Love Is Surrender
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Dear Listener: Clare Fischer is my friend. He's not only a great musician and an exciting performer, but is an excellent composer and arranger. He's bi-lingual and can bore you to tears on any subject from medicine and astronomy to politics and world history. I try to avoid all of these in favor of theology (about which he knows more than some preachers in my acquaintance). Since Clare assists me in my choir clinics, we travel by plane together a lot, so we talk about theology a lot (and occasionally disagree a lot). Through the years you have listened to his keyboard artistry, perhaps without even realizing it because he has played in the orchestra on so many of the albums I have recorded. On a session he moves around so fast it is hard to keep up with him, going from one instrument to another- piano, Celeste, harpsichord, Yamaha, Fender Rhodes -you name it; often two or three different keyboards in the same arrangement. Once in a while he tells me he likes the songs I write, or he'll say, "You know, the other night I sat down at home and played one of your melodies and it broke me up." So I ask him, "Is that good or bad?" One time on the plane returning from a workshop in the Midwest, and during a lull in his lecture, I said, "Clare, how would you like to do an album of my tunes? You pick 'em and play all the parts, using all the keyboards. We'll record it in 8-track and just keep overdubbing." He grinned and said, "I believe I'd like that. ..Yeah, that'd be fun. ..Just one thing. My dad had an old favorite that now is a polished trophy in my own cabinet of mem- ories ...ABIDE WITH ME. ..Could we include that one?" I agreed and soon the project was underway. Before completion I was in for some surprises. On A QUIET PLACE and FOR BY GRACE Clare felt there should be a nice soft cello background, so he played cello on five parts. Then on THE RESTLESS ONES he wanted a wood- wind background, so he played five parts using the alto, tenor and baritone sax (not to mention the rhythm sound on several selections achieved by slapping a pocket full of nickels.) In public performances (he recently worked with me on TELL IT LIKE IT IS, THE CENTURION, and NATURAL HIGH), he catches the builds and crescendos with a fervor that pulls the whole orchestra up. He explains, "I want everyone in the auditorium to feel what I'm feeling." His sensitivity shows through on this album as he moves from childlike gentleness to brash, bold explosions ... from the unspoiled placidity of Eden (A QUIET PLACE) to the distorted vulgarity of twisted values (THERE IS MORE TO LIFE and THE RESTLESS ONES). On BEYOND ALL TIME he mirrors the lyric so perfectly I can a1most hear him recite them audibly. One of the rewards of a composer is listening to others perform his compositions. Each time I play this album (and that's often) I hear something new, and I'd like to thank Clare for many enjoyable hours of inspirational listening. - Ralph Carmichael |