Background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
Birth name	John Birks Gillespie
Born	October 21, 1917Cheraw, South Carolina, U.S.
Died	January 06, 1993Englewood, New Jersey, U.S.
Instrument	Trumpet, piano, trombone
Genre	BebopAfro-Cuban jazz
Occupation	Trumpeter, bandleader, singer, composer
Years active	1935–1993
Associated acts	Charlie ParkerCab CallowayBud Powell
Label	Pablo Records, Verve Records, Savoy Records, RCA Victor Records, Milan Records, Douglas Records }}

John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".

Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz. He taught and influenced many other musicians, including trumpeters Miles Davis, Fats Navarro, Clifford Brown, Arturo Sandoval, Lee Morgan, Jon Faddis and Chuck Mangione.

Allmusic's Scott Yanow wrote that "Dizzy Gillespie's contributions to jazz were huge. One of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time (some would say the best), Gillespie was such a complex player that his contemporaries ended up copying Miles Davis and Fats Navarro instead, and it was not until Jon Faddis's emergence in the 1970s that Dizzy's style was successfully recreated . . . Arguably Gillespie is remembered, by both critics and fans alike, as one of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time."

In addition to featuring in the epochal moments in bebop, he was instrumental in founding Afro-Cuban jazz, the modern jazz version of what early-jazz pioneer Jelly Roll Morton referred to as the "Spanish Tinge". Gillespie was a trumpet virtuoso and gifted improviser, building on the virtuoso style of Roy Eldridge but adding layers of harmonic complexity previously unknown in jazz. Dizzy's beret and horn-rimmed spectacles, his scat singing, his bent horn, pouched cheeks and his light-hearted personality were essential in popularizing bebop.

Biography

Early life and career

He was born in Cheraw, South Carolina, the youngest of nine children born to James and Lottie Gillespie. James was a local bandleader, so instruments were made available to Dizzy. He started to play the piano at the age of four. Dizzy's father died when the boy was only ten years old. Dizzy taught himself how to play the trombone as well as the trumpet by the age of twelve. From the night he heard his idol, Roy Eldridge, play on the radio, he dreamed of becoming a jazz musician. He received a music scholarship to the Laurinburg Institute in Laurinburg, North Carolina He attended for two years before accompanying his family when they moved to Philadelphia.

Dizzy's first professional job was with the Frank Fairfax Orchestra in 1935, after which he joined the respective orchestras of Edgar Hayes and Teddy Hill, essentially replacing Roy Eldridge as first trumpet in 1937. Teddy Hill’s band was where Dizzy Gillespie made his first recording, ''King Porter Stomp''. At this time Dizzy met a young woman named Lorraine from the Apollo Theatre, whom he married in 1940. They remained married until his death in 1993. Dizzy stayed with Teddy Hill’s band for a year, then left and free-lanced with numerous other bands. In 1939, Dizzy joined Cab Calloway's orchestra, with which he recorded one of his earliest compositions, the instrumental ''Pickin' the Cabbage'', in 1940. (Originally released on ''Paradiddle'', a 78rpm backed with a co-composition with Cozy Cole, Calloway's drummer at the time, on the Vocalion label, #5467).

Dizzy was fired by Calloway in late 1941, after a notorious altercation between the two. The incident is recounted by Dizzy, along with fellow Calloway band members Milt Hinton and Jonah Jones, in Jean Bach's 1997 film, The Spitball Story. Calloway did not approve of Dizzy's mischievous humor, nor of his adventuresome approach to soloing; according to Jones, Calloway referred to it as “Chinese music.” During one performance, Calloway saw a spitball land on the stage, and accused Dizzy of having thrown it. Dizzy denied it, and the ensuing argument led to Calloway striking Dizzy, who then pulled out a switchblade knife and charged Calloway. The two were separated by other band members, during which scuffle Calloway was cut on the hand.

