bossa Nova Jazz Samba (Pacific Jazz, 1962) with Bud Shank Brasamba! (Pacific Jazz, 1963) with Bud Shank and Joe Pass Surging Ahead (Pacific Jazz, 1963) Extension (Pacific Jazz, 1963) So Danço Samba (Pacific Jazz, 1964) Manteca! (Pacific Jazz, 1965) Easy Livin’ (Revelation, 1966)

Songs for Rainy Day Lovers (Columbia, 1967) One to Get Ready, Four to Go (Revelation, 1968) Thesaurus (Atlantic, 1969) Great White Hope (& his Japanese Friend) (Revelation, 1970) Report of the 1st Annual Symposium on Relaxed Improvisation (Revelation, 1973) The State of His Art (1976) Clare Declares (1977) Salsa Picante (1980)

Alone Together (1980) 2+2 (1981) Machaca (1981) Remembrances (Lembranças) (1990) Introspectivo (2005)