Ms. Lisa Fischer & Grand Baton

Lisa Fischer is a backup singer. She gets around. Her life is an endless round of planes, trains, and automobiles, rehearsals and fittings. On tour with the Rolling Stones, Tina Turner, Sting, Chaka Khan, or Chris Botti, her name may not be on the marquee, but she doesn’t care. She’s busy loving every minute of it. It’s easy to see why she works all the time: her astonishing range, her spot-on intonation, her mastery of the stage, the way her tone wraps itself around your heart and won’t let go, the infectious quality of her time feel: these things keep her on top of the list. But it’s the sweetness of her smile, her visible pleasure in watching her bandmates do their stuff, her glamorous-girl-next-door quality that make fans all over the world think she’s their own secret discovery. The YouTube version of her duet with Mick Jagger on ‘Gimme Shelter’ has millions of hits.

The session work she picks up between tours is pretty impressive too: Bobby McFerrin, Beyonce, Dionne Warwick, Dolly Parton, Alicia Keyes, Lou Reed, Louie Vega, Les Paul, Aretha Franklin, John Scofield, George Benson, Laurie Anderson, Lee Ritenour, Jackie Evancho, Grover Washington Jr, The Braxtons, Melba Moore, Ofra Haza, and Gino Vanelli. Along with many other top session singers like Darlene Love, Merry Clayton, and Janice Pendarvis, “the greatest artists you’ve never heard of” (but whose voices are instantly recognizable), she’s featured in Morgan Neville’s acclaimed 2012 documentary film Twenty Feet from Stardom, recently featured at the Sundance Festival and scheduled for wide release by Miramax in June of 2013.

When Lisa Fischer won her Grammy for Best Female R&B Performance for her hit single “How Can I Ease the Pain,” in an unlikely tie with Patti LaBelle, she almost missed the chance to take the stage and accept her award. Thrilled and amazed to get the nomination, Lisa heard Patti LaBelle’s name announced and started clapping so hard that she didn’t hear her own name called. Onstage, the two singers hugged and swayed together, caught up in the moment. Because Lisa Fischer didn’t just win a Grammy for her first solo single; she was also one of the backup singers on Ms. LaBelle’s award-winning song ‘Burnin.’

The first person Lisa thanked onstage that night was Luther Vandross. Lisa was a Marvellete when she first auditioned for Luther, who was to become her employer, her mentor, and her champion. She is honored to carry on his legacy, striving for excellence, taking care of business, getting up early, staying up late, showing up on time, letting the music take control, singing her heart out, night after night.

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