During his time in Calloway's band, Dizzy Gillespie started writing big band music for bandleaders like Woody Herman and Jimmy Dorsey. He then freelanced with a few bands - most notably Ella Fitzgerald's orchestra, composed of members of the late Chick Webb's band, in 1942.

In 1943, Dizzy joined the Earl Hines orchestra. The legendary big band of Billy Eckstine gave his unusual harmonies a better setting and it was as a member of Eckstine's band that he was reunited with Parker, a fellow member of Hines's more conventional band. In 1945, Dizzy left Eckstine's band because he wanted to play with a small combo. A "small combo" typically comprised no more than five musicians, playing the trumpet, saxophone, piano, bass and drums.He was a world renowned figure and was a major influence on modern day jazz.

The rise of bebop

Bebop was known as the first modern jazz style. However, it was unpopular in the beginning and was not viewed as positively as swing music was. Bebop was seen as an outgrowth of swing, not a revolution. Swing introduced a diversity of new musicians in the bebop era like Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Kenny Clarke, Oscar Pettiford, and Gillespie. Through these musicians, a new vocabulary of musical phrases was created. With Charlie Parker, Gillespie jammed at famous jazz clubs like Minton's Playhouse and Monroe's Uptown House, where the first seeds of bebop were planted. Charlie Parker's system also held methods of adding chords to existing chord progressions and implying additional chords within the improvised lines.

Gillespie compositions like "Groovin' High", "Woody n' You" and "Salt Peanuts" sounded radically different, harmonically and rhythmically, from the swing music popular at the time. "A Night in Tunisia", written in 1942, while Gillespie was playing with Earl Hines' band, is noted for having a feature that is common in today's music, a non-walking bass line. The song also displays Afro-Cuban rhythms. One of their first (and greatest) small-group performances together was only issued in 2005: a concert in New York's Town Hall on June 22, 1945. Gillespie taught many of the young musicians on 52nd Street, including Miles Davis and Max Roach about the new style of jazz. After a lengthy gig at Billy Berg's club in Los Angeles, which left most of the audience ambivalent or hostile towards the new music, the band broke up. Unlike Parker, who was content to play in small groups and be an occasional featured soloist in big bands, Gillespie aimed to lead a big band himself; his first, unsuccessful, attempt to do this was in 1945.

After his work with Parker, Gillespie led other small combos (including ones with Milt Jackson, John Coltrane, Lalo Schifrin, Ray Brown, Kenny Clarke, James Moody, J.J. Johnson, and Yusef Lateef) and finally put together his first successful big band. Dizzy Gillespie and his band tried to popularize bop and make Dizzy Gillespie a symbol of the new music. He also appeared frequently as a soloist with Norman Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic. He also headlined the 1946 independently-produced musical revue film ''Jivin' in Be-Bop''.

In 1948 Dizzy was involved in a traffic accident when the bicycle he was riding was bumped by an automobile. He was slightly injured, and found that he could no longer hit the B-flat above high C. He won the case, but the jury awarded him only $1000, in view of his high earnings up to that point.

In 1956 he organized a band to go on a State Department tour of the Middle East and earned the nickname "the Ambassador of Jazz". During this time, he also continued to lead a big band that performed throughout the United States and featured musicians including Pee Wee Moore and others. This band recorded a live album at the 1957 Newport jazz festival that featured Mary Lou Williams as a guest artist on piano.

Afro-Cuban music

In the late 1940s, Gillespie was also involved in the movement called Afro-Cuban music, bringing Afro-Latin American music and elements to greater prominence in jazz and even pop music, particularly salsa. Afro-Cuban jazz is based on traditional Afro-Cuban rhythms. Dizzy Gillespie was introduced to Chano Pozo in 1947 by Mario Bauza, a Latin jazz trumpet player. Chano Pozo became Gillespie's conga drummer for his band. Dizzy Gilespie also worked with Mario Bauza in New York jazz clubs on 52nd street and several famous dance clubs such as Palladium and the Apollo Theater in Harlem. They played together in the Chick Webb band and Cab Calloway's band, where Gillespie and Bauza became life-long friends. Dizzy helped develop and mature the Afro-Cuban jazz style.

