Lalo Schifrin

Jazz & Bossa Nova 1955-1962

By Olivier Julien

Claudio Schifrin, known as Lalo Schifrin, was born in Buenos Aires on June 21, 1932, into a family of musicians. His father, Luis Schifrin, who was Jewish, was the first violinist and conductor of the Buenos Aires Opera Philharmonic Orchestra at the Teatro Colón for thirty years. His mother, who was Catholic, was the only one in her family who didn’t play an instrument. Lalo Schifrin was one of the children from a remarriage. He began his musical education very early, studying piano from the age of six, notably with Enrique Barenboim (father of pianist Daniel Barenboim), who was very strict. His father’s profession allowed him to attend many performances, including several operas; he was also interested in tango and film scores, which he would go to see multiple times at the cinema. “Classical music was everywhere. From a young age, I saw great musicians. In fact, Ernest Ansermet often came to Buenos Aires. My father adored him. European musicians liked to come to South America in winter because it’s summer here.”

He was immersed in French culture very early on thanks to the education he received at the Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires during his adolescence. He then discovered a passion for jazz, a type of music that was forbidden in Juan Perón’s Argentina. “I discovered it thanks to a disc jockey who produced a regular radio show. He also organized gatherings at his house where people would bring records to listen to. Musicians would come to these sessions. I discovered everyone, the big bands of Basie, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke... And pianists like Fats Waller. Then, when I heard ‘Be-Bop,’ Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Ray Brown, Max Roach, Thelonious Monk, J.J. Johnson, Miles Davis, Milt Jackson, I immediately understood that this was the music I wanted to play. It was absolutely incredible.” Records were smuggled goods. “It wasn’t easy to get records in our country. Perón forbade all imports. I knew an officer who traveled a lot and loved jazz. He would bring us catalogs. We would order records from him, but we had to pay in advance and wait over a month. It was very long. That’s how I was able to buy records by Dizzy, George Shearing, Basie, Monk, etc., and build a beautiful collection. It was risky... I remember that even in the middle of summer, I would go out with a big coat. People wondered why I was wearing it because it was so hot! I hid the records under this coat so as not to be discovered.” Lalo Schifrin took piano lessons from Andreas Karalis, a former director of the Kyiv Conservatory, while also taking private composition lessons with Juan Carlos Paz. During his adolescence, one film particularly impacted him: “It was Robert Florey’s The Beast with Five Fingers: the severed hand of the pianist playing alone on the keyboard truly shocked me! I then realized the power and very important role of music in films.”

After starting studies in sociology and law, his passion for music ultimately drew him back. “I was completely lost. But one day, the Austrian pianist Friedrich Gulda came to Buenos Aires. We knew he was also a jazz pianist in his spare time. After his concert, he showed up in our hall. We played a four-hand piece together. He then looked at me and stared into my eyes in a way I will never forget. It was at that precise moment that I decided to become a jazz musician. The doubt was definitely gone, thanks to him. I owe him a lot.” His first two arrangements were for an album called All Stars Argentinos released in 1951 (TK S-5050) in Argentina, and he played piano for the same group on a 1952 record (Odéon 55533). He then successfully passed the entrance exam for the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris at the French consulate in Buenos Aires. Having secured a scholarship, he was then able, with the authorization of the secret police, to continue his training in France, arriving in Paris in 1952. There, he was mentored by Charles Koechlin and studied notably with Olivier Messiaen. At night, he performed with jazz orchestras in places like Le Club Saint Germain and became familiar with Cuban rhythms, which were popular in Paris at the time. He gradually incorporated them into his jazz style and also drew inspiration from Olivier Messiaen’s music, listening to his improvisations on Sunday mornings on the organs of the Église de la Trinité. “The beginnings were difficult. I was staying in the Argentine pavilion, and it was horrible: bad food, everything was old. So I moved to the Hôtel du Grand Balcon and there I met the saxophonist Bobby Jaspar. I was juggling several lives: studying with Olivier Messiaen during the day and being a jazz musician in the clubs at night. I wasn’t allowed to work because I only had a student visa. Messiaen didn’t like jazz. I was hired by Eddie Barclay. This allowed me to play with the great bassist Pierre Michelot, the drummer Jean-Louis Viale, and all the French jazz musicians of the time. There was also a drummer named Mac Kac who was very good and funny. I often played with Bobby Jaspar, my hotel neighbor, a truly great musician.” A fervent cinephile, he frequented the Cinémathèque Française and developed a passion for French productions as well as Italian cinema. “European films, especially French ones like Pépé le Moko, Les Diaboliques, or Quai des Orfèvres, deeply impacted me. I was convinced, seeing all these great films, that one day I would compose music for cinema. It was already within me.”

