WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.200 Welcome to the Deep Dive. We're really glad you 00:00:03.200 --> 00:00:06.480 could join us today. I want you to start by picturing 00:00:06.480 --> 00:00:09.640 a web in your mind. Oh, yeah. Like a really messy, 00:00:09.759 --> 00:00:12.900 tangled one. Exactly. A massive, tangled web 00:00:12.900 --> 00:00:15.619 of history that stretches across completely different 00:00:15.619 --> 00:00:19.239 eras and geographies. At one absolute edge of 00:00:19.239 --> 00:00:22.059 this web, you have a highly controversial Russian 00:00:22.059 --> 00:00:25.480 classical ballet premiering in Paris in 1913. 00:00:25.579 --> 00:00:28.289 Right. And at another edge, you have this smoky, 00:00:28.289 --> 00:00:31.030 incredibly rhythmic evolution of Afro -Cuban 00:00:31.030 --> 00:00:34.270 jazz happening in Los Angeles in the 1960s. Two 00:00:34.270 --> 00:00:35.829 very different worlds. Completely different. 00:00:35.929 --> 00:00:37.969 And then at a totally different corner of this 00:00:37.969 --> 00:00:41.229 web, you have this skyrocketing career of a Mexican 00:00:41.229 --> 00:00:43.469 pop superstar. It sounds like a stretch, honestly. 00:00:43.670 --> 00:00:46.350 It really does. How on earth do these three entirely 00:00:46.350 --> 00:00:49.210 distinct worlds connect? Well, today we're going 00:00:49.210 --> 00:00:50.950 to show you that they are all tied together by 00:00:50.950 --> 00:00:53.729 a single four -minute piece of music. It really 00:00:53.729 --> 00:00:55.829 is an incredible puzzle to piece together. We 00:00:55.829 --> 00:00:58.149 are looking today at a stack of notes and a fascinating 00:00:58.149 --> 00:01:01.390 Wikipedia article detailing a 1965 composition 00:01:01.390 --> 00:01:03.740 called Morning. It was written by... the American 00:01:03.740 --> 00:01:06.340 pianist, composer, and arranger Claire Fisher. 00:01:06.840 --> 00:01:09.959 And a song's journey, especially this one, often 00:01:09.959 --> 00:01:12.980 tells us vastly more about cultural cross -pollination 00:01:12.980 --> 00:01:16.180 than a standard history book ever could. We tend 00:01:16.180 --> 00:01:18.620 to think of songs as static things on a record, 00:01:18.780 --> 00:01:22.780 but music is a living, breathing entity. It is, 00:01:22.840 --> 00:01:25.480 and when we pulled this source material, I honestly 00:01:25.480 --> 00:01:28.540 couldn't stop reading. The sheer domino effect 00:01:28.540 --> 00:01:32.420 of this one song is staggering. Because our mission 00:01:32.420 --> 00:01:35.000 for this deep dive is to unpack the fascinating 00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:37.640 life cycle of a song. We're going to show you 00:01:37.640 --> 00:01:40.439 how a single melody can mutate across decades, 00:01:40.579 --> 00:01:42.980 across genres, and across entirely different 00:01:42.980 --> 00:01:45.340 languages. It's a story of homage, of accidental 00:01:45.340 --> 00:01:48.099 rivalry, and, well, of incredible endurance. 00:01:48.700 --> 00:01:50.519 Right, and it's a testament to the fact that 00:01:50.519 --> 00:01:52.840 when a composer puts ink to paper, they might 00:01:52.840 --> 00:01:55.299 have a very specific vision for their work. But 00:01:55.299 --> 00:01:57.239 as the source material brilliantly illustrates, 00:01:57.459 --> 00:01:59.879 once that music enters the atmosphere, it belongs 00:01:59.879 --> 00:02:01.680 to the musicians who play it and the audiences 00:02:01.680 --> 00:02:03.439 who hear it. It really takes on a life of its 00:02:03.439 --> 00:02:05.680 own. Let's set the scene and look at the origin 00:02:05.680 --> 00:02:10.080 point. The year is 1965. Claire Fisher releases 00:02:10.080 --> 00:02:13.099 an LP called Manteca. Produced by Richard Bach. 00:02:13.300 --> 00:02:15.520 Yes, produced by Richard Bach and released on 00:02:15.520 --> 00:02:18.219 the Pacific Jazz label. And right there on this 00:02:18.219 --> 00:02:20.199 album is our focal point, the track Morning. 