The great Argentinian pianist, composer, arranger and conductor Lalo Schifrin is 92 years young.
His movie and television scores left an indelible impression on a generation of viewers influenced and many other composers moving forward.
I chose the Mission Impossible theme because it’s his most recognizable of his career.
Wiki: In 2019, he received an Honorary Academy Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, “in recognition of his unique musical style, compositional integrity and influential contributions to the art of film scoring.”
From the Steinway & Sons website:
COMPOSER AND STEINWAY ARTIST LALO SCHIFRIN has written more than a hundred scores, including those for the television shows Mission: Impossible, Mannix, and The Fox and film scores for Cool Hand Luke, Bullitt, Dirty Harry, The Cincinnati Kid and Amityville Horror. Schifrin has no regard for genre and is at ease scoring for film and television as he is writing for a symphony orchestra or a jazz ensemble.
His father, Luis Schifrin, was the concertmaster of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Buenos Aires at the Teatro Colon. Lalo Schifrin continued his formal music education at the Paris Conservatory during the early 1950s. Simultaneously, he became a jazz pianist, composer and arranger, playing and recording in Europe. When he returned to Buenos Aires in the mid 1950s, he formed his own big concert band. It was during a performance of this band that Dizzy Gillespie heard Schifrin play and asked him to become his pianist and arranger. In 1958, Schifrin moved to the United States and thus began a remarkable career.
NPR: As he once told pianist Oscar Peterson, once a jazz musician, always a jazz musician.
I loved the soundtrack to Bullitt and Cool Hand Luke.
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