{"id":882,"date":"2010-10-20T15:52:36","date_gmt":"2010-10-20T19:52:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=882"},"modified":"2010-12-27T20:23:37","modified_gmt":"2010-12-28T01:23:37","slug":"lalo-schifrin-2008-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=882","title":{"rendered":"LALO SCHIFRIN (2008), Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Exclusive Interviews & Profiles<\/a> \/\u00a0Composers<\/a><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

With the 2007 publication of his autobiography,\u00a0Mission Impossible: My Life in Music<\/strong>, by Scarecrow Press, Lalo Schifrin has involved himself in another discipline \u2013 book writing \u2013 although this should hardly come as a surprise to jazz and film music fans well acquainted with his fascination for art, literature, music, and history.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

Schifrin will always be best-known for his jazz music and the <\/em>Mission: Impossible<\/em><\/strong> theme, but even a passing familiarity with those endeavours show a man who has consistently been a part of contemporary music history \u2013 as an innovator within popular music forms like jazz, samba, and fusion \u2013 and as a dynamic voice in film scoring, applying ideas from classical\u00a0 and ethnic music to craft some memorable scores for films like the <\/em>Dirty Harry<\/em><\/strong> series, the original (and far superior) <\/em>Amityville Horror<\/em><\/strong>, and the searing dissonance in his rejected music for <\/em>The Exorcist<\/em><\/strong>(released as a bonus CD with the old Warner Bros. boxed VHS set).<\/em><\/p>\n

The composer has also been involved with the work of son Ryan Schifrin, most notably in providing a straight-faced, menacing score for the sasquatch film <\/em>Abominable<\/em><\/strong> (2006), and themes for the comic book <\/em>Spooks<\/em><\/strong> (2008).<\/em><\/p>\n

For jazz and film fans, there are actually two ways to read about Schifrin\u2019s lengthy career: his autobiography, and for those with a decent command of French, Georges Michael\u2019s seriously persistent Q&A session with the composer, <\/em>Lalo Schifrin: Entretiens avec Georges Michel<\/em><\/strong>, published in France by Rouge Profond in 2005.<\/em><\/p>\n

(Schifrin is quite fluent in French, having learned the language in high school in Argentina, and later when he studied for four years at the Paris Conservatory.)<\/em><\/p>\n

One book doesn\u2019t take material away from the other, and together they form what\u2019s probably the most complete, candid, and often quite funny portrait of a musical life that began in Argentina, was formatively schooled in France, toughened by earning one\u2019s keep through live performing and composing, and achieved diverse success by exploring the purity and marriage of elements from jazz, classical, and film.<\/em><\/p>\n

One senses that with Schifrin, music is music; the labels \u201cjazz\u201d and \u201cclassical\u201d are there for convenience, if not for marketing music to whatever groups need a name to recognize what they like. Schifrin\u2019s Jazz meets the Symphony series was a daring an attempt to open the minds of musicians as well as audiences, but it\u2019s still about bringing music to people, and he clearly thrives on the energy he conducts in live and studio concerts on smaller scales like jazz combos, and massive events like <\/em>Cantos Aztecas<\/em><\/strong> at Mexico\u2019s <\/em>Teotihuacan<\/em><\/a> ruins.<\/em><\/p>\n

Georges Michel\u2019s book delves heavily into Schifrin\u2019s influences, teachers, professional associations, and film scores, but his early years remain anecdotal, and it\u2019s that period under Juan Peron during the forties that Schifrin wanted to expanded upon in his autobiography, and where our edited interview begins.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Mark R. Hasan<\/em><\/strong>: I found the early years under Peron really fascinating, and I think most people don\u2019t really know that much about Argentina, aside from (and maybe it\u2019s unfortunate) because of just Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice\u2019s 1978 stage musical <\/em>Evita<\/em><\/strong>; they\u2019ve heard of the musical and its leading characters, are probably familiar with the tango, but they don\u2019t know very much about the political history.<\/em><\/p>\n