Afro-Cuban jazz was considered bebop-oriented, and some musicians classified it as a modern style. Afro-Cuban jazz was successful because it never decreased in popularity and it always attracted people to dance to its unique rhythms. Gillespie's most famous contributions to Afro-Cuban music are the compositions "Manteca" and "Tin Tin Deo" (both co-written with Chano Pozo); he was responsible for commissioning George Russell's "Cubano Be, Cubano Bop", which featured the great but ill-fated Cuban conga player, Chano Pozo. In 1977, Gillespie discovered Arturo Sandoval while researching music during a tour of Cuba.

Later years

His biographer Alyn Shipton quotes Don Waterhouse approvingly that Dizzy in the fifties "had begun to mellow into an amalgam of his entire jazz experience to form the basis of new classicism". Another opinion is that, unlike his contemporary Miles Davis, Gillespie essentially remained true to the bebop style for the rest of his career.

In 1960, he was inducted into the ''Down Beat'' magazine's Jazz Hall of Fame.

During the 1964 United States presidential campaign the artist, with tongue in cheek, put himself forward as an independent write-in candidate. He promised that if he were elected, the White House would be renamed "The Blues House," and a cabinet composed of Duke Ellington (Secretary of State), Miles Davis, (Director of the CIA), Max Roach (Secretary of Defense), Charles Mingus (Secretary of Peace), Ray Charles (Librarian of Congress), Louis Armstrong (Secretary of Agriculture), Mary Lou Williams (Ambassador to the Vatican), Thelonious Monk (Travelling Ambassador) and Malcolm X (Attorney General). He said his running mate would be Phyllis Diller. Campaign buttons had been manufactured years ago by Gillespie's booking agency "for publicity, as a gag", but now proceeds from them went to benefit the Congress of Racial Equality, Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Martin Luther King, Jr.; in later years they became a collector's item. In 1971 Gillespie announced he would run again but withdrew before the election for reasons connected to the Baha'i faith.

Gillespie published his autobiography, ''To Be or Not to Bop'', in 1979.

Gillespie was a vocal fixture in many of John Hubley and Faith Hubley's animated films, such as ''The Hole'', ''The Hat'', and ''Voyage to Next''.

In the 1980s, Dizzy Gillespie led the United Nation Orchestra. For three years Flora Purim toured with the Orchestra and she credits Gillespie with evolving her understanding of jazz after being in the field for over two decades. David Sánchez also toured with the group and was also greatly influenced by Gillespie. Both artists later were nominated for Grammy awards. Gillespie also had a guest appearance on ''The Cosby Show'' as well as ''Sesame Street'' and ''The Muppet Show''.

In 1982, Dizzy Gillespie had a cameo appearance on Stevie Wonder's hit "Do I Do". Gillespie's tone gradually faded in the last years in life, and his performances often focused more on his proteges such as Arturo Sandoval and Jon Faddis; his good-humoured comedic routines became more and more a part of his live act.

In 1988, Gillespie had worked with Canadian flautist and saxophonist Moe Koffman on their prestigious album ''Oo Pop a Da.'' He did fast scat vocals on the title track and a couple of the other tracks were played only on trumpet.

In 1989 Gillespie gave 300 performances in 27 countries, appeared in 100 U.S. cities in 31 states and the District of Columbia, headlined three television specials, performed with two symphonies, and recorded four albums. He was also crowned a traditional chief in Nigeria, received the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres; France's most prestigious cultural award. He was named Regent Professor by the University of California, and received his fourteenth honorary doctoral degree, this one from the Berklee College of Music. In addition, he was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award the same year. The next year, at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts ceremonies celebrating the centennial of American jazz, Gillespie received the Kennedy Center Honors Award and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers ''Duke Ellington Award'' for 50 years of achievement as a composer, performer, and bandleader. In 1993 he received the Polar Music Prize in Sweden.

