Lalo Schifrin (born June 21, 1932)[1] is an Argentine composer, pianist and conductor. He is best known for his film and TV scores, such as the "Theme from Mission: Impossible". He has received four Grammy Awards and six Oscar nominations. Schifrin, associated with the jazz music genre, is also noted for work with Clint Eastwood in the late 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, particularly the Dirty Harry films.
Schifrin was born Boris Claudio Schifrin in Buenos Aires to Jewish parents.[2] His father, Luis Schifrin, led the second violin section of the orchestra at the Teatro Colón for three decades.[1] At the age of six, Schifrin began a six-year course of study on piano with Enrique Barenboim, the father of the pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim. At age 16, Schifrin began studying piano with the Greek-Russian expatriate Andreas Karalis, former head of the Kiev Conservatory, and harmony with Argentine composer Juan Carlos Paz. During this time, Schifrin also became interested in jazz.
Although Schifrin studied sociology and law at the University of Buenos Aires, it was music that captured his attention.[1] At age 20, he successfully applied for a scholarship to theParis Conservatoire. While there, he attended Olivier Messiaen's classes and formally studied with Charles Koechlin, a disciple of Maurice Ravel. At night he played jazz in the Paris clubs. In 1955, Schifrin played piano with Argentinian bandoneon giant Ástor Piazzolla and represented his country at the International Jazz Festival in Paris.
After returning home to Argentina, Schifrin formed a jazz orchestra, a 16-piece band that became part of a popular weekly variety show on Buenos Aires TV. Schifrin also began accepting other film, television and radio assignments. In 1956, Schifrin met Dizzy Gillespieand offered to write an extended work for Gillespie's big band. Schifrin completed the work, Gillespiana, in 1958[1] (it was recorded in 1960). Later that year Schifrin began working as an arranger for Xavier Cugat's popular Latin dance orchestra.
While in New York in 1960, Schifrin again met Gillespie, who had by this time disbanded his big band for financial reasons. Gillespie invited Schifrin to fill the vacant piano chair in his quintet. Schifrin immediately accepted and moved to New York City. Schifrin wrote a second extended composition for Gillespie, The New Continent, which was recorded in 1962. In 1963, MGM, which had Schifrin under contract, offered the composer his first Hollywood film assignment with the African adventure Rhino!.[1] Schifrin moved to Hollywood late that year. He also radically re-arranged the theme for the popular NBC-TV series The Man from U.N.C.L.E., altering original composerJerry Goldsmith's theme to a jazzy melody emphasizing flutes and exotic percussion, which wound up winning the Emmy award for Best TV Theme in 1965.
One of Schifrin's most recognizable and enduring compositions is the theme music for the long-running TV series Mission: Impossible.It is a distinctive tune written in the uncommon 5/4 time signature. Similarly, Schifrin's theme for the hugely successful Mannix private eye TV show was composed a year earlier in a 3/4 waltz time; Schifrin composed several other jazzy and bluesy numbers over the years as additional incidental music for the show.
Schifrin's "Tar Sequence" from his Cool Hand Luke score (also written in 5/4) was the longtime theme for the Eyewitness Newsbroadcasts on New York station WABC-TV and other ABC affiliates, as well as National Nine News in Australia. CBS Television used part of the theme of his St. Ives soundtrack for its golf broadcasts in the 1970s and early 1980s.
Schifrin's score for Coogan's Bluff in 1968 was the beginning of a long association with Clint Eastwood and director Don Siegel. Schifrin's strong jazz blues riffs were evident in Dirty Harry and, although similar to his Bullitt and Coogan's Bluff, the score for Dirty Harry stood out for the sheer fear it generated when released.[citation needed]
Schifrin's working score for 1973's The Exorcist was rejected by the film's director, William Friedkin. Schifrin had written six minutes of difficult and heavy music for the initial film trailer, but audiences were reportedly frightened by the combination of sights and sounds.Warner Bros. executives told Friedkin to instruct Schifrin to tone it down with softer music, but Friedkin did not relay the message. Schifrin's final score was thrown out into the parking lot. Schifrin reported in an interview that working with Friedkin was one of the most unpleasant experiences in his life.[3]
In the 1998 film Tango, Schifrin returned to the tango music he had grown familiar with while working as Ástor Piazzolla's pianist in the mid-1950s. He brought traditional tango songs to the film as well as introducing compositions of his own in which tango is fused with jazz elements.[4]
In 1997, the composer founded Aleph Records.[5]
He also wrote the main theme for Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow.
Schifrin made a cameo appearance in Red Dragon (2002) as an orchestra conductor.
He is also widely sampled in hip-hop and trip-hop songs, such as Heltah Skeltah's "Prowl" or Portishead's "Sour Times". Both songs sample Schifrin's "Danube Incident", one of many themes he composed for specific episodes of the Mission: Impossible TV series.
On April 23, 2007, Lalo Schifrin presented a concert of film music for the Festival du Film Jules Verne Aventures (aka Festival Jules Verne), at Le Grand Rex theatre in Paris, France – Europe's biggest movie theater – that was caught superbly by Festival leaders for a 73 and a half minute CD named "Lalo Schifrin: Le Concert à Paris."
In 2010, a fictionalised account of Lalo Schifrin's creation of the Mission: Impossible tune was featured in a Lipton TV commercial aired in a number of countries around the world.[6]
Alternative hip hop group Blue Scholars recorded at track entitled "Lalo Schifrin" on their third album Cinemetropolis (2011).
