Clare Fischer
USA, 1957–2012
American pianist, composer and arranger (1928-2012), a musician's musician whose harmonic writing reached far more people than his name did. His charts for the Hi-Lo's rewired a generation of jazz pianists, and he arranged for Prince and Michael Jackson besides.
MusicRoots documents 6 artists who influenced Clare Fischer and 1 artist Clare Fischer influenced in turn. Every connection cites a published source.
Who influenced Clare Fischer?
- Béla Bartók — One of the European composers Fischer absorbed, and audible in the way his chords move.
- Igor Stravinsky — Named among Fischer's classical sources.
- Dmitri Shostakovich — Another of them, and the darkest.
- Duke Ellington — The jazz-writing end of Fischer's list — orchestration as composition.
- Nat King Cole — Named among his influences — the trio-piano touch under all that harmony.
- Bud Powell — The bebop line in Fischer's playing, named alongside the composers.
Which artists did Clare Fischer influence?
- Herbie Hancock — Hancock is blunt about it — 'I wouldn't be me without Clare Fischer.' The far-out voicings on Speak Like a Child came from Fischer's arrangements for the Hi-Lo's.