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Clare 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 ReadingCal Tjader: Plays Harold Arlen and West Side Story
by David Rickert
Like the recently reissued Our Blues, this double CD presents Cal Tjader before he seriously delved into the Latin tunes that made his name in jazz circles. Unlike the previous album, which presented the vibraphonist as a serious improviser, Tjader is content to let the songs take the center stage; about three-fourths of this CD features a string section in the background. The strategy works well. Tjader cuts loose on a few Arlen standards before settling into melodic passages on ...
Continue ReadingClare Fischer / Metropole Orchestra: The Latin Side
by Jack Bowers
Continuing its series of collaborations with well–known American Jazz musicians, the Netherlands Metropole Orchestra travels south of the border, figuratively speaking, for a program of Latin Jazz by one of its leading exponents, composer/pianist Clare Fischer. The eight studio tracks, conducted by longtime music director Rob Pronk, were recorded in 1991; the ninth, “C.P.,” was recorded in concert at The Hague in 1997 and conducted by Vince Mendoza. Fischer arranged every number and composed all but Eubie Blake/Andy Razaf’s ballad, ...
Continue ReadingClare Fischer's Jazz Corps: Untitled
by Jack Bowers
And now, as John Cleese used to announce on the BBC’s Monty Python comedy series, for something completely different. Well, perhaps not completely, but at least different enough to arouse one’s curiosity and engage his/her attention. Clare Fischer, best known for his Latin–leaning compositions and arrangements for groups of various sizes both foreign and domestic, ventures into a new and substantially uncharted realm with his Jazz Corps, a full–blown marching band complete with bugles, French horns and half a dozen ...
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