| 2+2 | |
| Type: | Album |
| Artist: | Clare Fischer |
| Cover: | Clare Fischer & Salsa Picante Present "2 + 2".jpg |
| Released: | February 1981 |
| Recorded: | September 1980 |
| Studio: | Capitol (Hollywood) |
| Genre: | Latin jazz |
| Label: | Pausa Records PR 7086 |
| Chronology: | Clare Fischer |
| Prev Title: | Alone Together |
| Prev Year: | 1980 |
| Next Title: | Machaca |
| Next Year: | 1981 |
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,[1] and in Germany on the MPS label, as Foreign Exchange – The First Album.[2] 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.[3] [4] [5]
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),[6] [7] 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 songs composed by Clare Fischer except where noted.
Side A
Side B