Lalo Schifrin<\/strong>:\u00a0 Argentina is a very interesting country. It has many cultures, almost like the United States; the only difference is there\u2019s no British influence. There\u2019s the Spanish conquest, the indigenous Indian population, and the mixture of Spanish and Indian, especially the gauchos. Like the United States, very many Europeans migrated and came to work the land and develop industries. It\u2019s a very interesting country.<\/p>\n

MRH<\/em><\/strong>: I wonder the arrival of all those different cultures during Argentina\u2019s recent history were one of the reasons you were so fascinated with world music?<\/em><\/p>\n

LS<\/strong>: Well, first of all, my father was the concert master of the Buenos Aires Philharmonic, and since I was a child, he was taking me to concerts and to see opera, and for me, I couldn\u2019t consider any other life without music. Then when I was in high school, I was exposed by friends to American jazz, and I embraced that immediately, so I had classical music and jazz.<\/p>\n

MRH<\/em><\/strong>: You described in your autobiography the way in which you acquired jazz records at the time under Peron\u2019s regime, and it\u2019s probably hard for us to relate to a world where there was only one major kind of music or a certain style of music (the tango) that was acceptable, and everything else was more or less forbidden.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s kind of funny, and at the same time kind of frightening to think that you were risking a little bit of your neck when every few months you were picking up jazz LPs from an American naval officer on shore leave, and your efforts to smuggle the records under a raincoat, whatever the weather.<\/em><\/p>\n

LS<\/strong>: Oh yes, but you have to realize that Peron came to power in 1943 during the Second World War, and he was helped by the Germans. If Germany had won the war, Peron was assigned to be like the representative of the Germans in Argentina, and this was very serious.<\/p>\n

What happened is that in 1943, I was eleven years old, and in 1945, when Germany finally lost the war, United States in particular started to put pressure on Peron, so finally he had to call for elections. Because they were supervised, he couldn\u2019t do any fraud, so he had to make very clean elections.<\/p>\n

However, the opposition presented two candidates for president and vice president that were discredited for political reasons. (There were other politicians that were a big danger to Peron, but they were not elected through the democratic process, and were not elected to be candidates for the presidency.)<\/p>\n

Peron very demagogic, but he was also very popular, and he had married Evita. The masses liked them, and they didn\u2019t care about fascism or Nazism; the majority of the population voted for them, and they won the election.<\/p>\n

MRH<\/em><\/strong>: There\u2019s one episode where you describe having to get your passport by going to a government building where some very scary things were done to people, and the scenario you recount recalls a similar memory David Korda wrote about in his book about the Korda family, when his father or uncle had to pass a chilling interrogation in order to leave Hungary, and it\u2019s frightening to think that an artist like yourself had to use his wits to avoid the dangerous whims of a government bureaucrat who had the power to prevent your \u2018escape\u2019 to France.<\/em><\/p>\n

LS<\/strong>: Well, it was a legal escape, because I had to do it with a passport. First of all, at that time in Argentina, Peron was so much in charge that it would be suicidal to try and do something against the government, including trying to escape, so I had to do it legally, and it wasn\u2019t easy, as you can read in the chapter of my book, but finally they let me go; they gave me the passport and then I could go to the French consulate and get the student visa.<\/p>\n

MRH<\/em><\/strong>: There\u2019s a very telling moment in a recollection from your youth in Buenos Aires, where you write about playing one half of the piano with an extremely gifted colleague, and you saw a look on his face during the performance that not only signalled his appreciation of your own skill, but make you realize jazz was the music you had to play.<\/em><\/p>\n

LS<\/strong>: That colleague was none other than one of the greatest pianists in the history of music,\u00a0Friedrich Gulda<\/a>, who was an Austrian pianist. He was one of the masters of classical music, and one of the greatest interpreters of Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, and all the great composers.<\/p>\n

