Clare Fischer, Arranger and Keyboardist, Is Dead at 83 Clare Fischer, a prolific composer, arranger, conductor and keyboardist active in jazz, R&B and pop music for more than 60 years, died on Jan. 26 in Burbank, Calif. The cause was a heart attack he had suffered two weeks earlier, said Claris Dodge, a representative of Mr. Fischer's family. Mr. Fischer may not have been a household name, but the respect he earned across a broad musical spectrum was evident in a flurry of Twitter posts that followed the news of his death. Jazz bloggers posted links to favorite tracks showcasing his writing or playing, like a performance of his "Pensativa" by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, and a version of Antonio Carlos Jobim's "One Note Samba" that Mr. Fischer recorded with the vibraphonist Cal Tjader. Ahmir Thompson, known as Questlove, the drummer for the hip-hop band the Roots, cited albums by Prince and Chaka Khan that featured Mr. Fischer's arrangements. Mr. Fischer also collaborated with Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson and Celine Dion, among other pop artists. Skilled on a variety of instruments, Mr. Fischer garnered his earliest renown as the pianist and arranger for the popular jazz vocal group the Hi-Lo's in the 1950s. His sophisticated arrangements for a 1960 Dizzy Gillespie album, "A Portrait of Duke Ellington," were widely acclaimed and eagerly absorbed by other musicians. "Clare Fischer was a major influence on my harmonic concept," the jazz pianist Herbie Hancock is quoted as saying on Mr. Fischer's Web site (clarefischer.com). He and Bill Evans, and Ravel and Gil Evans, finally. You know, that's where it really came from. Almost all of the harmony that I play can be traced to one of those four people and whoever their influences were. Clare Fischer was born in Durand, Mich., on Oct. 22, 1928. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees in music at Michigan State University, and also wrote arrangements for the United States Military Academy. After working with the Hi-Lo's, he went on to record more than 50 albums, many involving his son, the bassist and arranger Brent Fischer. As a bandleader and in his work with Mr. Tjader, Mr. Fischer was a prescient advocate for bossa nova and other Latin jazz styles. Mr. Fischer won a Grammy Award in 1982 (in the Latin category) and was nominated for several more. He worked as a pianist, organist and synthesizer player in Hollywood and wrote and arranged the orchestrations for Prince's 1986 film, "Under the Cherry Moon." The son of a barbershop quartet singer, Mr. Fischer cited his father's preoccupation as a formative influence. "I used to see him sit at the piano and plunk and plunk and plunk," he said in a 2005 video interview posted online by the Red Bull Music Academy. By osmosis, perhaps, Mr. Fischer gained an enduring respect for harmony. Mr. Fischer is survived by his wife, Susan; two sons, Lee and Brent; a daughter, Tahlia; a brother, Stewart; and three grandchildren. In the 1995 interview, Mr. Fischer talked about his approach in arranging a particular Prince song, "I Wonder U," from the "Parade" album. A spare demo version of the song was played, followed by Mr. Fischer's arrangement, atmospherically bolstered with murmuring strings, airy flute and belching bass clarinet. "My writing for this type of stuff is greatly influenced by my classical composing," Mr. Fischer said. "You just can't say, "I grew up on Duke Ellington" or something. I've got Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Bela Bartok, the whole works: those are a very important part of my early training and exposure, so they're part of me.