Discography
Albums
- 1957: Spectrum (Epic)
- 1959: Piano Español (Tico) reissued as Lalolé: The Latin Sound of Lalo Schifrin (Roulette)
- 1962: Lalo = Brilliance (Roulette)
- 1962: Bossa Nova: New Brazilian Jazz (Audio Fidelity)
- 1962: Piano, Strings and Bossa Nova (MGM)
- 1963: Samba Para Dos with Bob Brookmeyer (Verve)
- 1963: Between Broadway & Hollywood (MGM)
- 1964: Explorations with Louis Bellson (Roulette)
- 1964: New Fantasy (Verve)
- 1965: Once a Thief and Other Themes (Verve)
- 1966: The Dissection and Reconstruction of Music From the Past as Performed By the Inmates of Lalo Schifrin's Demented Ensemble as a Tribute to the Memory of the Marquis De Sade (Verve)
- 1968: There's a Whole Lalo Schifrin Goin' On (Dot)
- 1971: Rock Requiem (Verve)
- 1976: Black Widow (CTI)
- 1977: Towering Toccata (CTI)
- 1978: Gypsies (Tabu)
- 1979: No One Home (Tabu)
- 1982: Ins and Outs (Palo Alto)
- 1992: Jazz Meets the Symphony (Atlantic)
- 1993: More Jazz Meets the Symphony (Atlantic)
- 1995: Firebird: Jazz Meets the Symphony No. 3 (Four Winds)
- 1996: Gillespiana (Aleph)
- 1998: Jazz Mass in Concert (Aleph)
- 1998: Metamorphosis: Jazz Meets the Symphony No. 4 (Aleph)
- 1999: Mannix (Aleph)
- 1999: Latin Jazz Suite (Aleph)
- 1999: Jazz Goes to Holywood (Aleph)
- 1999: The Fox (Aleph)
- 2000: Esperanto (Aleph)
- 2000: Bullitt (Aleph)
- 2000: Intersections: Jazz Meets the Symphony No. 5 (Aleph)
Soundtrack albums
- 1964: Gone with the Wave (soundtrack) (Colpix)
- 1965: The Liquidator (soundtrack) (MGM)
- 1965: The Cincinnati Kid (soundtrack) (MGM)
- 1966: Murderer's Row (soundtrack) (Colgems)
- 1967: Cool Hand Luke (soundtrack) (Dot)
- 1967: Sol Madrid (soundtrack) (MGM)
- 1967: Music from Mission: Impossible (Dot)
- 1968: The Fox (soundtrack) (Warner Bros.)
- 1968: More Mission: Impossible (Paramount)
- 1968: Mannix (Paramount)
- 1968: Bullitt (soundtrack) (Warner Bros.)
- 1969: Che! (soundtrack) (Tetragrammaton)
- 1970: Kelly's Heroes (soundtrack) (MGM)
- 1973: Enter the Dragon (soundtrack) (Warner Bros.)
- 1977: Voyage of the Damned (soundtrack) (Entr'Acte)
- 1977: Rollercoaster (soundtrack) (MCA)
Films scores
- 1964: Rhino!
- 1965: The Cincinnati Kid
- 1965: The Liquidator
- 1965: Once a Thief
- 1966: Murderers' Row
- 1967: The Fox
- 1967: The President's Analyst
- 1967: Cool Hand Luke
- 1968: Bullitt
- 1968: The Brotherhood
- 1968: Hell in the Pacific
- 1968: Coogan's Bluff
- 1968: Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows
- 1969: Che!
- 1970: Kelly's Heroes
- 1970: WUSA
- 1971: THX 1138
- 1971: The Beguiled
- 1971: Dirty Harry
- 1971: The Hellstrom Chronicle
- 1971: Pretty Maids All in a Row
- 1972: Prime Cut
- 1972: Joe Kidd
- 1972: Rage
- 1972: The Wrath of God
- 1973: Magnum Force
- 1973: Enter the Dragon
- 1973: Charley Varrick
- 1973: Harry in Your Pocket
- 1973: Hit!
- 1974: The Four Musketeers
- 1976: The Eagle Has Landed
- 1976: Voyage of the Damned
- 1977: Rollercoaster
- 1977: Telefon
- 1978: Return from Witch Mountain
- 1978: The Cat from Outer Space
- 1978: The Manitou
- 1979: The Amityville Horror
- 1979: Escape to Athena
- 1979: The Concorde ... Airport '79
- 1979: Boulevard Nights
- 1979: Love and Bullets
- 1980: Brubaker
- 1980: The Big Brawl
- 1980: When Time Ran Out
- 1980: The Competition
- 1980: Serial
- 1980: The Nude Bomb
- 1981: Caveman
- 1981: Loophole
- 1982: Amityville II: The Possession
- 1982: The Seduction
- 1983: Sudden Impact
- 1983: The Osterman Weekend
- 1983: Doctor Detroit
- 1983: The Sting II
- 1984: Tank
- 1985: Bad Medicine
- 1985: The Mean Season
- 1986: The Ladies Club
- 1986: Black Moon Rising
- 1987: The Fourth Protocol
- 1988: The Dead Pool
- 1989: Return From the River Kwai
- 1991: F/X2
- 1993: The Beverly Hillbillies
- 1996: Scorpion Spring
- 1997: Money Talks
- 1998: Tango
- 1998: Rush Hour
- 1998: Something to Believe In
- 2001: Rush Hour 2
- 2003: Bringing Down the House
- 2004: The Bridge of San Luis Rey
- 2004: After the Sunset
- 2006: Abominable
- 2007: Rush Hour 3
Television scores
- 1964: The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
- 1965: The Big Valley
- 1966: T.H.E. Cat
- 1967: Mission: Impossible
- 1967: Mannix
- 1969: Medical Center
- 1974: Planet of the Apes
- 1975: Starsky and Hutch
- 1976: Most Wanted
- 1982: Chicago Story
- 1984: Glitter
- 1987: Sparky's Magic Piano