There were friends of his who told me that also played jazz, and one of those times he came to Buenos Aires to play a classical concert (he was very young, maybe a little bit older than me), they made a jazz jam session, and they asked me if I wanted to go, and I said \u2018Of course!.\u2019<\/p>\n

They told him that I played good piano, and he invited me. He was already at the piano and he invited me to share the keyboard and play four hands, and that moment when I played a solo he looked at me with great admiration \u2013 I could tell \u2013 and for me that was like winning an Oscar. It was then that I made the decision to become a jazz pianist<\/p>\n

My father, obviously being a classical musician, didn\u2019t oppose it, but he didn\u2019t want me to get into that\u2026\u2018If don\u2019t you want to get into classical music, then you should get into law or some other degree in university,\u2019 but I decided for jazz.<\/p>\n

MRH<\/em><\/strong>: Was there a moment when you similarly realized that film composing, like jazz, was something you had to do?<\/em><\/p>\n

LS<\/strong>: Well, since I was a child, I\u2019ve always been a film buff, and I always listened to the music scores. When I came back from France in the fifties, I had the opportunity to write the music for a short film,\u00a0Venga a bailar el rock<\/strong> (1957). Then later on, the film industry in Argentina started to get the idea \u2013 especially with new producers \u2013 that I was the right guy – so I was hired to do a long one,\u00a0El Jefe <\/strong>\/ The Boss<\/strong> (1958), a film which won the equivalent of an Academy Award [the Silver Condor]. This was right before I came to the United States.<\/p>\n

MRH<\/em><\/strong>: And I guess from that experience, you thought this was definitely something that you wanted to pursue, because you thought it was invigorating and exciting.<\/em><\/p>\n

LS<\/strong>: Oh yes. The chemistry between the visual and the music was very, very fascinating. It still is.<\/p>\n

Now there are schools where they teach film composition (as a matter of fact, I taught for two years at UCLA, here in California), but in those days there was no schools where one could study this art form, and I learned it by instinct. Also, when I was a child, my father exposed me to opera, and opera [has] an audio-visual counterpoint, which is what happens in film.<\/p>\n

MRH<\/em><\/strong>: I\u2019m impressed that you\u2019ve been able to balance film scoring and jazz music and concert work during the course of your career since the sixties, and I wonder if you have any thoughts on how you\u2019re able to maintain the stamina? Is that energy level something you learned to exploit when you were very young, traveling and performing throughout the world?<\/em><\/p>\n

LS<\/strong>: That\u2019s a very good question. Nobody has asked me that kind of question. I\u2019ve done many interviews, so congratulations for that question. You forced me to think of something new.<\/p>\n

The reason why I do so many things is perhaps because I need to express myself in different areas. I do have already the technique of composition, orchestration, counterpoint, and harmony (it\u2019s like talking or writing a letter or something), so I feel very comfortable in jazz, I feel very comfortable in movies, and I feel very comfortable in the so-called classical music.<\/p>\n

As a matter of fact I don\u2019t even understand why they have to make such a sensation between them. I have a series of records I\u2019m doing called\u00a0Jazz meets the Symphony<\/strong>, where I bring a group of virtuosi soloists and put them together with a real symphony orchestra, and it\u2019s having a great success.<\/p>\n

Classical musicians say, \u2018Hey wait. I didn\u2019t know I could swing!\u2019 and the jazz musicians feel a different kind of stimulation from the atmosphere of a symphony orchestra. I\u2019ve been lucky and fortunate.<\/p>\n

MRH<\/em><\/strong>: Did you find it difficult to write your autobiography, because you had to establish a timeline for your entire life, and map out pivotal moments?<\/em><\/p>\n

LS<\/strong>: No, I didn\u2019t find it difficult. After I finished, I asked a friend of mine, Richard Palmer, a professor of English at Oxford in England, to help me to pull the book into better shape, but basically what I wrote is there.<\/p>\n