November 26, 1992 at Carnegie Hall in New York, following the Second Bahá'í World Congress was Dizzy's 75th birthday concert and his offering to the celebration of the centenary of the passing of Bahá'u'lláh. Gillespie was to appear at Carnegie Hall for the 33rd time. The line-up included: Jon Faddis, Marvin "Doc" Holladay, James Moody, Paquito D'Rivera, and the Mike Longo Trio with Ben Brown on bass and Mickey Roker on drums. But Gillespie didn't make it because he was in bed suffering from cancer of the pancreas. "But the musicians played their real hearts out for him, no doubt suspecting that he would not play again. Each musician gave tribute to their friend, this great soul and innovator in the world of jazz."

Gillespie also starred in a film called ''The Winter in Lisbon'' released in 2004. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7057 Hollywood Boulevard in the Hollywood section of the City of Los Angeles. He is honored by the December 31, 2006 - A Jazz New Year's Eve: Freddy Cole & the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Death and legacy

A longtime resident of Englewood, NJ, he died of pancreatic cancer January 6, 1993, aged 75, and was buried in the Flushing Cemetery, Queens, New York. Mike Longo delivered a eulogy at his funeral. He was also with Gillespie on the night he died, along with Jon Faddis and a select few others.

At the time of his death, Dizzy Gillespie was survived by his widow, Lorraine Willis Gillespie; a daughter, jazz singer Jeanie Bryson; and a grandson, Radji Birks Bryson-Barrett. Gillespie had two funerals. One was a Bahá'í funeral at his request, at which his closest friends and colleagues attended. The second was at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York open to the public.

Dizzy Gillespie, a Bahá'í since 1970, was one of the most famous adherents of the Bahá'í Faith which helped him make sense of his position in a succession of trumpeters as well as turning his life from knife-carrying roughneck to global citizen, and from alcohol to ''soul force'', in the words of author Nat Hentoff, who knew Gillespie for forty years. He spoke about the Baha'i Faith frequently on his trips abroad. He is often called the ''Bahá'í Jazz Ambassador''. He is honored with weekly jazz sessions at the New York Bahá'í Center.

Style

Gillespie has been described as the "Sound of Surprise". ''The Rough Guide to Jazz'' describes his musical style:

In Dizzy's obituary, Peter Watrous describes his performance style:

Wynton Marsalis summed up Gillespie as a player and teacher:

"Bent" trumpet

Gillespie's trademark trumpet featured a bell which bent upward at a 45-degree angle rather than pointing straight ahead as in the conventional design. In honor of this trademark, the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History has collected Gillespie's B-flat trumpet. According to Gillespie's autobiography, this was originally the result of accidental damage caused by someone sitting on it during a job on January 6, 1953, but the constriction caused by the bending altered the tone of the instrument, and Gillespie liked the effect. Gillespie's biographer Alyn Shipton writes that Gillespie likely got the idea when he saw a similar instrument in 1937 in Manchester, England while on tour with the Teddy Hill Orchestra. An English trumpeter was using such an instrument because his vision was poor and the horn made reading music easier. According to this account (from British journalist Pat Brand) Gillespie was able to try out the horn and the experience led him, much later, to commission a similar horn for himself.

Whatever the origins of Gillespie's upswept trumpet, by June, 1954, Gillespie was using a professionally manufactured horn of this design, and it was to become a visual trademark for him for the rest of his life.

Discography

1937-49 ''The Complete RCA Victor Recordings''

1941: ''The Immortal Charlie Christian'' (with Christian, Thelonious Monk, Delta Music re-released on Laserlight cassette)

1950: ''Bird & Diz''

1952: ''Dee Gee Days - The Savoy Sessions''

1953: ''Jazz at Massey Hall''

1953: ''Diz & Getz'' (with Stan Getz, Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown, Max Roach, Herb Ellis)

1954: ''Afro''

1956: ''Modern Jazz Sextet''

1957: ''Sittin' In'' (with Stan Getz, Coleman Hawkins)

1957: ''Dizzy Gillespie at Newport''

1957: ''Sonny Side Up'' (with Sonny Rollins, Sonny Stitt)

1957: ''Dizzy in Greece''

1958: ''Birks' Works'' (Dizzy Gillespie Big Band)

1959: ''Have Trumpet, Will Excite!''

