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- Author, Writing
- Author's title, BBC News World
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Argentine musician and composer Lalo Schifrin died Thursday at age 93 in Los Angeles, California, his family confirmed.
Throughout his more than six decades of career, Schifrin (Buenos Aires, 1932) composed sound bands for more than 100 films and television series.
The general public remembers it for the unforgettable melody that created in 1966 for the television series “Mission Impossible”, which then remained used for the films saga of the same name starring Tom Cruise.
His is also the music of mythical series as Mannix or “Starsky and Hutch” and films such as The Cincinnati Kid, Cool Hand Luke, Bullitt or “Harry the dirty”.
Among other recognitions, Schifrin – who in addition to composer was a pianist and orchestra director – was six times nominated for the Oscars of the Hollywood Academy and won four Grammy Awards.
In 2018 he received an honorary Oscar for his career in music and television music. He was the third composer in the history of the Academy to receive that award.
When delivering the award, the actor and director Clint Eastwood praised Schifrin for “his unique musical style, his integrity into the composition and his influential contributions to the art of the composition of soundtracks.”
The musician responded to the compliments and the ovation of the public saying that composing sound bands for cinema had been “a life full of joy and creativity.”
The musician died due to complications of pneumonia.
Image source, Getty Images
Between jazz and movies
In interviews, Schifrin said that his interest in music began in his father's hand, who was the first violinist of the Philharmonic of Buenos Aires. He learned to play the piano from a very young age.
As a young man, he traveled to study in Paris, where he immersed himself in the world of jazz, a genre that would become one of his great passions and that would influence much of his work.
As a jazz musician, he shared the stage with artists such as Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughan, she Fitzgerald, Stan Getz and Count Basie, among others.
With Gillespie, a jazz legend built an artistic relationship that lasted for several years. Schifrin moved to New York, formed a quintet and obtained great success.
It was from 1963, when a reputation had already been built, which began its path as a composer in Hollywood. And he pioneered the music for film and television with elements of both his classical and jazz training.
From then on, as he said in an interview, he began to receive many more offers he could accept.
On the unforgettable melody of “Mission Impossible”, Schifrin said that when he composed it he wanted “a little humor, lightness, a subject that would not be taken too seriously.”
Throughout his life, he also continued his career as an academic musician. He directed some of the most important symphonic orchestras on the planet and collaborated with renowned singers, such as the tenors José Carreras, Plácido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti.
Despite living many years outside Argentina, he remained connected and interested in his country.
In his 2006 album, Letters From Argentina (“Letters from Argentina”), explored the sounds of his homeland and in 2010 he won the Latin Grammy for its composition “Pampas”.
The fruit of this special path in music would be described by the American actress Kathy Bates at the ceremony in which an Oscar in 2018 was given.
“His work cannot be easily tagged. What he creates is jazz? Is it classical, contemporary, popular music? The answer is yes, it is all that. Lalo is a real man of the Renaissance: Piano interpreter, painter with notes, orchestra and composer director who has composed some of the most memorable sound bands of the last fifty years.”
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