Callen Radcliffe Tjader Jr. was an American Latin Jazz musician, often described as the most successful non-Latino Latin musician. He explored other jazz idioms, especially small group modern jazz, even as he continued to perform music of Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America.
Raymundo "Ray" Barretto Pagán was an American percussionist and bandleader of Puerto Rican descent. Throughout his career as a percussionist, he played a wide variety of Latin music styles, as well as Latin jazz. His first hit, "El Watusi", was recorded by his Charanga Moderna in 1962, becoming the most successful pachanga song in the United States. In the late 1960s, Barretto became one of the leading exponents of boogaloo and what would later be known as salsa. Nonetheless, many of Barretto's recordings would remain rooted in more traditional genres such as son cubano. A master of the descarga, Barretto was a long-time member of the Fania All-Stars. His success continued into the 1970s with songs such as "Cocinando" and "Indestructible". His last album for Fania Records, Soy dichoso, was released in 1990. He then formed the New World Spirit jazz ensemble and continued to tour and record until his death in 2006.
Carlos Manuel "Charlie" Palmieri was a Puerto Rican bandleader and musical director of salsa music. He was known as the "Giant of the Keyboards".
Eddie Palmieri is an American Grammy Award-winning pianist, bandleader, musician, and composer of Puerto Rican ancestry. He is the founder of the bands La Perfecta, La Perfecta II, and Harlem River Drive.
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).
Poncho Sánchez is an American conguero, Latin jazz band leader, and salsa singer. In 2000, he and his ensemble won the Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album for their work on the Concord Picante album Latin Soul. Sanchez has performed with artists including Cal Tjader, Mongo Santamaría, Hugh Masekela, Clare Fischer, and Tower of Power.
Mario Rivera was a Latin jazz saxophonist from the Dominican Republic. Besides saxophone, Rivera played trumpet, flute, piano, vibraphone, congas, and drums.
Roger Dawson is a jazz percussionist, conga drummer, bandleader, and jazz composer. He was a leading jazz and salsa disc jockey in the US and was acknowledged as being at the forefront of New York's salsa music explosion of the seventies and early eighties. He was the creator of the long-running "Salsa Meets Jazz" concert series at New York's Village Gate club.
"Manteca" is one of the earliest foundational tunes of Afro-Cuban jazz. Co-written by Dizzy Gillespie, Chano Pozo and Gil Fuller in 1947, it is among the most famous of Gillespie's recordings and is "one of the most important records ever made in the United States", according to Gary Giddins of The Village Voice. "Manteca" is the first tune rhythmically based on the clave to become a jazz standard.
"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.
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.
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.
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.
Soul Burst is an album by Latin jazz vibraphonist Cal Tjader recorded in early 1966 and released on the Verve label.
Heat Wave is a 1982 studio album by vibraphonist Cal Tjader and jazz singer Carmen McRae. Tjader died four months after the completion of Heat Wave, it was his final recording.
Clarity: Music of Clare Fischer is the 13th album by jazz singer Roseanna Vitro, released in 2014 by Random Act Records. The first instance of a singer releasing an album devoted to Fischer's music, Clarity unveils six new lyrics to previously instrumental compositions. One of these, "Take Your Breath and Sing", features the composer's son Brent Fischer on vibraphone.
This is the discography for American jazz musician Clare Fischer.
Tokyo Debut is a live album by saxophonist Art Pepper recorded in Japan in 1977 by TBS Radio and originally released on the Japanese Polydor label in 1990 as First Live in Japan before being rereleased on the Galaxy label in 1995.
Here is a live album by vibraphonist Cal Tjader which was recorded in 1977 and released on the Galaxy label in 1979.