00:02:20.639 --> 00:02:23.340 The song clocks in at exactly four minutes and 00:02:23.340 --> 00:02:25.680 five seconds long. And those four minutes and 00:02:25.680 --> 00:02:27.639 five seconds are about to make an incredible 00:02:27.639 --> 00:02:30.219 mark on music history. They are. But to really 00:02:30.219 --> 00:02:32.639 understand the impact of that specific album, 00:02:32.819 --> 00:02:35.580 Manteca. Yeah. You have to understand where Fisher 00:02:35.580 --> 00:02:37.960 was coming from creatively at that exact moment 00:02:37.960 --> 00:02:40.159 in the mid -60s. Okay, set that up for us. Well, 00:02:40.159 --> 00:02:42.159 for the previous three years, he had been deeply, 00:02:42.240 --> 00:02:45.219 almost exclusively exploring Brazilian music. 00:02:45.439 --> 00:02:48.219 Bossa Nova, samba, that was his entire musical 00:02:48.219 --> 00:02:52.259 world. So Manteca represented a massive, intentional 00:02:52.259 --> 00:02:55.139 musical shift. It was his very first recording 00:02:55.139 --> 00:02:58.580 conceived entirely in the Afro -Cuban idiom. 00:02:58.659 --> 00:03:01.020 So we have this massive shift into Afro -Cuban 00:03:01.020 --> 00:03:03.219 sounds. Let's unpack this musically for a second. 00:03:03.370 --> 00:03:05.409 If you aren't a jazz theorist, do not worry. 00:03:05.469 --> 00:03:07.169 We're going to keep this totally accessible for 00:03:07.169 --> 00:03:09.810 you. Very accessible. The Wikipedia source notes 00:03:09.810 --> 00:03:14.210 that Morning is fundamentally a guajira or Afro 00:03:14.210 --> 00:03:18.229 -Cuban jazz track. For a little context, a guajira 00:03:18.229 --> 00:03:21.330 is a slower, deeply rhythmic Cuban musical style 00:03:21.330 --> 00:03:24.129 that traditionally has a very acoustic, rural 00:03:24.129 --> 00:03:26.409 feel to it. Right. It's very grounded. Exactly. 00:03:26.939 --> 00:03:29.360 And this track was Fisher's first and remains 00:03:29.360 --> 00:03:31.599 his most famous contribution to the cha -cha 00:03:31.599 --> 00:03:34.439 -cha genre, which was a relatively newly evolved 00:03:34.439 --> 00:03:36.539 dance style at the time. That's a great way to 00:03:36.539 --> 00:03:39.240 frame it. And as a foundation for this foray 00:03:39.240 --> 00:03:41.800 into Afro -Cuban rhythms, Fisher uses a very 00:03:41.800 --> 00:03:43.599 traditional, comfortable architecture for the 00:03:43.599 --> 00:03:46.379 song. Exactly. The song uses a standard A -A 00:03:46.379 --> 00:03:48.599 -B -A structure. Think of that like a familiar 00:03:48.599 --> 00:03:51.000 floor plan for a house. Yeah. You have your main 00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:53.080 theme, the A section, you repeat it. Then you 00:03:53.080 --> 00:03:55.060 walk into a new room, which is the contrasting 00:03:55.060 --> 00:03:56.840 B section or the bridge. And then you go back 00:03:56.840 --> 00:03:58.960 to the main theme, the final A. The whole cycle 00:03:58.960 --> 00:04:02.080 is 32 measures in length. And a measure or a 00:04:02.080 --> 00:04:04.500 bar is just the basic unit of time in music, 00:04:04.560 --> 00:04:06.740 like a sentence in a paragraph. Right. So this 00:04:06.740 --> 00:04:09.620 32 -sentence floor plan is tight. It is standard. 