On Thursday this week, the jazz community lost a kindred spirit. Boris Claudio (Lalo) Schifrin (June 21, 1932 – June 26, 2025) was an Argentine-American and best known for his large body of film and TV scores, incorporating jazz and Latin American musical elements alongside traditional orchestrations.
The international jazz community, and specifically New York City, served as an early incubator enabling Lalo Schifrin to burnish his Bebop chops and eclectic jazz musical vernacular. He was widely revered as one the finest creative composers and arrangers of modern cinematic music for more than a half century.
Schifrin’s best known compositions include the themes from Mission: Impossible (1966) and Mannix (1967), as well as the scores to Cool Hand Luke (1967), Bullitt (1968), THX 1138 (1971), Enter the Dragon (1973), The Four Musketeers (1974), Voyage of the Damned (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), The Amityville Horror (1979), and the Rush Hour trilogy (1998–2007). Schifrin was also noted for collaborations with Clint Eastwood from the late 1960s to the 1980s, particularly the Dirty Harry film series. He composed the Paramount Pictures fanfare used from 1976 to 2004.
Schifrin was a five-time Grammy Award winner and he was nominated for six Academy Awards and four Emmy Awards. In 2019, he received an Honorary Academy Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in recognition of his successful career.
His easy familiarity with Latin melodies, anchored within Central and South American clave, established his unique style, flexible and influenced by two continents. Perhaps Schifrin’s most important highly successful career phases can be traced to his creative performative period as pianist for legendary trumpet maestro Dizzy Gillespie’s Quintet.
This YouTube video of Lalo Schifrin as part of Dizzy Gilespie’s Quintet in 1961 offers a camera’s view into the past as well as perhaps portends a great future as we reflect upon the incredible journey in music nurtured by jazz discovered and evolved by the great Lalo Schifrin.
The Dizzy Gillispie Quintet was featured on the TV show Jazz Casual on January 17, 1961. The You Tube video stars band leader Dizzy Gillespie on trumpet, Leo Wright, alto saxophone and flute, Chuck Lampkin, drums, Bob Cunningham, bass, and Lalo Schifrin, piano.
Note: Set the YouTube timeline on the video to 17:00 to hear Lalo Schifrin and the band perform his original composition – a song entitled “Gillespiano” in honor of his early and most significant musical influencer, Dizzy Gillespie. I am particularly delighted to see my friend and collaborator, the late phenomenal bassist Bob Cunningham in this video clip. Bob often spoke fondly of his musical experiences with the Dizzy Gillespie’s quintet and shared stories about both legendary musicians, Lalo Schifrin and their leader Dizzy Gillespie.
For those who appreciate jazz, I hope we remain eternally grateful for the legacies of great musicians and the wonderful music they create and leave for our enjoyment. Thank you, Lalo, may you rest in eternal peace.
Peace,
Dennis L. Day