1959: ''The Ebullient Mr. Gillespie''

1960: ''A Portrait of Duke Ellington''

1960/1961: ''Gillespiana/Carnegie Hall Conert'' (Verve Records)

1961: ''An Electrifying Evening with the Dizzy Gillespie Quintet''

1961: ''Perceptions'' (Verve Records) (written by J.J. Johnson, conducted by Gunther Schuller)

1962: ''Dizzy on the French Riviera'' (Philips Records)

1963: ''New Wave'' (Philips Records) (with Lalo Schifrin, Bola Sete)

1963: ''Something Old, Something New''

1963: ''Dizzy Gillespie and the Double Six of Paris''

1964: ''Jambo Caribe'' (Limelight Records)

1965: ''The New Continent'' (Limelight)

1964: ''The Melody Lingers On'' (Limelight)

1967: ''Swing Low, Sweet Cadillac'' (Impulse!)

1968: ''Live at the Village Vanguard'' (produced by Sonny Lester

1968: ''Reunion Big Band In Berlin'' (MPS Records)

1969: ''Strictly Bebop'' (with Babs Gonzalez, Tad Dameron, Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, John Coltrane), rec. 1949 EMI Capitol

1969: ''Real Thing'' (Perception Records)

1970: ''Portrait of Jenny'' (Perception)

1971: ''Giants'' (Perception, with Bobby Hackett)

1971: ''Dizzy Gillespie and the Mitchell Ruff Duo In Concert'' (Mainstream Records)

1974: ''Oscar Peterson and Dizzy Gillespie''

1975: ''Afro-Cuban Jazz Moods'' (with Machito, Chico O'Farrill, Mario Bauza)

1975: ''Jazz Maturity...Where It's Coming From''

1975: ''Oscar Peterson and The Trumpet Kings - Jousts''

1975: ''The Trumpet Kings at Montreux '75''

1976: ''Dizzy's Party''

1977: ''The Gifted Ones'' (with Count Basie)

1977: ''Free Ride''

1981: ''Digital at Montreux, 1980'' (Toots Thielemans, Bernard Purdie)

1985: ''New Faces'' (with Robert Ameen, Branford Marsalis, Kenny Kirkland, Lonnie Plaxico, Charlie Christian)

1988: ''Oop Pop a Da'' (with Moe Koffman)

1989: ''Live at the Royal Festival Hall London July 10, 1989''

1989: ''The Symphony Sessions'' (with Ron Holloway, Ed Cherry, John Lee, Ignacio Berroa)

1990: ''The Winter in Lisbon''

1990: ''Rhythmstick'' (CTI Records)

1991: ''Live! at Blues Alley'' (with Ron Holloway, Ed Cherry, John Lee, Ignacio Berroa)

1992: ''Groovin' High''

1992: ''To Bird With Love''

1995: ''In Paris v.2'' Vogue RCA 1995

2000: ''Dizzy For President'' Douglas Records

Filmography

1983 ''Jazz in America'' (Embassy)

1986 ''In Redondo Beach/Jazz In America'' ( Embassy)

1991 ''Dizzy Gillespie: A Night in Tunisia'' (VIEW)

1993 ''Live in London'' (Kultur Video)

1998 ''Dizzy Gillespie & Charles Mingus'' (Vidjazz)

1998 ''Dizzy Gillespie: Ages'' (Vidjazz)

1999 ''Jazz Casual: Dizzy Gillespie'' (Rhino)

2001 ''Jivin'in Be-Bop'' (Jazz Classic Video)