00:04:09.840 --> 00:04:12.659 It is exactly what audiences and jazz musicians 00:04:12.659 --> 00:04:14.939 of the era would expect to hear and play over. 00:04:15.280 --> 00:04:17.420 It gives the listener a sense of security. You 00:04:17.420 --> 00:04:19.339 know where the beat is. You know where the melody 00:04:19.339 --> 00:04:22.019 is going. You are just grooving along to this 00:04:22.019 --> 00:04:24.180 beautiful cha -cha -cha. But here's where it 00:04:24.180 --> 00:04:26.839 gets really interesting. Because in that debut 00:04:26.839 --> 00:04:30.660 1965 recording, Fisher decides to take a massive 00:04:30.660 --> 00:04:33.680 musical detour that absolutely nobody would have 00:04:33.680 --> 00:04:36.060 seen coming. Nobody. We're grooving along and 00:04:36.060 --> 00:04:39.120 we're halfway through a trombone solo by a musician 00:04:39.120 --> 00:04:42.300 named Gil Falco. According to that standard 32 00:04:42.300 --> 00:04:44.850 measure floor plan we just talked about. This 00:04:44.850 --> 00:04:47.449 is the exact moment the band is supposed to proceed 00:04:47.449 --> 00:04:50.310 to the bridge. But they don't. They don't. Instead, 00:04:50.610 --> 00:04:53.949 mourning completely morphs. The source notes 00:04:53.949 --> 00:04:56.850 it turns into a 16 -bar development of a two 00:04:56.850 --> 00:04:59.769 -measure motif taken from spring rounds. Let's 00:04:59.769 --> 00:05:01.769 pause and translate that. For those who aren't 00:05:01.769 --> 00:05:04.029 jazz musicians, a motif is just a short, catchy 00:05:04.029 --> 00:05:07.029 musical idea. Think of the famous four notes 00:05:07.029 --> 00:05:09.310 at the start of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, that 00:05:09.310 --> 00:05:13.069 dun -dun -dun -dun plot. Perfect example. So 00:05:13.069 --> 00:05:16.170 Fisher takes a tiny two measure musical idea 00:05:16.170 --> 00:05:18.329 from a completely different piece of music and 00:05:18.329 --> 00:05:21.310 spins it out into a whole new extended 16 bar 00:05:21.310 --> 00:05:24.189 section of his jazz song. And Spring Rounds, 00:05:24.189 --> 00:05:26.029 for those who might not know, is the fourth section 00:05:26.029 --> 00:05:29.329 of Igor Stravinsky's classical masterpiece, The 00:05:29.329 --> 00:05:31.769 Rite of Spring. Yes. That is the controversial 00:05:31.769 --> 00:05:34.750 1913 Russian ballet you mentioned at the start 00:05:34.750 --> 00:05:37.329 of our deep dive today. The very same. He drops 00:05:37.329 --> 00:05:40.029 a century -old Russian classical motif right 00:05:40.029 --> 00:05:43.009 into the middle of a 1960s Latin jazz cha -cha 00:05:43.009 --> 00:05:45.980 -cha. It's such a wild juxtaposition. What's 00:05:45.980 --> 00:05:48.620 fascinating here is the sheer audacity of that 00:05:48.620 --> 00:05:51.160 choice, but also the deep respect behind it. 00:05:51.240 --> 00:05:53.540 You have to remember, the Rite of Spring literally 00:05:53.540 --> 00:05:55.740 caused riots in the theater when it premiered 00:05:55.740 --> 00:05:58.139 in Paris because it was so avant -garde and rhythmically 00:05:58.139 --> 00:06:00.100 jarring. People were furious. They were throwing 00:06:00.100 --> 00:06:02.959 things. And Stravinsky was one of Fischer's primary 00:06:02.959 --> 00:06:05.920 musical influences. So this detour wasn't a cheap 00:06:05.920 --> 00:06:08.680 gimmick. It was an unashamed homage. Fischer 00:06:08.680 --> 00:06:11.360 is seamlessly blending early 20th century classical 00:06:11.360 --> 00:06:14.579 motifs with the syncopated driving rhythms of 00:06:14.579 --> 00:06:17.019 19... 