All Photos: Alan Mercer Lighting: Eric V.
Lalo Schifrin was born Boris Claudio Schifrin in Buenos Aires to Jewish parents. His father, Luis Schifrin, led the second violin section of the orchestra at the Teatro Colón for three decades. At the age of six, Lalo began a six-year course of study on piano with Enrique Barenboim, the father of the pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim. At age 16, Lalo 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, Lalo also became interested in jazz.
Although Lalo studied sociology and law at the University of Buenos Aires, it was music that captured his attention. At age 20, he successfully applied for a scholarship to the Paris 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, Lalo played piano with Argentinian bandoneon giant Ástor Piazzolla and represented his country at the International Jazz Festival in Paris.
After returning home to Argentina, Lalo Schifrin formed a jazz orchestra, a 16-piece band that became part of a popular weekly variety show on Buenos Aires TV. Lalo also began accepting other film, television and radio assignments. In 1956, he met Dizzy Gillespie and offered to write an extended work for Gillespie's big band. Lalo completed the work, Gillespiana, in 1958, though it wasn’t recorded until 1960. Later that year Lalo began working as an arranger for Xavier Cugat's popular Latin dance orchestra.
In 1963, MGM, which had Lalo under contract, offered the composer his first Hollywood film assignment with the African adventure ‘Rhino!.’ Lalo 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 composer Jerry 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 Lalo 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, his theme for the hugely successful ‘Mannix’ private eye TV show was composed a year earlier in a 3/4 waltz time. Lalo composed several other jazzy and bluesy numbers over the years as additional incidental music for the show.
Lalo's ‘Tar Sequence’ from his ‘Cool Hand Luke’ score, also written in 5/4, was the longtime theme for the Eyewitness News broadcasts 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. Lalo'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.
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.’ He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
AM: Mr. Schifrin, I know your father was a musician. Is this what got you started in music?
LS: You could say that, yes. My father was a concert master of the Buenos Aries Philharmonic Orchestra. Some of his best friends were the great pianists. One of them became my piano teacher. I started in classical music and became more interested in American Jazz when I was a teenager. So doing both kinds of music won me a scholarship to the Paris Conservatory of Music. There I studied orchestration, composition and conducting.
AM: I hear you speak several languages.
LS: Spanish is my first language then French, English, German and Italian. I can also speak Portuguese when I’m in Brazil. I also studied Latin so that helps with all the languages.
AM: You were never goIng to be a doctor or anything but a musician were you?
LS: My father and my mother, knowing how difficult a career in music can be, wanted me to be a doctor. I also studied law for four years. I know how to read a contract.
AM: Did you know you would have a long career?
LS: Let me put it this way, I didn’t think about a career. I thought about becoming a good musician.
AM: How did you become interested in writing film scores?
LS: When I was going to movie theaters, especially in Paris, I tend to listen to the scores a lot. I said to myself that I’d like to learn how to write these kind of scores. Actually I learned more about music, not from schools, but directly from the movie theater and later on television.
AM: Were you influenced by other composers from film like Max Steiner?
LS: Funny you say that. Last year I went to Vienna where they gave me a lifetime achievement award called the Max Steiner Award.
AM: Like a lot of people, I love your theme to ‘Mission Impossible.’ I also know you wrote it in 5/4 time.
LS: I always tell a joke about this one. When they were doing experiments with nuclear weapons the radiation from these experiments caused genetic mutations in people. There would be people who had five legs. These people could not dance in a disco because that music was written for people with two legs. So I wrote ‘Mission Impossible’ for them! (laughter) The truth is I was interested in different time signatures and 5/4 was one of them. I also like 7/4 and many more.
AM: Do you hear the music in your head first?
LS: Yes, always.
AM: Do you still compose new music?
LS: Yes, a little time every day. I’m writing now for myself. I’ve been commissioned by different studios and producers.
AM: What is the process like for writing a film score?
LS: You watch the film and write the music for it. It’s about creating different moods.
AM: You have a knack for writing scary music for horror films.
LS: As a child my father used to take me to the Opera in Buenos Aries. I learned everything from the Operas. They give you beautiful and emotional music. There is an Opera by Donizetti called ‘Lucia di Lammermoor’ that has a mad scene where she comes with a knife. I was a child and that drove me wild. It made a lasting impression.
AM: I love how you worked with Dizzy Gillespie.
LS: Of course! I must tell you when I was a student living at home in Buenos Aries, I would tell my mother if Dizzy Gillespie calls me tell him I’m not here. This was a joke. Finally I went to Paris and among other things, I became a good jazz musician. Then I went back to Argentina and put together my own big band. Then Dizzy Gillespie came with his State Department band. They made them ambassadors as they traveled to different countries around the world. The band was great. Quincy Jones was fourth trumpet in his band at that time. So one evening someone organized my band to play for his band and we did. When we finished Dizzy asked who wrote the charts and I told him I did. He asked if I wanted to come to the United States and that’s it.
AM: Classical Musicians love you as well.
LS: I’ve always been a good friend to musicians. I love them. I have written lots of classical work as well. I wrote a cantata among other things. I’ve written several symphonies and concertos. I wrote one cantata for a symphony orchestra and the tenor was Placido Domingo.
AM: I also like your score to ‘Cool Hand Luke.’
LS: That is my very favorite of all my scores.
AM: It must be satisfying to hear that music in commercials too.
LS: It is very satisfying.
AM: Your life has been good. Your happiness shows.
Lalo Schifrin and his wife Donna
For more information about Lalo Schifrin visit his web site http://www.schifrin.com/