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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 ...
read moreClare 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 ...
read moreClare 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 ...
read moreThe 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 ...
read moreClare 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 ...
read moreClare 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 ...
read moreClare 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 ...
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