1960s Latin jazz. That's incredible. It 00:06:17.019 --> 00:06:19.360 really shows a composer who absolutely refuses 00:06:19.360 --> 00:06:22.319 to see walls between genres. To him, great music 00:06:22.319 --> 00:06:24.379 is great music, whether it was written for a 00:06:24.379 --> 00:06:27.060 Parisian ballet stage or an American jazz club. 00:06:27.199 --> 00:06:29.540 He really is brilliant. But as we move forward 00:06:29.540 --> 00:06:32.370 in the timeline, the story of mourning. gets 00:06:32.370 --> 00:06:35.250 incredibly messy and it gets messy specifically 00:06:35.250 --> 00:06:37.189 when we start talking about the words oh the 00:06:37.189 --> 00:06:40.589 lyrics yeah we transition from this tight beautifully 00:06:40.589 --> 00:06:44.029 executed classical jazz fusion into an absolute 00:06:44.029 --> 00:06:47.069 labyrinth of lyrics the historical record definitely 00:06:47.069 --> 00:06:50.310 gets very murky here very as you read through 00:06:50.310 --> 00:06:52.110 the wikipedia source you actually catch a really 00:06:52.110 --> 00:06:55.079 funny contradiction right there on the page The 00:06:55.079 --> 00:06:58.040 article states that Fisher's own lyrics for Morning 00:06:58.040 --> 00:07:02.699 were not unveiled until 1980 or 1981. Okay. This 00:07:02.699 --> 00:07:04.439 was with a vocal group he put together called 00:07:04.439 --> 00:07:07.100 2 Plus 2, which was meant to supplement his Latin 00:07:07.100 --> 00:07:10.300 jazz combo, Salsa Picante. So you read that and 00:07:10.300 --> 00:07:12.579 think, okay, the official lyrics debuted in 1980. 00:07:13.120 --> 00:07:15.240 But if you scroll just a bit further down to 00:07:15.240 --> 00:07:17.079 the list of selected recordings in the very same 00:07:17.079 --> 00:07:21.040 article, it lists a 1979 album by a vocalist 00:07:21.040 --> 00:07:24.279 named Loras Alexandria called A Woman Knows. 00:07:24.420 --> 00:07:27.439 And the notes explicitly state that this 1979 00:07:27.439 --> 00:07:30.629 recording debuted his lyrics. It's a perfect 00:07:30.629 --> 00:07:33.370 example of how jazz history is so often recorded 00:07:33.370 --> 00:07:37.089 on the fly. It's full of messy, overlapping timelines 00:07:37.089 --> 00:07:39.629 like this. And there's a good reason for it. 00:07:39.709 --> 00:07:42.810 Think about the reality of the 1970s jazz scene. 00:07:42.970 --> 00:07:45.470 It was chaos. Absolute chaos. You had musicians 00:07:45.470 --> 00:07:48.410 constantly touring, playing live gigs in small 00:07:48.410 --> 00:07:50.790 clubs where things might be tested out years 00:07:50.790 --> 00:07:53.490 before they hit a studio. You had bootleg recordings, 00:07:53.889 --> 00:07:55.990 independent labels with delayed release schedules, 00:07:56.110 --> 00:07:58.329 and session musicians bouncing between projects. 00:07:58.610 --> 00:07:59.569 Right, trying to piece it together. together 00:07:59.569 --> 00:08:01.990 retroactively is a nightmare exactly session 00:08:01.990 --> 00:08:04.529 dates constantly get confused with actual release 00:08:04.529 --> 00:08:07.310 dates different musicians claim first based on 00:08:07.310 --> 00:08:09.810 a live performance versus a studio cut it reminds 00:08:09.810 --> 00:08:11.689 you that this music was happening in real time 00:08:11.689 --> 00:08:13.990 often moving way faster than the people trying 00:08:13.990 --> 00:08:17.129 to document it that makes perfect sense But that 00:08:17.129 --> 00:08:19.310 little chronological contradiction in the late 00:08:19.310 --> 00:08:22.370 70s is absolutely nothing compared to the massive 00:08:22.370 --> 00:08:24.449 plot twist that had already happened a decade 00:08:24.449 --> 00:08:26.649 earlier. Oh, boy. Because long before Fisher 00:08:26.649 --> 00:08:29.129 could properly establish his own English or Spanish 00:08:29.129 --> 00:08:32.570 lyrics for his own song, an absolute powerhouse 00:08:32.570 --> 00:08:34.669 of a singer comes into the picture. And this 00:08:34.669 --> 00:08:37.289 changes the trajectory of the song forever. It 00:08:37.289 --> 00:08:40.789 does. In 1969, a young Mexican singer released 00:08:40.789 --> 00:08:43.610 his eponymous debut LP. His name was Jose Jose. 00:08:44.160 --> 00:08:47.059 And right there on his debut album, he recorded 00:08:47.059 --> 00:08:50.659 a cover of Claire Fisher's Morning. Except it 00:08:50.659 --> 00:08:53.679 wasn't called Morning anymore. Nope. Jose released 00:08:53.679 --> 00:08:56.440 it under the title Una Mañana, which translates 00:08:56.440 --> 00:08:59.500 to One Morning. And he didn't use Fisher's lyrics. 