He would attend classical and jazz concerts alone. “When I was in Paris, I would tell the jazz musicians to come listen to classical music concerts. No one would come with me. The same thing on the other side: I never saw a classical musician compromise themselves, in my company, by going to listen to Bud Powell or Sacha Distel... I can’t understand that mindset.” Lalo Schifrin then began his professional career in France as a jazz pianist. “As soon as I started playing jazz, I immediately understood that I had to work as hard as if I were playing classical music. In that sense, it’s really the same thing. On one hand, I played Bach, Debussy, Ravel, or Beethoven, and on the other, jazz. It always seemed obvious to me.” He then participated in an album with the orchestra of his compatriot Astor Piazzolla, and then it was his turn to record a Latin music album in 1955 for the Vogue record label: Rendez-vous dansant à Copacabana avec Lalo Schifrin, son piano et ses rythmes, featuring tracks like “Moulin Rouge,” “Les oignons,” “Fascination,” “Cabello rojo,” “Mon homme,” “Mambop,” “Pigalle,” and “Sérénade méditer­ra­néenne.” On this record, he played piano, accom­panied by Pierre Michelot on double bass, Jean-Louis Viale on drums, and Jack Del Rio on Latin percussion (33 rpm 25 cm Vogue LD 236). In 1955, Lalo Schifrin represented Argentina at the International Jazz Festival of Paris and participated in the recording of two albums labeled “100 % cha cha cha” as a second pianist for Eddie Warner (Odéon OS-1107 and Odéon OS-1120).

It was for “family and economic reasons” that after four years in Paris, Schifrin returned to Argentina. There, with fellow countryman Gato Barbieri among others, he founded his own jazz orchestra, Lalo Schifrin Y Su Orquesta, which performed on Argentine radio and television. In August 1956, they recorded a very rare 45-rpm disc (Columbia 20528). Lalo Schifrin also composed the music for the feature film El Jefe, which won the award for best film. The trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, having heard him play in Buenos Aires, invited him to the United States, but Schifrin had to wait two years before obtaining a visa and finally being able to travel to New York in September 1958. Once there, he had to wait another year before the rules of the American Federation of Musicians allowed him to be the pianist for Dizzy Gillespie’s quintet. Xavier Cugat’s orchestra then hired him as a substitute pianist and arranger. In 1957, he released his second album, Lalo Schifrin and his orchestra - Spectrum: “Red sails in the sunset,” “Azure,” “The moon was yellow,” “Ruby,” “Black beauty,” “When the wind was green,” “Brown prelude,” “White orchids,” “Blue is the night,” “Scarlet ribbons (for her hair),” “Purple pastel” (33 rpm 30 cm Epic LN-3337). In 1959, Piano Español was released, featuring: “Frenesi,” “The breeze and I,” “Capricho español,” “My shawl,” “Caravan,” “Malaguena,” “Cha cha cha flamenco,” “Warsaw concerto,” “Hulablues,” “Jungle fantasy,” “All the things you are,” “El cumbanchero” (33 rpm 30 cm Tico Records SLP 1070).

It was with Dizzy Gillespie that Lalo Schifrin was able to fully develop his art through compositions and arrangements for large ensembles. The first attempt was a masterpiece: Gillespiana, written in 1957 but recorded from November 14 to 16, 1960, was critically acclaimed and nominated for a Grammy Award. All the pieces were composed by Lalo Schifrin.

