Firmly in the Spotlight - Lisa Fischer

Monday, 13 June 2016, 9:57 am
Article: Howard Davis

Lisa Fischer is rightly celebrated for her far-reaching vocal range and remarkable grace as a hugely accomplished session singer. From recording with Billy Ocean, Dionne Warwick, Aretha Franklin, Sting, Alicia Keys, Bobby McFerrin, George Benson, Diana Ross, Laurie Anderson, Teddy Pendergrass, Dionne Warwick, Grover Washington, Billy Ocean, Melba Moore, and Al Jarreau, to live shows with Tina Turner, Chaka Khan, and Dolly Parton, Fischer has provided the vocal backdrop to some of the best-known songs of the past four decades. Not only has she managed to maintain her career as a session singer, but she has also accompanied the Rolling Stones on every tour since 'Steel Wheels' in 1989. 'Monkey Man' and 'Gimme Shelter' have become staples of their live gigs, during which she regularly upstages Jagger himself, who happily admits their duets are "always the high point of the show for me."

20 Feet From Stardom

Unlike some of the other singers featured in '20 Feet from Stardom,' however, Fischer never felt the urge to forge a solo career - "I was never the girl who was sat in the basement doing my demos or hunting for a record deal," she admitted in a recent Guardian interview. Her only solo album 'So Intense' featured songwriting collaborations with producer Narada Michael Walden on both the Top 10 R&B hit 'Save Me' and the number one and Grammy-winning R&B single 'How Can I Ease the Pain.' Fischer also beat Aretha Franklin to win the Grammy in 1992 for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, an honor she shared with Patti LaBelle (whose award-winning 'Burnin' also featured Fischer on background vocals). But she struggled with the pressures of a follow-up and returned to singing backup vocals with a sense of relief - "I’m accustomed to being in the background, doing my thing and being really content with that. But I also wasn’t aware that I was sacrificing myself. My younger self was just really happy when anyone asked me to do anything to do with singing. It was just that simple."

Growing up in Brooklyn to a mother who gave birth to her at 15, and an alcoholic father who left when she was 14, Fischer won a scholarship to study opera at Queens College, but struggled to balance her studies with late-night gigs in New York clubs to pay the bills. In her early twenties, as she was becoming a fixture of the backing singer circuit, she was invited to an audition. Walking into a ballet studio in a leather mini-skirt and blue rayon blouse ("it was the nicest things I had, which wasn’t a lot"), she found herself in front of a man standing behind a piano, smiling, and eating a large bucket of fried chicken.

Lisa Fischer

It was the velvet-voiced Luther Vandross, for whom she provided harmonies on every subsequent tour and album until he died in 2005. However, this also marked the beginning of a period when she relinquished control over her own singing voice - "I guess I didn’t have a sense of self. I was never really thinking much beyond the studio. I knew I could sing but as far as content, I didn’t know what I wanted to sing or who I was at all really. But singing background, that didn’t matter. Speaking your mind has nothing to do with the job requirement. So I got used to keeping quiet."

'20 Feet From Stardom' showcased Fischer's virtuosity and vulnerability, opened a window on her sometimes lonely life on the road, earned her a second Grammy, and left audiences eager to hear more. As a result, the past eighteen months have been a whirlwind of activity for Fisher and her band Grand Baton, with performances at the Newport and Monterey Jazz Festivals, the Hollywood Bowl, and in cities across the globe.

Wrapping up the Wellington Jazz Festival with an appearance at the lushly-appointed Opera House, the feline Ms. Fischer prowled the stage and auditorium barefoot, dishing up a delectable feast of carefully crafted arrangements that captivated her audience with their mellifluous melodies and intricate harmonies. It wasn't precisely Jazz, but it wasn't exactly Soul or Rock-and-Roll either. Instead, they provided a hybrid melange of African, Middle Eastern, and Caribbean rhythms, psychedelic soul, and progressive rock that only enhanced Fischer’s vocal pyrotechnics - "Collectively they bring amazing musicianship, hearts and souls, and most importantly a sense of playfulness. It’s a dream to be sonically surrounded with this kind of sensitivity and care."

Together they drew from an eclectic palette of songs by Led Zeppelin, Leon Russell, and Robert Palmer, and recast rock anthems from the Stones and Tina Turner. Combining Fischer's bravura phrasing and timbre with JC Maillard’s sensitive keyboard and guitar arrangements, Aidan Carroll’s complex and melodic bass lines, and Thierry Arpino’s evocative percussion, they pulverized the audience with a powerful and mesmerizing performance. Like it or not, Lisa Fischer is firmly in the spotlight now.

© Scoop Media

Howard Davis

Scoop Arts Editor

Educated at Cambridge and UCLA; worked on several major Hollywood feature films and as a Kundalini Yoga instructor in Los Angeles; currently enjoying life in Wellington.

Contact Howard Davis

• Email - howard@scoop.co.nz