Jacob Fischer

A year ago, 7 July 2005, was for the El Redescubrimiento de Oscar Aleman project an important day as we made a presentation about Oscar Alemáns 1938 recordings in Copenhagen in the presence of his session mate and friend-in-music Svend Asmussen, 89 years old. I'll touch upon this subject in my Oscar Aleman blog spot .

Last blog I told that events during the stay at the Copenhagen festival brought new experiences. Yesterday I wrote about Christina von Bülow and today it's time for Jacob Fischer, one of her regular trio members.

During our stay in Copenhagen we had three opportunities to hear his guitar playing - at the informal buffet in the Town hall with the backing group of Svend Asmussen, in an informal jam session at the Café Sommersko and the next day with the group String Swing at the Huset Plan B. Teatersdalen. The three groups mentioned, including Christina von Bülow are Jacob's regular groups to hear him playing.

Jacob Fischer was born in 1967 and learned to play the guitar by listening to jazz records he lend from the library. His first hero was Jimmy Hendrix, but soon jazz musicians got his interest, like Jim Hall, George Benson, Wes Montgomery and Django Reinhardt, whose style is to be recognized in his playing. He became a professional at the age of 19 a few weeks before he had to finish school and became a wanted accompanist in many groups. When he started his carreer he played the guitar in a more modern way then nowadays as the groups he plays desire a more mainstream swing style.
For me he bears comparison with Jesse van Ruller, the Dutch guitar player, although styles of guitar playing are hard to compare.

I was impressed by the jam session in the Café Sommersko where Jacob Fischer jammed with members of the Choro Brasil Scandinavia, especially Marcilio Lopes on bandolim and Oscar Bolao on pandeiro.

The jam packed café, the great music, the warmth musicians, the complete ambiance have convinced myself that both music styles, jazz and choro, must have somewhere the same source or roots.