Lalo Schifrin RIP

[Teasing the Korean]

https://variety.com/2025/music/news/lalo-schifrin-dead-mission-impossible-film-composer-1236442000/

[GA Russell]

RIP.  I'll pull out my Mission Impossible album.

[mikeweil]

R.i.P. a real versatile musical giant. Will spin two of my favourites with him tomorrow.

[sgcim]

R.I.P I liked when he had the quartet with Leo Wright, and the work he did on piano with Diz. He had Jimmy Raney on `the Samba Para Dos album that Mike posted, and the Brilliance album, too.

I just fought through the protesters and the cops again at Columbia to pick up his autobiography, "Mission Impossible: "My Life In Music".

Haven't started it yet, but Raney isn't in the index. Should be fun to read his version of "The Exorcist" mess. I've already read Friedkin's side of the story.

[Holy Ghost]

RIP. Really appreciate his soundtrack work, especially Dirty Harry's Magnum Force; total badass. 

 

[Steve Gray]

RIP

Saw him in 1961 with Dizzy and Leo Wright. On the same bill as the Coltrane group with Dolphy

[mhatta]

2 hours ago, Steve Gray said:

RIP

Saw him in 1961 with Dizzy and Leo Wright. On the same bill as the Coltrane group with Dolphy

Wow!  I know Coltrane toured with Dizzy's band, and there are many bootlegs from his European tour, but there are none of his (only) UK tour just before.

Anywise, there may be some who disagree, but personally, while Dizzy Gillespie has many excellent works, I don't think any of them can be considered "definitive". The closest I can think of is Dizzy On The French Riviera. When summer comes around, I always remember Chega De Saudade from that album. Lalo Shifrin's piano really stands out (I wonder if he also arranged it).  RIP.

 

Edited June 27 by mhatta

[mikeweil]

I also recommend this cheapo compilation which is the only convenient way of getting to hear his early efforts as a leader. He was an amazing versatile peformer well versed in all South American stylistics, schooled composer/arranger and could play jazz as well. His training was better than that of any Brazilian pianist, Donato included.

https://www.discogs.com/release/13671849-Lalo-Schifrin-The-Early-Years

The only missing session of note is the one with Eddie Harris. 

Reissued here:

[sgcim]

17 hours ago, Holy Ghost said:

RIP. Really appreciate his soundtrack work, especially Dirty Harry's Magnum Force; total badass. 

 

That vocal part sounds like it would've been good for Exorcist 2: Heretic.

[optatio]

R.I.P. ...

[Holy Ghost]

On 6/27/2025 at 6:52 PM, sgcim said:

That vocal part sounds like it would've been good for Exorcist 2: Heretic.

There's another one? 😐The first one was spooky enough!!!

[sgcim]

7 hours ago, Holy Ghost said:

There's another one? 😐The first one was spooky enough!!!

It was the biggest bomb of all time. No one understood what was going on, even the actors! I still keep watching it, hoping that it will make sense to me someday. Friedkin has made it clear that he had nothing to do with it. 

BTW, Friedkin hated Lalo's score for the original Exorcist so much, he took the tape of Lalo's music, and kicked it so hard that it rolled out of the studio, and out the door, on to the sidewalk!

[JSngry]

1 hour ago, sgcim said:

It was the biggest bomb of all time. No one understood what was going on, even the actors! I still keep watching it, hoping that it will make sense to me someday. Friedkin has made it clear that he had nothing to do with it. 

It reminded me of one of the acid trips I had taken, in a good way.

I took a date to see it, and that was a one-and-done. Not even food afterward. Nope. Straight home.

[Holy Ghost]

5 hours ago, JSngry said:

It reminded me of one of the acid trips I had taken, in a good way.

I took a date to see it, and that was a one-and-done. Not even food afterward. Nope. Straight home.

Need more detes, what do you mean "one-and-done"? I may have had those kinda dates....🫠

[JSngry]

Started out holding hands, but she was pulled as far away from me as possible by the time it was over 

[Holy Ghost]

14 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Started out holding hands, but she was pulled as far away from me as possible by the time it was over 

I'm not going to press you more, but I just gotta know this, who did? Who pulled her away? Just sayin', my girl, me and that dude are going to have a talk out back. Just how I roll 😁

[JSngry]

The movie and my enjoyment of it repulsed her. In real time. There was nobody else.

[Brad]

 

RIP

[sgcim]

23 hours ago, JSngry said:

It reminded me of one of the acid trips I had taken, in a good way.

I took a date to see it, and that was a one-and-done. Not even food afterward. Nope. Straight home.

Not a date movie, according to Pauline Kael:

"The film is too cadenced and exotic and too deliriously complicated to succeed with most audiences (and when it opened, there were accounts of people in theaters who threw things at the screen). But it's winged camp--a horror fairy tale gone wild, another in the long history of moviemakers' king-size follies. "

[JSngry]

34 minutes ago, sgcim said:

Not a date movie, according to Pauline Kael:

"The film is too cadenced and exotic and too deliriously complicated to succeed with most audiences (and when it opened, there were accounts of people in theaters who threw things at the screen). But it's winged camp--a horror fairy tale gone wild, another in the long history of moviemakers' king-size follies. "

Was that 1 or 2 that she's reviewing?

[MomsMobley]

**

**

**

 

[sgcim]

On 6/30/2025 at 6:13 PM, JSngry said:

Was that 1 or 2 that she's reviewing?

You gotta be kidding! 2.

[JSngry]

Well, then, she got it right! I should have taken her on a date to see it.

[sgcim]

Here's a suite of the score Schifrin wrote for the Exorcist, that was turned down by Friedkin. Lalo called it a setup by Friedkin, because the studio told Friedkin that the score                   and the scenes in the trailer were too much for audiences. It was scaring the hell out of them, and they told Friedkin to tell Schifrin to tone the score down a lot.

But Friedkin, being the weirdo that he was, refused to tell Schifrin that the score was too bombastic, and at the final studio recording, he led Schifrin into a trap where the executives heard the same music from the trailer. Friedkin walked out of the recording studio after a few music sequences, and told Schifrin to meet him privately in the head of the Warner Bros. Music Dept. Schifrin was hearing plenty of horror stories about what was going on- Friedkin's temper tantrums, dismissing friendly advice, firing his collaborators, etc...

"He started to scream, foam was coming out of his mouth. "Where are the two orchestras of strings? This is not what we talked about! This music is not going to be in my film!!" he told Schifrin. Lalo could see that WF was out of control, and there was no reasoning with him, so he remained quiet to avoid a physical confrontation. Larry Marks, who was the head of the Music Dept., told LS that WF had already had a group in mind, Tubular Bells- and the help of a composer, Jack Nitzsche.

William Blatty cake to LS' defense and made public declarations to the press, and the fired ex-film editor confirmed Blatty's comments about the setup. All Friedkin could respond with was that LS had written a score with "Mexican Maracas"!  

From LS' Autobiography.