00:08:59.700 --> 00:09:02.360 He used entirely different Spanish lyrics written 00:09:02.360 --> 00:09:04.669 by a man named Joaquin Prieto. You really have 00:09:04.669 --> 00:09:06.809 to understand the magnitude of what happens next 00:09:06.809 --> 00:09:09.850 to grasp the importance of this moment. Jose 00:09:09.850 --> 00:09:12.730 didn't just become popular in Mexico. He became 00:09:12.730 --> 00:09:15.490 a massive, undeniable, once -in -a -generation 00:09:15.490 --> 00:09:18.190 superstar across the entire Spanish -speaking 00:09:18.190 --> 00:09:20.830 world. A total icon. Yeah, he was eventually 00:09:20.830 --> 00:09:23.149 known as El Príncipe de la Canción, the Prince 00:09:23.149 --> 00:09:25.950 of Song. His voice was ubiquitous. It was playing 00:09:25.950 --> 00:09:28.769 in every household, on every radio station. And 00:09:28.769 --> 00:09:31.470 because his star shined so incredibly brightly, 00:09:31.789 --> 00:09:37.759 his debut album was heard. Which means his version 00:09:37.759 --> 00:09:40.279 of the song became the definitive version for 00:09:40.279 --> 00:09:43.279 the public. That's the crazy part. For millions 00:09:43.279 --> 00:09:46.539 of people, Una Mañana wasn't a Claire Fisher 00:09:46.539 --> 00:09:48.399 jazz standard that had been given new lyrics. 00:09:48.559 --> 00:09:52.379 It was simply a beloved Jose. Jose pop anthem 00:09:52.379 --> 00:09:54.639 that happened to be written by Joaquin Prieto. 00:09:54.899 --> 00:09:58.220 The sheer magnitude of Jose Jose stardom all 00:09:58.220 --> 00:10:00.740 but guaranteed that any official Spanish language 00:10:00.740 --> 00:10:03.419 version Fisher tried to supply later was doomed 00:10:03.419 --> 00:10:06.080 to obscurity. The public had already decided 00:10:06.080 --> 00:10:08.620 what the song was and who it belonged to. Now 00:10:08.620 --> 00:10:10.600 let me play devil's advocate here for a second. 00:10:10.679 --> 00:10:12.580 The source notes that Fisher was still lamenting 00:10:12.580 --> 00:10:15.740 this exact situation almost 30 years later. He 00:10:15.740 --> 00:10:18.220 was deeply frustrated. But from a purely business 00:10:18.220 --> 00:10:21.240 standpoint didn't Jose Jose's massive success 00:10:21.240 --> 00:10:23.759 ultimately benefit fisher through songwriting 00:10:23.759 --> 00:10:26.799 royalties i mean yes right because a massive 00:10:26.799 --> 00:10:29.759 global pop hit has to pay the bills was it really 00:10:29.759 --> 00:10:32.480 a tragedy for him or was it just a hit to his 00:10:32.480 --> 00:10:35.850 ego It's a fantastic question. Financially, yes. 00:10:35.970 --> 00:10:38.370 Having a melody you compose turn into a mega 00:10:38.370 --> 00:10:41.149 hit is a windfall. Fisher absolutely received 00:10:41.149 --> 00:10:43.149 composer credits and the royalties that come 00:10:43.149 --> 00:10:46.230 with that. But this highlights a deeply human 00:10:46.230 --> 00:10:48.570 element in the music industry, the frustration 00:10:48.570 --> 00:10:51.230 of losing control of your artistic identity. 