[3] It would be reissued in 1978 on the Discovery label as America the Beautiful, and in 2002 on CD (together with the 1963 album Extension) under the same name by Clare Fischer Productions.

Having provided his distinctive string backgrounds for albums by several artists over the previous decade, including Donald Byrd, Cal Tjader, and the Hi-Lo's, the 37-year-old Fischer finally had an opportunity to provide the same service for himself, as a string orchestra and rhythm section combine to support the leader as featured piano soloist.

As this generally favorable Boston Globe review makes clear, despite having moved up to a major label for this slickly packaged LP, Fischer was once again in virtually the same position he'd been in almost a decade before (with the Hi-Lo's, and then Dizzy Gillespie), with his arrangements again uncredited.

With some difficulty, the Globe's William Buchanan manages to piece together Fischer's identity, if not with absolute certainty his job description: A batch of new Columbia albums has included a "sleeper" LP by a pianist named Clare Fischer.

[4]While acknowledging its 'conservative' or mood music trappings, Down Beat's Pete Welding sees the album as not only meeting but easily transcending those generic expectations: Fischer's orchestrations do not so much exhaust the possibilities of the genre as they delineate the full richness of its possibilities.