First of all, you have to realize that I\u2019m a writer of music, and I don\u2019t write books. I mean, this is the first book that I\u2019ve ever written, and I don\u2019t know if I\u2019m going to write more books because I don\u2019t write fiction. I was excited by the idea of writing this autobiography, [and while] I didn\u2019t have any publisher at the time, I had to get it off my chest.<\/p>\n

MRH<\/em><\/strong>: And my last question is about a specific anecdote in your autobiography, where at a press conference you gave an extremely elaborate answer when a music journalist asked you why you composed the <\/em>Mission: Impossible<\/em><\/strong> theme in 5\/4 rhythm.<\/em><\/p>\n

LS<\/strong>: That was at the Salzburg Festival, which is one of the most prominent classical music festivals. I was very lucky and very thankful to do jazz music with the symphony in Salzburg.<\/p>\n

[Schifrin’s explanation, in its most distilled form, goes like this: his choice of rhythm was in tribute to the five-legged babies born after the atomic tests in New Mexico, so they had something to dance to. Seriously. Both the Michel and Schifrin books retell this delicious moment of whimsy spiced by the composer\u2019s serious need to get a decent breakfast after a long, long day without food.]<\/em><\/p>\n

LS<\/strong>: I said that, and she wrote it like it was real, and when I came back from Europe it was published in one of the most prominent music magazines in Austria, and my European booking agent said, \u2018What are you doing? Are you crazy?\u2019<\/p>\n

MRH<\/em><\/strong>: Your explanation was very elaborate and very detailed. I think that\u2019s one of the reasons she was convinced. In reading your reply, there is a certain \u2018logic\u2019 to it, even though it\u2019s completely crazy. It\u2019s very detailed.<\/em><\/p>\n

LS<\/strong>: Well, I have a strange sense of humour.<\/p>\n

MRH<\/em><\/strong>: It\u2019s a good sense of humour.<\/em><\/p>\n

LS<\/strong>: Thanks you.<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

KQEK.com would like to thank Lalo Schifrin for his generous time, and Beth Krakower at Cinemedia Promotions for facilitating this interview.<\/em><\/p>\n

To visit Lalo Schifrin\u2019s website, click <\/em>HERE<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

To hear samples of Lalo Schifrin\u2019s music for <\/em>Spooks<\/em><\/strong>, please visit the official website <\/em>HERE<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

For a detailed discography of Lalo Schifrin\u2019s massive canon, check out Doug Payne\u2019s wonderful <\/em>website<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

To read <\/em>Part 2: October 2008<\/em><\/strong>, where we interviewed Lalo Schifrin regarding the publication of his autobiography, <\/em>Mission Impossible: My Life in Music<\/em><\/strong>, by Scarecrow Press, click <\/em>HERE<\/em><\/a>!<\/em><\/p>\n

All images remain the property of their copyright holders.<\/em><\/p>\n

This article and interview \u00a9 2008 by Mark R. Hasan<\/em><\/p>\n

.<\/em><\/p>\n

Related external links (MAIN SITE)<\/em>:<\/p>\n

CD: \u00a0Abominable <\/a><\/strong>(2006) \u2014 \u00a0Enforcer, The<\/a> <\/strong>(1976) \u2014\u00a0\u00a0Magnum Force <\/a><\/strong>(1973) \u2014\u00a0Sudden Impact<\/a> <\/strong>(1983)<\/p>\n

.<\/span>.<\/span><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Exclusive Interviews & Profiles<\/a> \/\u00a0Composers<\/a><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Return to:\u00a0Home \/\u00a0Exclusive Interviews & Profiles \/\u00a0Composers . With the 2007 publication of his autobiography,\u00a0Mission Impossible: My Life in Music, by Scarecrow Press, Lalo Schifrin has involved himself in another discipline \u2013 book writing \u2013 although this should hardly come as a surprise to jazz and film music fans well acquainted with his fascination for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[26,22,51,4212],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-ee","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=882"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1983,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882\/revisions\/1983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}