00:10:51.509 --> 00:10:54.139 Yeah, sure. Fischer was a meticulous jazz composer 00:10:54.139 --> 00:10:56.799 who wove Stravinsky into his cha -cha -chas. 00:10:57.019 --> 00:11:00.440 He had a very specific, carefully crafted vision 00:11:00.440 --> 00:11:03.360 for his art. To watch that art get hijacked, 00:11:03.460 --> 00:11:06.240 simplified into a pop anthem, and completely 00:11:06.240 --> 00:11:08.639 culturally redefined by someone else's lyrics, 00:11:08.700 --> 00:11:11.220 that stings. It really does. The cultural momentum 00:11:11.220 --> 00:11:14.059 of Jose Jose was a tidal wave Fischer simply 00:11:14.059 --> 00:11:16.179 couldn't swim against no matter how much money 00:11:16.179 --> 00:11:17.879 it made him. You really have to feel for the 00:11:17.879 --> 00:11:20.080 guy when you frame it like that. Yeah. You write 00:11:20.080 --> 00:11:22.299 this beautiful piece of music. Someone else writes 00:11:22.299 --> 00:11:25.039 lyrics to it, becomes a global icon, and your 00:11:25.039 --> 00:11:27.840 own official vision gets permanently sidelined. 00:11:27.919 --> 00:11:30.120 It's tough. But despite that Spanish language 00:11:30.120 --> 00:11:33.600 heartbreak, the story is far from over. Because 00:11:33.600 --> 00:11:36.240 Fisher's original English lyrics eventually did 00:11:36.240 --> 00:11:39.220 gain real traction in the jazz world. Mourning 00:11:39.220 --> 00:11:42.399 became an undeniable standard, a true test for 00:11:42.399 --> 00:11:44.620 serious vocalists. It gained an incredible amount 00:11:44.620 --> 00:11:47.399 of prestige. It's not an easy song to sing well, 00:11:47.539 --> 00:11:49.899 which is why it attracted so much top -tier talent. 00:11:50.399 --> 00:11:52.659 Just look at the timeline of vocalists who cackled 00:11:52.659 --> 00:11:55.519 it to prove their chops. You have Lisa Rich in 00:11:55.519 --> 00:11:58.639 1983. You have Meredith D 'Ambrosio in 1989. 00:11:59.340 --> 00:12:02.059 Jeannie Bryson sang Fisher's lyrics on a live 00:12:02.059 --> 00:12:05.820 concert video in Warsaw in 1991. Nice. The legendary 00:12:05.820 --> 00:12:09.080 Diane Reeves recorded it in 1998 on a brilliant 00:12:09.080 --> 00:12:11.960 album called Afro -Cuban Fantasy. And even as 00:12:11.960 --> 00:12:15.039 recently as 2014, Rosianna Vitro featured it 00:12:15.039 --> 00:12:17.460 on her album Clarity, music of Claire Fisher. 00:12:17.820 --> 00:12:19.919 And that is just the vocalists singing the English 00:12:19.919 --> 00:12:22.539 lyrics. If we shift gears and look at the sheer 00:12:22.539 --> 00:12:24.820 volume and caliber of musicians who recorded 00:12:24.820 --> 00:12:27.139 instrumental versions of this track, it reads 00:12:27.139 --> 00:12:29.580 like a who's who of jazz history. The list is 00:12:29.580 --> 00:12:31.500 astonishing. Talk us through some of those instrumental 00:12:31.500 --> 00:12:33.179 heavyweights and what they brought to the table. 00:12:33.419 --> 00:12:36.340 Well, just a year after the original 1965 release, 00:12:36.759 --> 00:12:39.019 Sergio Mendez records it on his album The Great 00:12:39.019 --> 00:12:42.080 Arrival in 1966. And what's cool is that Fisher 00:12:42.080 --> 00:12:44.279 actually arranged and conducted the orchestra 00:12:44.279 --> 00:12:46.539 for that specific version. Oh, that's awesome. 00:12:46.639 --> 00:12:49.830 Yeah. That same year, the great vibraphonist 00:12:49.830 --> 00:12:52.470 Cal Jader records it on his album Soulburst. 00:12:52.730 --> 00:12:54.750 Now that recording is special because it features 00:12:54.750 --> 00:12:58.419 a young Chick Corea on piano. Oh, wow. Exactly. 00:12:58.700 --> 00:13:01.379 Adding Correa changes the entire texture of the 00:13:01.379 --> 00:13:04.580 track. His piano work brings this sharp, percussive, 00:13:04.620 --> 00:13:07.240 incredibly innovative energy to the rhythm section. 