Clare Fischer & Salsa Picante Present "2 + 2"
| 2+2 | ||||
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| Studio album by Clare Fischer | ||||
| Released | February 1981 | |||
| Recorded | September 1980 at Capitol Records |
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| Genre | Latin jazz | |||
| Label |
Pausa Records PR 7086 |
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| Clare Fischer chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| The Los Angeles Times |   |
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2+2 is an eponymous album of a vocal quartet called 2+2 with music by the Latin jazz ensemble known as Salsa Picante that was led by the American keyboardist/composer-arranger Clare Fischer. It was recorded in September 1980 and released in February 1981 by Pausa Records, and in Germany on the MPS label, as Foreign Exchange – The First Album. Tracks 1, 2, 3, 6 and 7 would be reissued on CD in 1999, and as a digital download in 2012, as Latin Patterns, a compilation of remastered highlights from four of Fischer's MPS LPs from this period.
The album represents a number of firsts for Fischer, including his first Grammy (specifically, the album's final track, "Guajira Pa' La Jeva", named 1981's Best Latin Recording), as well as a pair of recording debuts, first, that of 2+2, the vocal quartet with which Fischer supplemented his Latin jazz ensemble (thus tying together two key components of his wide-ranging musical universe), and, of equal if not greater import, that of his son Brent Fischer, marking the beginning of a fruitful – and more than three-decade-long – professional association.
Los Angeles Times jazz critic Leonard Feather awarded the album four stars, making particular note of the album's seamless blend of vocal and instrumental units:
Their blend is splendid, they are at times expertly integrated with the band through Fischer's compositions, lyrics and arrangements; and they are quadrilingual, starting in German and proceeding to English, Spanish and doo-be-doo, the Esperanto of jazz. The rhythm, generally timbales-oriented, could have used more bottom. Darlene Koldenhoven, the lead soprano, is a striking discovery.
All selections composed by Clare Fischer except where noted.
Side A
Side B
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