LALO SCHIFRIN
Mission: Impossible
Buenos Aires, Argentina's world famous maestro Lalo Schifrin, a leading musician in the classical and jazz fields and specialist in composing film and television themes, very nearly wound up in an entirely unrelated line of work. His father, Luis Schifrin, a notable musician himself (first violinist for the Buenos Aires Philharmonic), was acutely aware of how difficult a career in music would be and disapproved of Lalo's interest in a similar vocation. He insisted his son (born Boris Claudio Schifrin) go to college and follow a "sure bet" - medicine or law, perhaps - and that's what he did. But the kid got sneaky and, unbeknowst to his family, gigged with jazz groups, mostly for fun, after school hours. Once he'd earned a law degree, Lalo put all his energy into the music business. A few "lucky breaks," as he called them, came his way, like performing as pianist with the great trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, then later getting a start at creating the scores for Hollywood movies. It wasn't an easy path, but perseverance yielded rewards. Still, the process at times must have seemed like a "Mission: Impossible," which happens to be the title of his best-known musical work.
By his early teens, shortly after the end of World War II, Schifrin had become obsessed with jazz. While attending college in Argentina in the early '50s, he did some extracurricular studies with progressive classical- and romantic-era theorist Juan Carlos Paz, who encouraged him to apply for a scholarship offered by the National Conservatory of Music in Paris, France. Nervously, Schifrin applied and took a difficult exam while keeping it secret from his parents. Surprisingly he was accepted and his father was no longer in a position to dictate his life's path. In Paris he studied during the day under the great French musician, teacher and bird song expert Olivier Messiaen, then hit the clubs at night to play piano with whatever bands would have him. He allowed himself enough spare time to indulge his interest in cinema and became fascinated with the background scores, noticing how much the music drove the action or affected viewer perceptions of what was on the screen. Eventually, it became his priority.
He had several albums released in Buenos Aires in the '50s and in 1955, during a return to France, recorded under his own name and with Eddie Warner, a Jewish-German musician who fled to France during the early stages of Hitler's regime. Upon returning to Argentina in 1958, Lalo assembled a 16-piece band that toured throughout South America. He also wrote music for radio and TV shows, which led to his first experience in film, composing the background score for El Jefe ("the boss"), an Argentinian crime film.
In 1959, he and his band had an opportunity to perform for jazz trumpet star Dizzy Gillespie and bandmate Quincy Jones, who were on tour at the time in South America. Dizzy was so impressed that he wanted to work with Lalo, who moved to New York shortly afterwards. In 1960 they recorded Gillespiana with a score of top-notch musicians, an album of compositions by Schifrin that has become a classic; the following year it earned him a Grammy nomination in the category Best Original Jazz Composition, his first of 23 such validations. Lalo and Diz also toured together and presented the entire "Gillespiana Suite" in select European cities. Meanwhile, Schifrin put out a string of American albums covering jazz, bossa nova and pop themes on several different labels (Tico, MGM, Roulette and Verve) including Bossa Nova: New Brazilian Jazz, a top 40 LP sales hit on Audio Fidelity in late 1962.
Back in N.Y. in 1964, Schifrin came in contact with Arnold Maxim of MGM. Singles were released of themes from films like Hud (Elmer Bernstein penned it) and his own "The Haunting." Maxim gave him his first opportunity to score a U.S. movie, Rhino!, filmed in a South African game reserve with stars Harry Guardino and Robert Culp. Schifrin's score wasn't so much built around a unified theme as it was individual musical pieces matched to each scene, using assorted African instruments to fit the situation. A steady stream of assignments came afterwards for films like Joy House, Once a Thief, Clarence the Cross-Eyed Lion, James Bond-ish thriller The Liquidator and Steve McQueen-Edward G. Robinson five-card stud faceoff The Cincinnati Kid. His earliest Grammy wins came during this period for Original Jazz Composition: "The Cat" (a hit for Jimmy Smith) and the LP Jazz Suite on the Mass Texts with flutist Paul Horn.
Soon afterwards he moved into television, writing music for The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and other shows. In 1966 he created his best-known theme and suddenly his name was widely known outside jazz circles. Prior to September 1966, when Mission: Impossible beginning a seven-year run on CBS, Schifrin was contacted by the show's producer, Bruce Geller (a fan of his music), to write the theme and the show's complete music score. An album was recorded for Dot Records when the series became a ratings hit; the "Mission: Impossible" theme made the mainstream top 40 in early '68 in addition to reaching the Easy Listening top ten, the album spent seven months on the charts and a second LP, More Mission: Impossible, hit stores later in the year. Also, two more Grammys came Lalo's way, for the Best Instrumental Theme and Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or TV Show. He also received three Emmy nominations for M:I, spread out over the first three seasons. Keeping busy in the film field, he did the scores for Cool Hand Luke and The Fox (nabbing his first two Oscar noms for these) and another popular McQueen vehicle, Bullitt. Geller hit him up again for the music to another long-running series, Mannix. All this over the course of a couple of years!
Another Schifrin fan, Bruce Lee, asked him to do the music for the 1973 martial arts blockbuster Enter the Dragon (also the actor's final film before his death that year). The action film genre was well-served with music from Argentina's hottest composer; Clint Eastwood's blockbuster Dirty Harry was yet another box office draw that contained the master's touch. Schifrin worked again with Dizzy Gillespie in the early 1990s and wrote classical-themed symphonies on a regular basis, dividing his time between European projects and high-profile concerts conducting for the Paris Philharmonic, the London Symphony and orchestras in Austria, Israel, Mexico, Australia, several in the U.S. and of course in his native land, Argentina. In 2006, he composed the music for his son Ryan Schifrin's entry into filmmaking, Abominable. A Latin American project, "Pampas," landed him a fifth Grammy in 2010. There were five Oscar nominations thoughout the years without a win, though in 2018 he received the Academy's Honorary Award for his career achievements.
Lalo Schifrin has continued adding to his resumé during the 21st century; a list of accomplishments throughout his life would likely fill a terabyte of computer space. The great maestro has done something rare, remaining busy in a career that progressed, uninterrupted, for more than 70 years. Mission: accomplished. This message will self-destruct in one second.