00:13:07.539 --> 00:13:10.200 Having Chick Corea on your track in 1966 is quite 00:13:10.200 --> 00:13:12.759 the feather in your cap. Absolutely. Then you 00:13:12.759 --> 00:13:15.460 jump forward to 1979 and you have jazz trumpet 00:13:15.460 --> 00:13:18.320 legend Donald Byrd recording it. And on that 00:13:18.320 --> 00:13:20.659 track, the entire song features Claire Fisher 00:13:20.659 --> 00:13:23.480 himself ripping an electric piano solo. He had 00:13:23.480 --> 00:13:26.080 to get in there. He did. And of course, we can't 00:13:26.080 --> 00:13:27.690 talk about Latin. jazz without mentioning the 00:13:27.690 --> 00:13:30.710 king himself, Tito Puente. Puente recorded live 00:13:30.710 --> 00:13:33.090 at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1980 and then 00:13:33.090 --> 00:13:37.049 again on his 1986 album, Sensation. And Puente's 00:13:37.049 --> 00:13:39.190 live version brings a completely different high 00:13:39.190 --> 00:13:41.690 -octane, explosive energy compared to Fisher's 00:13:41.690 --> 00:13:44.470 more controlled studio cut. The song just refuses 00:13:44.470 --> 00:13:47.370 to sit still. It travels from artist to artist, 00:13:47.509 --> 00:13:49.250 absorbing a little bit of their unique style 00:13:49.250 --> 00:13:51.529 and instrumentation each time. And it even crossed 00:13:51.529 --> 00:13:53.929 entirely out of the jazz and pop spheres and 00:13:53.929 --> 00:13:57.299 into rock music. Oh, wait. In 1998, and then 00:13:57.299 --> 00:13:59.919 again in a massive MTV unplugged session released 00:13:59.919 --> 00:14:03.740 in 2005, the Mexican alternative rock band Café 00:14:03.740 --> 00:14:06.419 Tacba clivered the song. And of course, they 00:14:06.419 --> 00:14:09.259 recorded it as Una Mañana using the Jose Jose 00:14:09.259 --> 00:14:11.559 lyrics. Which perfectly proves our earlier point. 00:14:11.659 --> 00:14:14.340 It shows how deeply entrenched those Joaquin 00:14:14.340 --> 00:14:16.360 Prieto lyrics had become in Mexican culture. 00:14:16.879 --> 00:14:19.379 A 90s alternative rock band is covering it because 00:14:19.379 --> 00:14:21.519 it's part of their musical DNA. It was passed 00:14:21.519 --> 00:14:23.899 down to them from the Jose Jose era. Exactly. 00:14:24.080 --> 00:14:26.559 They aren't covering a 1965 Claire Fisher jazz 00:14:26.559 --> 00:14:29.059 tune. They are covering a Mexican cultural touchstone. 00:14:29.200 --> 00:14:31.620 It is wild to think about that chain of events. 00:14:31.980 --> 00:14:35.360 But I love that this story actually has an emotional 00:14:35.360 --> 00:14:37.340 resolution for the Fisher family. It takes a 00:14:37.340 --> 00:14:40.019 long time, but it finally happens. It does. It 00:14:40.019 --> 00:14:42.480 brings the whole journey full circle right near 00:14:42.480 --> 00:14:46.059 the very end of Claire Fisher's life. In 2012, 00:14:46.340 --> 00:14:49.840 an album called Ah! and Sometimes Instruments 00:14:49.840 --> 00:14:51.879 was released. This wasn't just any vocal group. 00:14:51.919 --> 00:14:54.700 This was the Claire Fisher Voices. And the group 00:14:54.700 --> 00:14:57.120 was directed by the composer's own son, Brent 00:14:57.120 --> 00:15:00.019 Fisher. That is a true, beautiful family legacy 00:15:00.019 --> 00:15:02.840 project. Precisely. And on this 2012 album, they 00:15:02.840 --> 00:15:04.919 finally introduced and recorded the officially 00:15:04.919 --> 00:15:07.559 approved adaptations of Fisher's original lyrics. 