Is there anyone in this vast country that doesn’t have the infectious theme of the classic tv show Mission: Impossible imbedded into their psyche? Composer/musician Lalo Schifrin, best known for creating a soundtrack for Baby Boomers with themes such as Mannix, Dirty Harry, Bullitt and the famed scene with the burning fuse, has also had an equally successful career as a jazz musician, touring and recording with Dizzy Gillespie in the early sixties. At this stage in his career, he’s successfully combining the best of both worlds, coalescing classical and jazz with an orchestra and trumpet/trombone master James Morrison on a fascinating release, Invocations: Jazz Meets the Symphony #7.
We recently caught up with Mr.Schifrin, who spent the time looking both back and forward concerning his musical career.
ON HIS INITIAL INTRODUCTION TO JAZZ
I grew up playing classical music in my hometown of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The transition to jazz was not difficult, as I still do classical music. I discovered modern American jazz, because some of my classmates would bring me records of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, George Shearing and Oscar Peterson. I became converted, like a religion. After, I started on my own; you cannot study jazz with a teacher. Maybe you can now, but in my day, I couldn’t. So, I taught myself. Since I already knew music, I copied from recordings as that was the only way I could learn it.
HOW HE MET DIZZY GILLESPIE, AND GOT IN HIS CLASSIC 60’S BAND
I got a scholarship to study in Paris, France, in 1952. I went to Paris, and I went to the Paris Conservatory for four years. Then, I went back to Argentina. I hadn’t seen my family for four years, so I wanted to visit them. The coincidence was that I arrived in Buenos Aires in March of 1956, and in September of that year, Dizzy Gillespie came with a Big Band from the State Department. I met Quincy Jones there. The band was amazing, one of the greatest bands ever. I had a band myself; when I arrived in Argentina, they offered me to have a band for television and radio, as well as doing concerts. My personality become more towards jazz. My parents accepted my position in jazz; in fact, he copied my charts. He did the copying for each musicians’ scores. He had a good handwriting.
So, they asked me, “Would you like to have your band play for a reception that we’re having for Dizzy, the band and his wife?” I wanted to do it, but I had to ask my musicians first, as we weren’t going to get paid for it. They said, “Yeah! Let’s go!” So, we went.
I conducted from the piano, and Dizzy was listening to me play the piano. I didn’t know that this was an audition! Dizzy came up to me afterward and asked me, “Who wrote these charts?” I told him that I did.’ He asked me, “Would you like to come to the United States?” I thought he was joking, and now I’m here!” We weren’t doing any South American music for him. The reason that he liked me was the way I played jazz.
He told me to come to New York. We didn’t have a contract or anything. He gave me his telephone number, and said, “Call me when you arrive.” When I arrived, I called him, but he was travelling all of the time, and instead of giving me the telephone number of his agent (where I could have easily contacted him), he gave me the phone number of his house, and he was never there! So, I gave up. I didn’t have any money, so I had to take other types of gigs, including writing arrangements for Xavier Cugat! I didn’t give up, and I started to travel with Cugat as well. After one of those trips, I found out that Dizzy was playing in a club in NYC, so I went. He looked at me, and said, “Lalo! I heard you were in town! Why didn’t you call me?” (laughs) He told me to write something for him. So, in that weekend, I wrote the “Gillispiana Suite.” Just like that.
I went to his house and played it for him. He loved it, and he asked me how I’d like to orchestrate it. I told him, “Four trumpets, four trombones, but instead of saxophones , I want to put in four French horns and one tuba, along with a core rhythm section of piano, bass and drums. He called Norman Granz, and with him on the phone, he asked me how long would all of this take to do. I said, “Maybe three or four weeks.” So, he went back to the phone and told Granz, “One month from now, book a studio, and we’re going to record this thing. Book it for two nights.” And that was it. And not only that, he had another pianist, so I thought that I was going to conduct and do the arrangements. But, during my writing one night, he called me and said, “I have bad news. My pianist is leaving me.” It was a famous piano player, Junior Mance. I asked him, “What are you going to do now? You must have other pianists.” He said, “Well, I was thinking of you!” I couldn’t believe it; not only was I doing the composition for him, but also playing the piano on the record, which I did.
Not only that, but the crème of the crop of the New York musicians were there. One of the French horn players was Gunther Schuller. He brought John Lewis, because they wanted to publish the piece, which they did, on MJQ Music. Clark Terry, Urbie Green and JJ Johnson were all in the band. I was in heaven. I couldn’t believe it.
Dizzy didn’t have tour with a big band, for financial reasons. He was touring with a group. Sometimes, he would put a small band together for different occasions. In Europe, he took a band from England, and we went to Sweden, Denmark, England, France. Because of the easier travel with the band, we did it. I learned a lot from Dizzy. He had a different concept of harmony. He taught me how to accompany. My important things that I didn’t think of before.
HIS TRANSITION INTO SOUNDTRACKS AND HIS MOST FAMOUS THEME:
I stayed with Dizzy for five years, and then I came to Hollywood for movies and television. That’s where I started. For Mission: Impossible, the producer, Bruce Geller, was a good friend of mine. He produced Mannix and Mission Impossible, and I did a few movies with him. He told me, “Why don’t you do something that will get the attention of people, because it should a signature of the show, it should be very exciting.” So, I came up with an idea.
Once, somebody asked me, it was in Austria. It was a press conference, and a man asked me, “Why did you write ‘Mission: Impossible’ in 5/4?” I didn’t know what to say. It just came to me, so I said very seriously to him (but as a joke), “Well, you know about the nuclear experiments with the atomic bomb, they made these experiments in New Mexico in the United States. Because of this, some of the people there started to become mutants, and even got 5 legs. When they went to a disco, they couldn’t dance, because they had 5 legs, so I wrote it for them. Here in Austria, you have the waltz, which is in ¾ and is for people with 3 legs.”
When I came back to America, my agent from Europe, a German guy, called me. He said, “What were you doing there?!? What you said in Austria was published in the most important classical magazine in Vienna. The lady who was the reporter for that magazine thought you were serious, and she put it down exactly the way that you said it.”
HOW HE MET HIS ARTISTIC COMPATRIOT, JAMES MORRISON, WHO’S ALWAYS FEATURED ON HIS RELEASES, SUCH AS HIS MOST RECENT RECORDING, INVOCATION
James Morrison is my compatriot. In fact he’s in town right now, and is staying with me. He’s great. He interprets better than most other people. I am the one who selects the songs, so I’m not going to be intimidated by them.
He was playing in The Hague, Holland, Jazz Festival. I was playing there too. Ray Brown was his bass player, and he introduced us, and that was it.
HIS REASON FOR MIXING THE TWO GENRE’S OF CLASSICAL AND JAZZ
I thought of the times I used to go into record stores, as they’re all disappearing now. When I used to go to them, there would be sections for jazz and sections for classical, I would think, Why? Why do they have to be so separated? Why not combine it? They’re both good music to me.
ANY FUTURE PLANS TO PERFORM THIS MATERIAL
Kenny Burrell has his birthday coming up, and he’s the musical director for UCLA. It’s going to be a big tribute, and he’s asked me to play.
Any chance to see Lalo Schifrin in concert is a privilege. Whether leading a big band or small combo, performing his own jazz compositions, Gillespie tunes or soundtracks from film and tv, he has the rare quality of making music that connects with the audience, but also takes them to a higher musical and artistic plane, something rare in this day of disposable sounds. Your mission, should you decide to accept, is to enjoy Schifrin’s music on as many levels as possible. Good luck.