Biography

He earned his Bachelor's Degree and Master's Degrees both in music at Michigan State University.

He wrote musical arrangements for the United States Military Academy.

He is survived by his wife, Donna Fischer of Burbank, California; two sons, Lee Fischer and Brent Fischer; a daughter, Tahlia Fischer; a brother, Stewart Fischer; and three grandchildren.

He was awarded the 1982 Grammy Award in the Latin Category and nominated for several more Grammies.

He collaborated with Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson, Celine Dion, Prince, Chaka Khan, and many others in the musical industry.

[on producers (2005)] Most of the time they had that feeling of omnipotence, that they had the right to make every damn decision that was there. And it was only - excuse me, I'm a bitcher, not just a Fischer, but a bitcher - and I would always have to deal with those folks until finally, they got tired of me complaining and backed off and let me do what I wanted to do. There's no sense in doing it - and this is not a matter of self-preoccupation or conceit - but if you allow somebody to doctor your product, it's like becoming a whore. It's not the right thing to do. And yet that's what that... You see, a producer thinks if he's going to have that position of 'producer,' he must say something, even though he's got nothing to say; he must say something to tell you how to do it. And boy, they are a pain in the culo.

[on record companies (2005)] You must get it into your head that the record companies are not going to be any smarter than you are. Follow your tastes and preferences in what you do. They think they're the commanding power, and they are, but by god, if you fight them doggedly, they'll back off. So do it.

[on Fischer's tribute to his friend, the late Antonio Carlos Jobim (1998)] The death of my friend Antonio Carlos Jobim touched me deeply. Like me, he was 68, and I am still alive. After he died, I had a dream in which I was conducting his 'Corcovado', but it was not the usual version of that tune. There were these harmonic counter-melodies in the bass. When I awoke I wrote down what I had dreamed. It became Jobim's in memoriam, a piece I called 'Corcovado Funebre.'

[on his working relationship with Prince (1998)] Prince is intelligent. He never visits the studio when I am working for him; and I have never met him in person. He sends me memos and we talk over the phone. Once I sent him my '2+2' Grammy winning CD. I heard from people that were present at the time that while he took out the disc he looked away from the cover, saying, 'I don't want to know what he looks like. It is working just fine as it is.' Prince does not want to meet me because he knows that the minute he walks into a studio he will start interfering. It is uncommon that a person with such a strong ego realizes that I have an ego too.

[on the composers who've influenced his orchestral writing for pop and R&B artists (2005)] My writing for this type of stuff is greatly influenced by my classical composing. You just can't say I grew up on Duke Ellington or something. I've got Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Béla Bartók, the whole works: those are a very important part of my early training and exposure, so they're part of me.