Opinions sought regarding Clare Fischer - Thesaurus

[JohnS]

I sold off my CF albums. I found them dull. I don't regret moving them along.

I'm almost reluctant to say that I never really took to Thesaurus and didn't keep mine for very long.

[mikeweil]

The encounters described by JSngry and Chuck Nessa pretty well match what I was told about Fischer by an old friend, a vocalist who attended a jazz choir workshop given by Fischer. He bragged about professionalism and the skills of musicians and all, unwilling to adjust to the level of the students he was supposed to teach.

Well - there is more than one musician acting strange but playing great - you either love Fischer's writing and playing or you don't. I love it, the voicings, the rhythmic twists, and his great ear for woodwind sounds.

Edited May 28, 2012 by mikeweil

[davidsherr]

FWIW, the first time I met Fischer I mentioned my pleasure derived from Thesaurus. I mentioned Warne's solos. He then huddled closer and started a long bitch about Warne's playing - "He spent too much time listening to black players and that caused him to play behind the beat" etc.

What did I say about being annoyed by Clare? Not a lot of people respond to a compliment with a "bitch." Too much time "listening to black players..."? Like Armstrong, Bird, Pres, Plas, Hawk, Byas, Moody, Tatum, Criss, Wilson, Davis, Webster, etc., etc. etc. Yeah, I avoid them like the plague.

[davidsherr]

Pretty sure I've told this story before, but just in case not....I met the guy once, he came to NT in 74 or 75, did a clinic, had the 1:00 play "The Duke" & "Lennie's Pennies" (with bass sax, as written!). I chatted with him a bit, had him autograph my copy of Thesaurus (he did note the cutout hole with some amusement..), noted that the cover showed him in "fat mode", and then started going off on the DB review of the album (by you, Larry!) and how Bill Perkins was really hurt by it and how if he ever met that SOB who wrote it, he's like to punch him out, or some such, Bill Perkins was the kindest, most gentle soul who ever lived, and this bastard tears him down like that, what did HE ever play, huh? etc.

It was a nice little rant actually, had a very artful arc to it, and then it was over. Over. I left with the impression that if you hung with Claire Fischer, you did so ready to bail when the shit got too thick, and ready to come back when things got back to normal. Probably worth the effort, because the guy does have a lot of interesting music in him as well as some other things as well...

Butcha' know, from the oyster comes the pearl, and all that.

Sitting next to Perk on a commercial record date in the 1970s and the leader asks him for "one of those 'woofy' (?) solos like they used to play in the 50s," and Bill leans over and says "I think he's talking about me." Years later he told me, "people get angry when I don't play the same way I used to."

[Larry Kart]

Pretty sure I've told this story before, but just in case not....I met the guy once, he came to NT in 74 or 75, did a clinic, had the 1:00 play "The Duke" & "Lennie's Pennies" (with bass sax, as written!). I chatted with him a bit, had him autograph my copy of Thesaurus (he did note the cutout hole with some amusement..), noted that the cover showed him in "fat mode", and then started going off on the DB review of the album (by you, Larry!) and how Bill Perkins was really hurt by it and how if he ever met that SOB who wrote it, he's like to punch him out, or some such, Bill Perkins was the kindest, most gentle soul who ever lived, and this bastard tears him down like that, what did HE ever play, huh? etc.

It was a nice little rant actually, had a very artful arc to it, and then it was over. Over. I left with the impression that if you hung with Claire Fischer, you did so ready to bail when the shit got too thick, and ready to come back when things got back to normal. Probably worth the effort, because the guy does have a lot of interesting music in him as well as some other things as well...

Butcha' know, from the oyster comes the pearl, and all that.

Sitting next to Perk on a commercial record date in the 1970s and the leader asks him for "one of those 'woofy' (?) solos like they used to play in the 50s," and Bill leans over and says "I think he's talking about me." Years later he told me, "people get angry when I don't play the same way I used to."

As may have been mentioned on this thread or elsewhere, Fischer was big on punching people out or saying that he wanted to, this apparently after he became an imposing physical specimen after a lot of work in the gym. Unfortunately, later on he got into a road rage incident with a bigger tougher guy one day and was almost killed in the course of the ensuing beat down.

[JSngry]

I very much like the way Bill Perkins used to play and the way he played once he didn't play the way he used to play. There's some session of Mingus tunes he did with some L.A. drummer where the whole thing is Giuffre-like in its abstraction, and Perk is all up in it, like, yeah, I just play music, fool, not a style.

Bill Perkins was cool.