Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Jango Song Of The Day-Lalo Schifrin

Artist:Lalo Schifrin
Song:Theme From Enter The Dragon
Album:Superbad: The Very Best Of Blaxploitation 70s Movie Themes & Funk Soul Classics





Lalo Schifrin was a big part of changing the tone of film music in the 60s by adding jazz and funk elements that hadn't been used much until that time. He was born Boris Claudio Schifrin July 21, 1932 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I think Lalo is a childhood nickname. His father was a symphonic violinist and Schifrin began playing piano at age six. He enrolled at Paris Conservatoire in 1952 and got interested in the Paris jazz scene. Upon returning to Buenos Aires in 1956, Schifrin formed a 16-piece jazz orchestra. He met legendary jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, composed the suite Gillespiana and then moved to New York in 1960 to join Gillespie's band. Schifrin became Gillespie's musical director until he composed his first film score for the 1963 film Rhino and moved to Hollywood. His next score was for the 1965 film The Cincinatti Kid and Schifrin got tons of work after that. His best known composition is probably the theme for the TV show Mission Impossible. But he also wrote the theme for The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and Mannix and wrote scores for Cool Hand Luke, Bullitt and several Clint Eastwood films including Coogan's Bluff and Dirty Harry. And he occasionally recorded jazz albums. In the 70s he started adding funk elements including this theme for the 1973 film Enter The Dragon. Of course this was Bruce Lee's final film and was released after Lee's death. The soundtrack for Enter The Dragon is available but it's very short so I suggest this WEA International 3CD various artists comp that looks like a lot of fun. Lalo Schifrin continues to tour the world as a guest conductor and still writes the occasional film score, most recently the Rush Hour series. Here's the Theme From Enter The Dragon in the opening credits of the film.

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