With his new album, Lalo = Brilliance (The Piano of Lalo Schifrin), featuring “The snake’s dance,” “An evening in Sao Paulo,” “Desafinado,” “Kush,” “Rhythm-a-ning,” “Mount Olive,” “Cubano be,” “Sphayros,” he increasingly moved towards South American rhythms. Lalo Schifrin was on piano, arrangements, and orchestral direction; Leo Wright on alto saxophone and flute; Jimmy Raney on guitar; Art Davis on double bass; Rudy Collins on drums; Willie Rodriguez on congas and bongos (33 rpm 30 cm Roulette R 52088). He then dedicated himself to a bossa nova album: Bossa Nova, New Brazilian Jazz—”Boato,” “Chora tua tristeza,” “Poema do adeus,” “Apito no samba,” “Chega de saudade,” “Bossa em Nova York,” “O Amor e a rosa,” “O menino desce O morro,” “Menina feia,” “Ouça,” “Samba de uma nota so,” “Patinho feio (ugly duckling)”—recorded with Leo Wright on alto saxophone and flute; Christopher White on double bass; Rudy Collins on drums; and Jose Paulo and Jack Del Rio on percussion (33 rpm 30 cm Audio Fidelity – AFSD 5981). Lalo Schifrin performed numerous concerts alongside Dizzy Gillespie, but, exhausted by touring, he stopped working for him at the end of 1962. “After two years, I had to leave Dizzy because I couldn’t keep up: the incessant tours with his quintet and my work as an arranger-composer-conductor. It was very hard to stop playing with him, but ultimately, I never really left him because we played together very frequently.” Schifrin then became an arranger for the Verve Records label and collaborated with Stan Getz, Count Basie, Sarah Vaughan, Smith, Luiz Bonfá, Cal Tjader, etc. He participated in Quincy Jones’s album Soul Bossa Nova (33 rpm 30 cm Mercury SR 60751), for which he wrote his own “Lalo’s Bossa Nova” and contributed to the title track. “Quincy hired me as the orchestra’s pianist, but I also did some arrangements for the session. That was back in 1962. It was the very beginning.”

Verve belongs to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and Arnold Maxim, a board member, loves one of his bossa nova albums. He then becomes an in-house composer. He first signs on to score the film Rhino! and settles in Hollywood at the end of 1963. Thanks to his proficiency in French, he is hired for the soundtrack of René Clément’s film Les Félins (Joy House), a Franco-American co-production starring Alain Delon and Jane Fonda, which marks a turning point in his career. According to Lalo Schifrin: “René Clément allowed me to unleash this potential, to combine symphonic music, jazz, and electronic music. If we compare my film career to a house, Joy House is its foundation.” He then records the album: Piano, Strings and Bossa Nova, which includes tracks such as “The Wave,” “Insensatez,” “You and Me” (Voce e eu), “Lalo’s Bossa Nova” (Samba para dos), “Silvia,” “Murmurio” (Murmur), “Maria,” “Rapaz de Bem,” “Samba no Perroquet” (Parrot Samba), “Rio After Dark,” “Time for Love,” and “I’m Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover.” Lalo Schifrin plays piano, writes the arrangements, and conducts the orchestra alongside Jim Hall on guitar; Chris White on bass; Rudy Collins on drums; Jose Paulo and Carmen Costa on Latin percussion, harp, and strings (33 rpm 30 cm MGM Records - SE 4110).

In 1966, Bruce Geller, a television series producer, screenwriter, and director, asks Lalo Schifrin to create the soundtrack for the series Mission: Impossible and compose a powerful opening theme; the theme would become famous worldwide. The following year, he creates the theme for the series Mannix, also for the same producer. He is nominated for an Oscar in 1966 for the soundtrack of Stuart Rosenberg’s film Cool Hand Luke. Lalo Schifrin also contributes to the success of Peter Yates’s 1968 film Bullitt by composing the music for the film starring Steve McQueen. “The film that remains very important to me is Bullitt, with the car chase scene through the streets of San Francisco where the symphony orchestra and saxophone solos blend at a very fast tempo.”

