27/06/2025
Lalo Schifrin's first score was Les Felins / Joy House (1964), and even if you've never seen this drama with a mordant finale, the score makes it immediately clear he was a natural for film scoring. It's a perfect work that shows his instincts - composing for characters, environments, visual camera movements and edits, and subtext.
His film c.v. is massive; his jazz c.v. extraordinary. I read a fantastic book-length Q&A he did with a French journalist where he reflected on his entire career in French, because he played jazz at night after studying in the daytime whilst in Paris, and was fluent in French. (The interview is in French, but is very accessible for those with waning French skills.)
He was a musicologist; he composed for concerts; he also wrote a brisk & enjoyable autobiography which also recounted his unnerving meeting with gov't officials to gain permission to leave Argentina for studies in Europe during a very dangerous political period.
He was available for interviews when his autobio was published round 2008, and he scored his son's horror feature Abominable - basically Rear Window in a winter cabin, and a snow monster mauling people outside. It was a short Q&A, but it was a delight to talk with a witty, soft-speaking giant (https://www.kqek.com/exclusives/Exclusives_Schifrin_1.htm).
Everyone has their favourite Lalo Schifrin theme or score, but two personal favs are Les Felins (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-j4-42uJwI...) which has that bassline so typical of his film work, especially Dirty Harry.
Number two is Che! (1969). It's a perfect example of a composer inspired by the elements of a story in spite of a film being a mess, if not a outright dud. Schifrin used his musicological brain to craft a massive orchestral score that's part jazz, part classical film scoring, and a huge ensemble of South American percussionists. It's one of those scores where you wish specific cues would go one for a half hour, and let the musicians just improvise the hell out of a theme.
"La Ruta" is just over 2 mins. long, but halfway through, the orchestra recedes and lets the pianist and flautist groove for several precious bars. It kills me when there's a fadeout, and I always wish there was a master recording or an outtake where the solos went on for a mile.
You can be sad this genius has passed away , but you can be delighted by an enormous body of work that spans a good 60+ years. Most of the films he scored are on video; many scores he released via his own label Aleph; and his discography of scores and jazz works are largely available.
