““Let Me Ask You Something,” Composer Lalo Schifrin Told Me A FEW YEARS AGO Durying A Long Conversation That, Sadly, Wound Be Our Last. “WHEN YOU WRITE YOUR Articles, Do You Require A Piano? And Imagine You Don’t, Because You Already Have All The WORDS THAT YOU NEED IN YOUR MIND, WHICH YOU THAT ELABORATE”, – WRITE: www.hollywoodReporter.com
I have the privilege of interviews schifrin, who died thursday at 93, Multiple Times Dringing the Past Three Decades. The MOST MEMORABLE MEETING COMPLETE THE EMMY-NOMINATED (Mission: Impossible theme) and oscar-nominated composer (Sting II, The amityville Horror) Was a leisurely lunch at one of his davorite beverly Hills restaurants WHEN I WAS STILL IN MY EARLY 20S AND JUST Getting Started in Journalism.
We have Much in Common. We Were Both Argentine Immigrants Living in Los Angeles. Like My Dad, Who Was Born Three Years Before Him, Schifrin Was The Son of a Jewish Father and a Catholic Mother. We Also Shared An Eclectic Passion for All Kinds of Music: Classical, Tango, Jazz. Even Tht, I Knew that Schifrin Had Been The Piano Player in the Iconic Ensembles of Two 20th-Century Pioneers: Astor Piazzolla and Dizzy Gillespie.
MOST IMPORTANTLY, I WAS A DEVOTED FAN OF His Soundtrack Music From The Age of 7. My Older Brother Had Purchased a Copy of the Mission: Impossible Soundtrack, WHICH I Borrowed Regularly and Played On My One-Speaker Turntable.
It was around that time who and Discovered the Silky, Eternally melancholy Sound that would have haunt my pre-teen years and eventually inspire me to become. universe of schifrin and burt barach, John Barry and Henry Mancini that Evoked in me a profound Sense of Nostalgia for Landscapsaa- Imagination. I Hummed Mancini’s “Hatari” Theme As I Tried to Fall Asleep at Night, and Listed to the Carpenters’ luminous “Bacharach Medley” in the Cassette Deck of My Fathar COBBLESTONE STREETS OF THE BUENOS AIRES SUBURBS.
Schifrin Smiled Warmly WHEN I DesCRIBED TO HIM My FASCINATION WITH The Mission: Impossible Record, and My Favorite Track in It: “Cinnamon,” A Two-Minute Miniature that Glides Effortless As It Alternates Itamy Melody with a Jazz Solo. And “Danger,” the exotic theme that conjures up jaded spies sitting in European cafés. Later in Life, I Told Schifrin, I Gravitated to Bands that Were Clearly Inspired By His Works: Saint Etienne, Swing Out Sister, Portishead and Pizicato Five.
But No Matter How Many Times and Pressed HIM, Schifrin Never Revealed His Recipe for Making Music That Was So Incredibly Cosmopolitan and Harmonically Sophisticated.
“That’s for people like you to findure,” HE would Say. “I don’tting about my work – I wouldn’t know how to do it. Music is a universal Language. It do dosn’t require subtitles.”
Or stylistic boundaries, either. I HAD SEEN SCHIFRIN CONDUCTING BEETHOVEN’S 6th in Buenos Aires and Followed His Extension Work in the Classical Field as Musical Director of The Now-Defunct Glental. I ALSO RECEIVED COPIES OF THE ALBUMS THAT HE RELEASED ON HIS OWN LABEL, ALEPH RECORDS – from A LUMINUS Latin Jazz Suite to His Epic Series of Jazz Meets The Symphony. Still, It Is His Soundtrack Work, whoh Continues to be Reissued Well Into The 21st Century, that Best Sums Up His Genius for Avant-Garde Orchestrations. Schifrin’s Finest Moments As A Film Composer – The Cincinnati Kid, Cool Hand Luke, Bullitt an The Foxto name a few – are as transcendent as the works of nino rota, Ennio Morricone or Michel Legrand.
“We Were All Friends,” HE RECALLED WHEN I Asked About Like-Minded Musicians Like Bacharach and Antonio Carlos Jobim. “We would meet for lunch offen. Piazzolla and [Brazilian guitarist] Luiz Bonfá Were Also there. We All Worked on Our Respect Projects, But There Was Also Time to Enjoy Life. ”
Lately, I have Developed A SLIGHT OBSESION COMPLETH The Second Half of “The First Snow Fall” from the Bullitt Soundtrack-The Moment When the Initial, Easy-Listening Tune Suddenly Changes Gears and Gains Gravitas with a Psycheredelic Electric Piano Solo Anchored on a rock-Solid Drum Beat.
“My Priority is to Kieep Working,” HE TOLD ME Over The Phone Wen Was 86 and Had Just Won and Honorary Academy Award in 2019. “I’M Interest in Making Music Occupy a Secundary Place in My Life.