In the 1970s and 1980s, Schifrin composes the music for the Dirty Harry film series, starring Clint Eastwood. Since 1970, in France, an adaptation of Lalo Schifrin’s music for the film The Fox has been used in commercials for the Dim brand of hosiery. In 1971, he signs a rock opera, Rock Requiem, then in 1973, Bruce Lee, who trains daily to the music of Mission: Impossible, chooses Lalo Schifrin for the music of the film Enter the Dragon. The same year, his composition for the film The Exorcist is not selected by William Friedkin after test screenings with an audience who found it too stressful. Although he has been composing symphonies since the 1960s, it is primarily from the 1980s that he pursues a parallel career as a “classical” musician, both as a conductor and as a composer. He signs over sixty compositions, including: Invocations, Concerto for Double Bass, Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2, Pulsations, Resonances... He conducts or supervises several lyrical or classical concerts in Paris, London, Los Angeles, and Vienna. In 1988, he is honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. That same year, he meets Plácido Domingo when he composes the ethnomusicology album Cantos Aztecas, sung in the Aztec language, Nahuatl. The record is recorded during a concert given in front of the Pyramid of the Moon in Teotihuacan, Mexico. It is therefore natural that in 1990 in Rome, 1994 in Los Angeles, and 1998 in Paris, during the FIFA World Cups, Lalo Schifrin becomes the arranger for The Three Tenors concerts, bringing together Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, and Luciano Pavarotti. According to Schifrin, this work proves to be the most lucrative of his career. In 1992, he composes the tunes for the musical event Christmas in Vienna, performed by José Carreras, Plácido Domingo, and Diana Ross (the event is re-released in 1995 with Natalie Cole replacing Diana Ross). He then composes a concerto, premiered by the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, and performed by Mstislav Rostropovich. His music is now sampled by disc jockeys or by hip-hop and trip-hop artists such as Portishead. From 1994 onwards, Schifrin records seven orchestral jazz albums: Jazz Meets the Symphony. In 1996, he composes The Rhapsody for Bix, in homage to the “cursed” jazzman Bix Beiderbecke. With his wife, he creates the record label Aleph Records in 1997, which allows him to re-record and distribute some of his older compositions on CD. He then composes the music for Carlos Saura’s film Tango, which brings him back to his Argentine roots. In 1998, 2001, and 2007, the music for Brett Ratner’s Rush Hour trilogy gives him maximum exposure. In 2010, the tea brand Lipton, after testing other well-known music in several countries, creates a video advertisement that stages the creation of the Mission: Impossible musical theme by Lalo Schifrin in 1966. In France, he is made Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters in November 2016, while the Cinémathèque française dedicates a retrospective to him. In 2018, he creates a composition for mandolin and orchestra at the request of mandolinist Vincent Beer-Demander.

With his immediately recognizable piano touch, Lalo Schifrin is today one of Hollywood’s most important composers. He is responsible for a considerable number of film scores and television theme songs. Also, a jazz musician, he was one of Dizzy Gillespie’s privileged companions, for whom he wrote the famous Gillespiana in 1961. His work is imbued with the Argentine culture where he was born, the French culture where he lived, and the Hollywood works that cradled him and of which he would become a major player. He still plays the piano daily and has become a major reference for younger generations. “In the United States, I am now nicknamed the ‘Guru of World Music’ because current DJs, rappers, dancers, and all other musicians use my music. This flatters me enormously and reassures me a little. I tell myself that I’m not dead yet, nor that old, since young people like what I do and are inspired by it.”

Lalo Schifrin’s quotes are taken from a 2007 interview with Jean-Michel Reisser.

Olivier Julien

© Frémeaux & Associés 2025

INTÉGRALE LALO SCHIFRIN 1955-1962

CD1

Rendez-vous dansant à Copacabana avec Lalo Schifrin, son piano et ses rythmes

 1 - Moulin Rouge (Georges Auric / Jacques Larue)

 2 - Les oignons (Sidney Bechet)

 3 - Fascination (Fermo Dante Marchetti)

 4 - Cabello Rojo (Lalo Schifrin)

 5 - Mon Homme (Albert Willemetz / Jacques Charles / Maurice Yvain)

 6 - Mambop (Lalo Schifrin)

 7 - Pigalle (Georges Ulmer / Guy Luypaerts / Géo Koger)

 8 - Sérénade méditerranéenne (Alain Romans / Jacques Larue)

Lalo Schifrin : piano, arrangements et direction d’orchestre - Pierre Michelot : contrebasse - Jean-Louis Viale : batterie - Jack Del Rio : percussions latines.

33 tours 25 cm Vogue LD 236 - 1955

Spectrum

 9 - Red Sails in the Sunset (Hugh Williams, James Kennedy)

10 - Azure (Duke Ellington)

11 - The Moon Was Yellow (Edgar Leslie / Frederick Ahlert)

12 - Ruby (Mitchell Parish / Heinz Roemheld)

13 - Black Beauty (Duke Ellington)

14 - When the Wind Was Green (Don Hunt)

15 - Brown Prelude (Cee Paul)

16 - White Orchids (Peter De Rose / Charlie Tobias)

17 - Blue Is the Night (Fred Fisher)

18 - Scarlet Ribbons (for Her Hair) (Evelyn Danzig / Jack Segal)

19 - Purple Pastel (Prager)

Lalo Schifrin : piano, arrangements et direction d’orchestre - autres musiciens non identifiés.

