"Verve released an album by Dizzy Gillespie titled A Portrait of Duke Ellington. The orchestral writing was nothing less than brilliant, but, alas, the album gave no arranger's credit. The writing sounded like Ellington and yet not like Ellington; like Gil Evans, yet not like Gil Evans. It was in fact apparent that the arranger had studied everything and everyone and then developed his own highly personal approach to writing. Unable to reach Dizzy by phone, I set out to find out who had done this remarkable writing. It turned out to be the young man about whom Dizzy was so wildly enthusiastic, and this time I did not forget the name: Clare Fischer. Clare was at that time chiefly known as the pianist for the Hi-Lo's, the superb vocal group out of which the even more brilliant Singers Unlimited group developed. The Gillespie-Ellington album provided convincing evidence that he had one of the most original and advanced compositional minds in jazz."
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Composers from the United StatesJazz musiciansPianists from the United StatesPeople from MichiganDeaths from disease
Original Language: English
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Sources
Gene Lees, from his liner notes for Alone Together (1980)
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
119 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Clare Fischer →
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