"First of all, this is Duke's band, and this is Tchaikovsky. Knowing things in their original sources, I abhor taking a concert thing and trying to treat it in a jazz light. In the beginning they have a very nice orchestral usage, but the minute they start going into Johnny Hodges and 4/4, it just doesn't fit. It comes out neither fowl nor fish. The orchestration is enjoyable because, for one reason, they've done a nice job of getting nice, legitimate, straight-sounding things. The melodies are very lovely, but, of course, Duke is the master in this type of thing. But over-all, from a jazz standpoint, I don't appreciate it at all. If I didn't know it was Tchaikovsky, for instance, with the tambourine bit and all, I would feel it was straight out of an MGM Arabian movie. The harmonies he used, particularly some of the background things, interested me more than the melodies, probably because the harmonic part of music interests me more than any. From an orchestrational standpoint I would give this somewhere around 3½ stars; but from a jazz standpoint, none."
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Composers from the United StatesJazz musiciansPianists from the United StatesPeople from MichiganDeaths from disease
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Reviewing "Arabesque Cookie" from Ellington's The Nutcracker Suite; as quoted in "Clare Fischer: Blindfold Test" by Leonard Feather, in DownBeat (October 25, 1962), p. 39
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Clare_Fischer
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Clare Fischer
Douglas Clare Fischer (October 22, 1928 – January 26, 2012) was an American keyboardist, composer, arranger, and bandleader, best known for his innovations in the fields of Latin jazz and vocal arranging (as well as his [[w:Clare_Fischer
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