00:15:07.740 --> 00:15:10.200 They recorded the official Spanish version called 00:15:10.200 --> 00:15:12.899 Una Mañana and an official Portuguese version 00:15:12.899 --> 00:15:15.620 called Manhá. Amazing. After nearly 50 years 00:15:15.620 --> 00:15:17.980 of watching his song run wild around the world, 00:15:18.059 --> 00:15:19.860 wearing everyone else's clothes, so to speak, 00:15:20.059 --> 00:15:22.620 Fisher's family finally put his original official 00:15:22.620 --> 00:15:24.879 vision down on the record. So what does this 00:15:24.879 --> 00:15:28.120 all mean? We started with a 32 -measure cha -cha 00:15:28.120 --> 00:15:30.779 -cha standard recorded on a Pacific jazz label 00:15:30.779 --> 00:15:34.779 in 1965. And through this incredible timeline, 00:15:35.100 --> 00:15:38.399 we watched it become a canvas for classical Stravinsky 00:15:38.399 --> 00:15:41.399 homages. We watched it become the source of a 00:15:41.399 --> 00:15:43.940 30 -year grudge because of a Mexican pop star's 00:15:43.940 --> 00:15:46.600 monumental success. And we watched it become 00:15:46.600 --> 00:15:49.360 a multi -generational, multilingual standard 00:15:49.360 --> 00:15:52.700 played by everyone from Chick Corea to an alternative 00:15:52.700 --> 00:16:12.250 rock band like Cafe Takspa. But then you release 00:16:12.250 --> 00:16:15.490 it. Right. Once you put an idea, a project, or 00:16:15.490 --> 00:16:17.710 a piece of art out into the world, it takes on 00:16:17.710 --> 00:16:20.230 a life entirely its own. It is shaped by the 00:16:20.230 --> 00:16:22.070 people who interact with it. It is molded by 00:16:22.070 --> 00:16:24.289 the cultural forces of the time. It's like launching 00:16:24.289 --> 00:16:26.309 a ship. You build the hull, you set the sails, 00:16:26.309 --> 00:16:28.629 but the ocean ultimately decides where it goes. 00:16:28.870 --> 00:16:31.490 Beautifully said. The art becomes a true collaboration 00:16:31.490 --> 00:16:35.190 between the creator and the culture. Jose didn't 00:16:35.190 --> 00:16:37.870 set out to ruin Claire Fisher's plans. He just 00:16:37.870 --> 00:16:40.669 found a melody that spoke to his soul and made 00:16:40.669 --> 00:16:44.049 it his own. And in doing so, he introduced that 00:16:44.049 --> 00:16:46.169 melody to millions of people who might never 00:16:46.169 --> 00:16:48.750 have bought a Latin jazz LP in their lives. It 00:16:48.750 --> 00:16:50.350 leaves you with a really fascinating question. 00:16:50.450 --> 00:16:52.090 I want you to mull this over as you go about 00:16:52.090 --> 00:16:54.889 your day. We've talked a lot about the frustrations 00:16:54.889 --> 00:16:57.350 of losing control of a song in the 1960s and 00:16:57.350 --> 00:17:00.250 70s. But think about the future of music today. 00:17:00.509 --> 00:17:03.200 It's a whole new ballgame. It is. With artificial 00:17:03.200 --> 00:17:05.720 intelligence and TikTok trends allowing fans 00:17:05.720 --> 00:17:08.319 to remix, rewrite, and instantly distribute an 00:17:08.319 --> 00:17:11.079 artist's song across the globe in seconds, the 00:17:11.079 --> 00:17:13.579 concept of owning your melody is more fragile 00:17:13.579 --> 00:17:15.980 than it has ever been. Oh, absolutely. If Claire 00:17:15.980 --> 00:17:18.380 Fisher was frustrated by a cover song in 1969, 00:17:18.880 --> 00:17:22.220 imagine how composers will feel in 2030 when 00:17:22.220 --> 00:17:24.200 a million different versions of their song are 00:17:24.200 --> 00:17:26.920 created by the audience overnight. When art is 00:17:26.920 --> 00:17:29.559 instantly malleable by the masses, what does 00:17:29.559 --> 00:17:31.839 authorship even mean anymore? It's a daunting 00:17:31.839 --> 00:17:33.900 reality that every modern artist is going to 00:17:33.900 --> 00:17:36.839 have to face. It certainly is. We want to thank 00:17:36.839 --> 00:17:38.599 you so much for joining us on this deep dive 00:17:38.599 --> 00:17:41.660 into the source material today. We hope you learned 00:17:41.660 --> 00:17:43.640 something new and that you'll never hear a jazz 00:17:43.640 --> 00:17:46.160 standard quite the same way again. Until next 00:17:46.160 --> 00:17:49.059 time, keep listening closely. Take care, everyone.