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Jesse Fischer

Jesse Fischer is a Brooklyn-based pianist, composer, and producer. Known for his warm, soulful touch and emphasis on melody, groove, storytelling and emotion, his unique voice combines elements of his own Jewish heritage with music of the African diaspora, jazz, hip-hop, indie, and singer-songwriter genres. A two-time ASCAP Plus Award winner, Fischer has performed with many notables in the jazz, pop, and world music scenes, including Mino Cinélu, Sarah Elizabeth Charles, Becca Stevens, Grace Kelly, Lakecia Benjamin, Deva Mahal, and Takuya Kuroda. He has released several records as a leader, including Day Dreamer (Ropeadope, 2015) and his Herbie Hancock/Head Hunters tribute Vein Melter (Tru Thoughts, 2015), jointly created with producer/multi-instrumentalist Sly5thAve. He is also a core member of the groundbreaking Brooklyn Afro-pop/jazz fusion collective Ajoyo and producer & engineer of their sophomore release, War Chant. Fischer’s newest project Resilience, released in August 2020, is a full-length album of original compositions exploring deeper connections between modern jazz, Jewish and African traditional music, and European classical music, and features special guests including Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, Becca Stevens, Grégoire Maret, Sarah Elizabeth Charles, Mino Cinélu, and young lion Morgan Guerin, along with his working group of Obed Calvaire (drums), Godwin Louis (alto & soprano sax), Billy Buss (trumpet), David Cutler (bass), Jordan Peters (guitar), and Keita Ogawa (percussion). With seven instrumentals and two songs with lyrics penned by Fischer himself with co-writers Sarah Elizabeth Charles and May Cheung, the album is both deeply personal and necessarily political, responding to the wave of white nationalism, authoritarianism, and hate that has swept the globe in recent years. The compositions on Resilience emerged after a period of intense self-reflection, and range emotionally from despair to resistance to optimism to celebration.

Awards

2012 SoulTracks Readers' Choice Award nominee
2012 ASCAP Plus Award winner
2011 SoulTracks Readers' Choice Award finalist
2010 SoulTracks Readers' Choice Award nominee

Jesse Fischer: Day Dreamer

Read "Day Dreamer" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
September 8, 2015

If there is a recognition for a musician in perpetual engagement to his craft, Jesse Fischer would certainly be in the running. The versatile pianist, arranger, engineer, and producer has been on a creative tear since 2011 when he released “Homebrew" with his group Soul Cycle. This was quickly followed in 2012 by “Retro Future," under his own name as leader. Since then he has been involved in numerous side projects with a myriad of artists, prominently in the role ...

Performance / Tour

Pianist/Composer Jesse Fischer Announces West Coast And London Dates

Source: Jesse Fischer
March 16, 2022

Brooklyn-based pianist to follow up successful Jazz Road tour of the Midwest in 2021 with three West Coast dates and a London headline debut, performing music from Resilience (2020) and Flipped II (2018). Performance dates will coincide with the release of em>Resilience (Recharged), a newly remixed and reimagined version of the title track of Resilience, with other guest remixes to follow in 2022. Critically-acclaimed Brooklyn-based pianist and composer Jesse Fischer is proud to announce upcoming tour dates in the U.S. ...
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Recording

Rising Young Keyboardist, Composer, and Producer Jesse Fischer to Make Obliqsound Debut with "Retro Future," Featuring Soul Cycle, His Tight-Knit Working Unit - Available October 30

Source: DL Media
August 29, 2012

Ambitious Project Ties Together Jazz, Electronic, Soul, Classical, Psychedelia, and World Music What did the future used to look like? The space-age exploration of the Mad Men era? The free love and flower power of the hippies? The technological utopia of the early Internet pioneers? The promise of today’s era of global interconnectedness? With each new generation of dreamers, a new future is imagined, and when the future actually arrives, it ends up both stranger and more interesting than we ...
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Performance / Tour

Jesse Fischer & Soul Cycle To Tour OH and PA

Source: Jesse Fischer
May 24, 2012

NEW YORK, NY: Brooklyn-based pianist/composer Jesse Fischer and his jazz/funk band Soul Cycle will be hitting the road this June to promote their latest album Homebrew, released independently in Sept 2011. Fischer will be backed by a stellar cast of long-time associates, including Sean Jones alumnus Brian Hogans (alto saxophone), Cleveland native Jerome Jennings (drums), Josh David (bass), Nozomi Yamaguchi (guitar), and Shawn Banks (percussion). Jesse Fischer & Soul Cycle will be appearing at the following dates and locations: Thu, ...
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“These musicians bring it. Period. Take a listen through and you’ll experience a wide range of emotions and sounds while being imparted with a sense of appreciation for how these artists manage to dig deep in performances that will not fade away anytime soon.” - The Revivalist

“Fischer has the unbelievable ability to fuse the more traditional jazz with electronic, soul, psychedelia and world music to come up with a sound that no one else is doing.” - Brent Black, CriticalJazz.com

“Whether whirling through a Bernie Worrell-style portamento solo, hitting a crashing series of piano chords or rippling through the highs on Fender Rhodes, Marc Cary style, he has ferocious technique. But he doesn’t overdo it: those simply serve as high points in the lush, psychedelic, atmospheric arrangements… If you can’t smile at the sheer ridiculous fun of Fischer’s frenetically tone-bending synth solo, you have no soul.” - New York Music Daily