Clare Fischer
Clare Fischer (born October 22, 1928 in Durand , Michigan , † January 26, 2012 in Burbank , California ) was an American pianist , arranger and composer of jazz and pop , Latin American and classical music .
Life
Born into a musical family, Fischer began with the violin and tuba, switched to the piano, and added cello, saxophone and clarinet to Grand Rapids high school . In addition, he studied music theory and composition (already at the age of twelve he arranged for dance bands), which he continued from 1947 at the University of Michigan under the composer H. Owen Reed (1910-2014) (Bachelor 1951 and interrupted by a military service in which he worked for arranged a military band at West Point, Master 1955). He then toured for five years from 1956 as pianist and musical director (arranger) of the male vocal group "The Hi-Lo's" founded in 1953 by Gene Puerling . He arranged "A Portrait of Duke Ellington" for Dizzy Gillespie in 1960, for Donald Byrd and George Shearing . After that he wrote a lot of music for commercials. In 1983 he composed the symphonic work "The Duke, Swee'Pea and Me" on themes by Duke Ellington and his arranger Billy Strayhorn for the classical clarinetist Richard Stoltzman . In the 1970s he started playing keyboard in Cal Tjader's group and soon had his own Latin American group "Salsa Picante" and a vocal group "2 + 2". In 1981 he won a Grammy for "Salsa Picante 2 + 2" and in 1986 for his album "Free Fall". Since the 1990s he taught a lot in the USA and Europe (Scandinavia, Netherlands), gave solo concerts and played a.o. a. with the Metropole Orkest in the Netherlands and with the WDR big band . Since 1961 he has recorded over 40 albums, including a. with Donald Byrd, Gary Foster , Bert van den Brink (2001). He worked a lot with Latin American musicians (he was friends with Antônio Carlos Jobim , among others ) since his first recordings in the early 1960s (partly with Bud Shank and Joe Pass ), who were part of the bossa nova wave of that time. His composition “Pensativa” has become something of a jazz standard . According to Brian Priestley , his piano playing can be seen as “a thoughtful and humble continuation” of the achievements of Lennie Tristano and Bill Evans .
Fischer has also arranged a lot for pop musicians like the Jacksons, Paul McCartney , Prince , Celine Dion , Amy Grant , Natalie Cole , Paula Abdul , Michael Jackson , Chaka Khan and Robert Palmer since the 1980s . With this he financed u. a. a big band "Clare Fischer's Brazz Corp".
Clare Fischer received three Grammy Awards, two of them after his death: in 2013 , his last album ¡Ritmo! in the category of best Latin jazz album and in 2014 his work Pensamientos for Solo Alto Saxophone and Chamber Orchestra received an award for best instrumental composition.
Lexigraphic entries
- Ian Carr , Digby Fairweather , Brian Priestley : Rough Guide Jazz. The ultimate guide to jazz music. 1700 artists and bands from the beginning until today. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 1999, ISBN 3-476-01584-X .
- Leonard Feather , Ira Gitler : The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. Oxford University Press, New York 1999, ISBN 0-19-532000-X .
Web links
- Web presence (death report)
Individual evidence
- ^ Obituary on BBC News
- ↑ Clare Fischer dies at 83; versatile pianist, composer, arranger Los Angeles Times, January 28, 2012
- ↑ whose Fischer arrangements, based on a quote from Herbie Hancock in Julie Corryell, Laura Friedman "Jazz-Rock-Fusion" 1978, p. 161, had a formative influence on them
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Fischer, Clare |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American composer and pianist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 22, 1928 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Durand , Michigan |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 26, 2012 |
| Place of death | Burbank (Los Angeles County) , California |