Toccata is a virtuoso piece of music typically for a keyboard or plucked string instrument featuring fast-moving, lightly fingered or otherwise virtuosic passages or sections, with or without imitative or fugal interludes, generally emphasizing the dexterity of the performer's fingers. Less frequently, the name is applied to works for multiple instruments.
Douglas Clare Fischer was an American keyboardist, composer, arranger, and bandleader. After graduating from Michigan State University, he became the pianist and arranger for the vocal group the Hi-Lo's in the late 1950s. 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". Consistently cited by jazz pianist and composer Herbie Hancock as a major influence, 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).
Luis Conte is a Cuban percussionist best-known for his performances in the bands of artists including James Taylor, Madonna, Pat Metheny Group, Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, Phil Collins, Rod Stewart and Shakira. He began his music career as a studio musician for Latin Jazz acts like Caldera. Conte's live performance and touring career took off when he joined Madonna's touring band in the 1980s. Neil Strauss of The New York Times describes Conte's playing as "grazing Latin-style percussion".
"Pensativa" is a bossa nova jazz standard by American pianist/composer/arranger Clare Fischer, first recorded in 1962 by a quintet under the joint leadership of Fischer and saxophonist Bud Shank, and released that year as part of an album entitled Bossa Nova Jazz Samba, comprising music in this style, as per its title, all of it arranged by Fischer, and, with the exception of Erroll Garner's "Misty", composed by him as well. In retrospect, this would prove to be just the first of countless forays by Fischer into various areas of Latin music. This particular song was one of the first, and almost certainly the most famous, of all the foreign-born - i.e. non-Brazilian - bossa novas. Its form, though extended (64 mm.), is standard A-A-B-A, with each section consisting of 16 measures instead of eight.
"Morning" is a Latin Jazz standard written by American pianist/composer/arranger Clare Fischer, first heard on his 1965 LP, Manteca!, Fischer's first recording conceived entirely in the Afro-Cuban idiom, which, along with the Brazilian music he had explored at length over the previous three years, would provide fertile ground for Fischer's musical explorations over the next half-century.
West Side Story is an album featuring American vibraphonist Cal Tjader, consisting of musical numbers from Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story in jazz arrangements, by Tjader's pianist and musical director Clare Fischer, without vocals. It was recorded in October 1960 and released on the Fantasy label in January 1961 as Fantasy 3310 / 8054. On July 30, 2002, Fantasy would reissue it – along with the 1962 LP Cal Tjader Plays Harold Arlen – on CD as Cal Tjader Plays Harold Arlen and West Side Story.
Cal Tjader Plays Harold Arlen is an album by American vibraphonist Cal Tjader, five of its 11 tracks arranged by Tjader's longtime colleague Clare Fischer. Recorded in June 1960 and released in February 1962 on the Fantasy label, it would be reissued on CD – together with Tjader's similarly semi-orchestral 1961 LP, West Side Story – on July 30, 2002, as Cal Tjader Plays Harold Arlen and West Side Story.
Touch of the Rare is an album by American jazz vocalist Lisa Rich, backed by a quartet led by pianist/composer/arranger Clare Fischer, who also wrote or co-wrote six of its 11 tracks. Released by Trend Records in 1985 as TR 541, and reissued the following year on CD, Touch of the Rare was the second album released by Rich. Her first album was Listen Here.
Alone Together is a studio album by American composer/arranger/pianist Clare Fischer, recorded in October 1975 and released in 1977 on the German label, MPS, and in the US by Discovery Records in 1980. Its 1997 reissue on CD accompanied a volume created by pianist, composer and educator Bill Dobbins, containing transcriptions of four of Alone Together 's tracks and five from Fischer's 1995 solo piano CD, Just Me, and described by saxophonist and longtime Fischer colleague Gary Foster as "among the very best materials published in the field of jazz pedagogy." Of the 1975 recording, Dobbins wrote: "If I had to make a list of the ten most important solo jazz piano recordings of all time, this recording would definitely be on the list."
2+2 is an eponymous album of a vocal quartet called 2+2 with music by the Latin jazz ensemble known as Salsa Picante that was led by the American keyboardist/composer-arranger Clare Fischer. It was recorded in September 1980 and released in February 1981 by Pausa Records, and in Germany on the MPS label, as Foreign Exchange – The First Album. Tracks 1, 2, 3, 6 and 7 would be reissued on CD in 1999, and as a digital download in 2012, as Latin Patterns, a compilation of remastered highlights from four of Fischer's MPS LPs from this period.
The State of His Art is a studio album by American composer/arranger/pianist Clare Fischer, recorded May 1973 and released in 1976 by Revelation Records, and on CD by Clare Fischer Productions in 2007. This is the first of five strictly solo piano recordings Fischer would make during his career.
Extension is the third album by composer/arranger/keyboardist Clare Fischer, and his first for big band, recorded and released in 1963 on the Pacific Jazz label, reissued on CD in 2002 as America the Beautiful, and, under its original name, in 2012.
So Danço Samba is the fourth album by keyboardist/composer-arranger Clare Fischer, and his first in the bossa nova vein, recorded and released in 1964 on the World Pacific label. Devoted primarily to the music of Antonio Carlos Jobim, it also features three of Fischer's own compositions.
Manteca! is an album by composer/arranger/keyboardist Clare Fischer, released in November 1965 on the Pacific Jazz label. Following his previous album, So Danço Samba, devoted primarily to the music of Antonio Carlos Jobim, and to the bossa nova in general, with this, his first devoted to Afro-Cuban jazz. Fischer also used the occasion to unveil what would become his second bona fide jazz standard, Morning.
Easy Livin' is an album by composer/arranger/keyboardist Clare Fischer, a program of standards featuring both solo piano performances and piano-bass duets, recorded on August 8, 1963, given a limited release in 1966, and reissued in 1968 on the Revelation label.
Songs for Rainy Day Lovers is an album by American keyboardist/composer-arranger Clare Fischer, recorded in August 1966 and released in September 1967 by Columbia Records. It would be reissued in 1978 on the Discovery label as America the Beautiful, and in 2002 on CD under the same name by Clare Fischer Productions.
Salsa Picante is an album by American composer-arranger/keyboardist Clare Fischer, recorded on January 30, 1978, and marking the eponymous recording debut of Fischer's Latin jazz combo. Initially released in 1979 by MPS Records in Germany, the album's U.S. release came the following year on the Trend/Discovery label. Though long unavailable on CD, four of its tracks made it onto MPS's 1998 anthology of Fischer highlights, Latin Patterns, and the album in its entirety was finally reissued on CD in 2007 by Clare Fischer Productions.
Machaca is an album by American composer-arranger/keyboadist Clare Fischer, the second to feature his Latin jazz combo, Salsa Picante. Recorded on May 16 and 17, 1979, it was released in 1980 on the German label, MPS, and in the U.S. the following year on the Discovery label.
This is the discography for American jazz musician Clare Fischer.
Brasamba! is an album by saxophonist Bud Shank, pianist Clare Fischer and guitarist Joe Pass released on the Pacific Jazz label.
You may listen to excerpts from "Jazz Toccata in C Minor," "Autumn Leaves," and "I'll Take Romance" here