http://www.schifrin.com/biography.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lalo_Schifrin

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. Contents [show] [edit]Biography

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 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 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, Schifrin played piano with 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 Gillespie and 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 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 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 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. Schifrin'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. Schifrin's strong jazz blues riffs were evident in Dirty Harry and, although similar to 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 songs 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] [edit]Awards

To date, Lalo Schifrin has won four Grammy Awards (with twenty-one nominations), one Cable ACE Award, and received six Oscar nominations, and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. [edit]Discography

[edit]Solo albums 1962: Piano Strings And Bossa Nova (MGM Records) 1962: Bossa Nova (Audio Fidelity) 1963: Samba Para Dos (Verve Records) (with Bob Brookmeyer) 1964: New Fantasy (Verve Records) 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 Records) 1968: There's A Whole Lalo Schifrin Goin' On (Dot Records) 1971: Rock Requiem (Verve Records) 1976: Black Widow (CTI Records) 1977: Towering Toccata (CTI Records) 1978: Gypsies (Tabu Records) 1979: No One Home (Tabu Records) 1982: Ins And Outs (Palo Alto Records) [edit]As sideman With Dizzy Gillespie Gillespiana (1960, Verve Records) An Electrifying Evening with the Dizzy Gillespie Quintet (1961, Verve Records) A Musical Safari (1961) The New Continent (1962, Limelight Records) New Wave (1963, Philips Records) With Sarah Vaughan Sweet 'n' Sassy (1963 Roulette Records) [edit]Film 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 Sting 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 [edit]Television themes and scores 1964: The Man from U.N.C.L.E. 1965: The Big Valley 1966: T.H.E. Cat 1966: 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 [edit]