2001 ''Dizzy Gillespie: A Night in Chicago'' (VIEW)

2001 ''Live at the Royal Festival Hall 1987'' (Pioneer)

2002 ''Live in Montreal'' (Image)

2003 ''20th Century Jazz Masters''

2003 ''Swing Era (with Mel Torme)'' (Idem)

2005 ''Norman Granz Jazz in Montreux: Presents Dizzy Gillespie Sextet '77'' (Eagle Vision USA)

2005 ''Summer Jazz Live at New Jersey 1987'' (FS World Jazz / Alpha Centauri Entertainment)

2005 ''A Night in Havana: Dizzy Gillespie in Cuba'' (New Video Group)

2006 ''Jazz Icons: Live in '58 & '70'' (Universal)

2008 ''London Concerts 1965 & 1966'' (Impro-Jazz Spain)

Bibliography

''To Be, or Not...to Bop''. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009.

References

External links

The Dizzy Gillespie All-Stars

Dizzy Gillespie's "The Cult of Bebop"

Dizzy Gillespie Talking to Les Tomkins in 1973

Dizzy Gillespie Mulitmedia Directory - Kerouac Alley

Dizzy Gillespie Concerts & Interviews on NPR Music

Category:1917 births Category:1993 deaths Category:People from Cheraw, South Carolina Category:African American musicians Category:American Bahá'ís Category:American jazz bandleaders Category:American jazz composers Category:American jazz trumpeters Category:American memoirists Category:Bebop trumpeters Category:Burials at Flushing Cemetery Category:Cancer deaths in New Jersey Category:Capitol Records artists Category:Cuban jazz (genre) bandleaders Category:Cuban jazz (genre) composers Category:Cuban jazz (genre) trumpeters Category:Deaths from pancreatic cancer Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Latin jazz bandleaders Category:Latin jazz composers Category:Latin jazz trumpeters Category:Musicians from Pennsylvania Category:Musicians from South Carolina Category:People from Bergen County, New Jersey Category:People from Corona, Queens Category:RCA Victor artists Category:Savoy Records artists Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients Category:Verve Records artists Category:Prestige Records artists Category:Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Category:Converts to the Bahá'í Faith Category:20th-century Bahá'ís Category:Manor Records artists

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name	Lalo Schifrin
background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
birth name	Boris Claudio Schifrin
born	June 21, 1932
origin	Buenos Aires, Argentina
instrument	Piano
genre	Spy musicJazzBebopRock
occupation	Pianist, Composer, Conductor
notable instruments	}}

Lalo Schifrin (born June 21, 1932) 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.

Biography

Schifrin was born Boris Claudio Schifrin in Buenos Aires to Jewish parents. His father, Luis Schifrin, led the second violin section of the orchestra at the Teatro Colón for three decades. 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. 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 (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!''. Schifrin moved to Hollywood late that year. He also radically re-arranged the theme song 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.

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 the one of the most unpleasant experiences in his life.

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.

In 1997, the composer founded Aleph Records.

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.

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.

Discography

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)

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)

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''

Television themes and scores

1964: ''The Man from U.N.C.L.E.''

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''

References

External links

Lalo Schifrin's official website

Cinema Retro attends Lalo Schifrin's London concert

Aleph Records Discography - record label operated by Schifrin

Two Interviews with Lalo Schifrin by Bruce Duffie (June 23, 1988, and October 9, 2003)

On Music and Cinema An Interview with Lalo Schifrin by Jaime Perales Contreras May 2011 (In Spanish).

Category:1932 births Category:Living people Category:Argentine composers Category:Argentine film score composers Category:Argentine Jews Category:Argentine music arrangers Category:Argentine expatriates in the United States Category:Bebop composers Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Latin Grammy Award winners Category:Jewish classical musicians Category:Jewish composers and songwriters Category:Mission: Impossible music Category:People from Buenos Aires Category:Television composers Category:Dot Records artists Category:Palo Alto Records artists Category:Verve Records artists

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