33 tours 30 cm Epic LN-3337 - 1957

CD2

Piano español

 1 - Frenesi (Alberto Rodriguez)

 2 - The Breeze and I (Ernesto Lecuona)

 3 - Capricho Español (Enrique Granados)

 4 - My Shawl (Pedro Berrios / Xavier Cugat)

 5 - Caravan (Duke Ellington / Juan Tizol)

 6 - Malaguena (Ernesto Lecuona)

 7 - Cha Cha Cha Flamenco (Mario de Jesùs)

 8 - Warsaw Concerto (Richard Addinsell)

 9 - Hulablues (Lalo Schifrin / Ralph Seigo)

10 - Jungle Fantasy (Ismael Morales)

11 - All the Things You Are (Jerome Kern / Oscar Hammerstein II)

12 - El Cumbanchero (Rafael Hernandez)

Lalo Schifrin : piano, arrangements et direction d’orchestre - autres musiciens non identifiés.

33 tours 30 cm Tico Records SLP 1070 - 1959

Lalo = Brilliance (The piano of Lalo Schifrin)

13 - The Snake’s Dance (Lalo Schifrin)

14 - An Evening in Sao Paulo (Lalo Schifrin)

15 - Desafinado (Antonio Carlos Jobim / Newton Medonça)

16 - Kush (Dizzy Gillespie)

17 - Rhythm-A-Ning (Thelonious Monk)

18 - Mount Olive (Lalo Schifrin)

19 - Cubano Be (George Russell)

20 - Sphayros (Lalo Schifrin)

Lalo Schifrin : piano, arrangements et direction d’orchestre - Leo Wright : saxophone alto, flûte - Jimmy Raney : guitare - Art Davis : contrebasse - Rudy Collins : batterie - Willie Rodriguez : congas, bongos.

33 tours 30 cm Roulette R 52088 - 1962

CD3

Bossa nova, new brasilian jazz

 1 - Boato (João Roberto Kelly)

 2 - Chora Tua Tristeza (Oscar Castro-Neves)

 3 - Poema do Adeus (Luiz Antonio)

 4 - Apito No Samba (Luiz Antonio)

 5 - Chega De Saudade (Antonio Carlos Jobim / Vinicius De Moraes)

 6 - Bossa Em Nova York (Don Madrid / José Paulo)

 7 - O Amor E A Rosa (Antõnio Maria / João Pernambuco)

 8 - O Menino Desce O Morro (Rico de Rosario / véranda Brasil)

 9 - Menina Feia (Oscar Castro-Neves)

10 - Ouça (Maysa Matarazzo)

11 - Samba De Uma Nota So (Antonio Carlos Jobim / Newton Medonça)

12 - Patinho Feio (Ugly duckling) (Oscar Castro-Neves)

Leo Wright : saxophone alto, flûte - Lalo Schifrin : piano, arrangements et direction d’orchestre - Christopher White : contrebasse - Rudy Collins : batterie - Jose Paulo, Jack Del Rio : percussions.

33 tours 30 cm Audio Fidelity - AFSD 5981 - 1962

Piano, strings and Bossa nova

13 - The Wave (Lalo Schifrin)

14 - Insensatez (Antônio Carlos Jobim / Vinicius de Moraes)

15 - You and Me (Voce E Eu) (Carlos Lyra / Vinicius de Moraes)

16 - Lalo’s Bossa nova (Samba para dos) (Lalo Schifrin)

17 - Silvia (Lalo Schifrin)

18 - Murmurio (Murmur) (Djalma Ferreira / Luiz Antonio)

19 - Maria (Leonard Bernstein / Stephen Sondheim)

20 - Rapaz De Bem (Alfredo Jose da Silva)

21 - Samba No Perroquet (Parrot Samba) (Djalma Ferreira / Ivone Rebello)

22 - Rio After Dark (Lalo Schifrin)

23 - Time for Love (Leonard Feather)

24 - I’m Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover (Harry Woods / Mort Dixon)

Lalo Schifrin : piano, arrangements et direction d’orchestre - Jim Hall : guitare - Chris White : contrebasse - Rudy Collins : batterie - Jose Paulo et Carmen Costa : percussions latines, harpe et cordes.

33 tours 30 cm MGM Records - SE 4110 - 1962

Bonus :

Quincy Jones et Lalo Schifrin

25 - Soul Bossa Nova (Quincy Jones)

26 - Lalo Bossa Nova (Lalo schifrin)

Clark Terry : trompette - Phil Woods : saxophone alto - Lalo Schifrin : piano, arrangements et direction d’orchestre - Jim Hall : guitare - Chris White : basse - Rudy Collins : batterie - Jose Paulo, Carlos «Bala» Gomez, Jack Del Rio : percussions.

33 tours 30 cm Mercury SR 60751 - 1962