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Lalo Schifrin: Mannix
by Douglas Payne
Here is the music that has - until now - been something like the Holy Grail in Lalo Schifrin's catalog. The original 1969 Paramount LP is one of the composer's best and most dynamic collections of sounds. But it's proven to be too expensive or too impossible for fans to locate. Even the composer himself has spent the last year or so attempting to get the Paramount LP released on CD. But after ongoing frustrations, he opted to record the ...
Continue ReadingLalo Schifrin: Latin Jazz Suite
by Douglas Payne
Lalo Schifrin's Latin Jazz Suite is a masterful celebration of the diverse and colorful sounds and feelings that Latin forms add to the jazz vocabulary. It is also a reflection of the composer's successful contributions to the Latin musical language over the last four decades.This enthralling, consistently engaging six-piece suite - recorded live over two nights of its June 1999 premiere in Cologne, Germany -- most recalls Schifrin's historic Gillespiana suite. But Latin Jazz Suite is a milestone ...
Continue ReadingLalo Schifrin: Jazz Mass In Concert
by Douglas Payne
Composer Lalo Schifrin revisits the brilliant Grammy winning jazz mass he composed for Paul Horn in 1964. Paul Horn's 1964 study, Jazz Suite on the Mass Texts (RCA) was a meditative reflection on Schifrin's intentionally liturgical themes. But Schifrin's production, recorded live three and a half decades later, is quite a bit more energetic -- ascending more toward what John Coltrane's music achieved. This is primarily due to the multi-varied and accomplished reedwork of former Coltrane disciple Tom ...
Continue ReadingLalo Schifrin: Metamorphosis -- Jazz Meets the Symphony, Vol. 4
by Jack Bowers
The fourth in pianist Lalo Schifrin’s series of “classical/Jazz” encounters is perhaps the most rewarding to date, thanks in large measure to Lalo’s unflagging imagination, his superb compositions and arrangements, and the inspiriting presence of several renowned guest artists including bassist Ray Brown, drummer Jeff Hamilton, Australian trumpet master James Morrison, conga drummer Francisco Aguabella and violinist/guitarist Markus Weinstroer. Together with the London Symphony Orchestra, they have fashioned a recording that is at once regal and venturesome. Its showpiece is ...
Continue ReadingLalo Schifrin / WDR Big Band: Gillespiana
by Jack Bowers
Those who know Lalo Shifrin only from film scores and studio work may be surprised to learn that he once played piano in Dizzy Gillespie’s quintet. In 1960, Gillespie introduced Schifrin’s “Gillespiana,” a five–movement sound–portrait of Dizzy’s life and music that was completed only a few days after Gillespie asked him, “When are you going to write something for us?” To say that Schifrin took the suggestion to heart would be an understatement. “Gillespiana” is a major work by any ...
Continue ReadingLalo Schifrin: Metamorphosis: Jazz Meets The Symphony #4
by Douglas Payne
Composer/pianist Lalo Schifrin endures as an interesting film music composer for, among other things, his ability to enhance or create effective moods. For this, the fourth in his “jazz meets the symphony" series, Schifrin concocts perhaps his most moody affair yet and, perhaps, the nicest of the bunch since the second set on Atlantic (1993). Again fronting the London Symphony Orchestra, Schifrin reunites on this 1998 recording with trumpeter James Morrison and bassist Ray Brown and adds drummer Jeff Hamilton, ...
Continue ReadingLalo Schifrin: Gillespiana
by Douglas Payne
A true joy, Gillespiana revisits the classic five-part jazz suite Lalo Schifrin created for trumpet legend Dizzy Gillespie in 1960. It is a brilliant, consistently inventive work that has lost none of its appeal or sheen over nearly four decades worth of time. Surprisingly, Gillespiana has not been recorded since its initial debut in 1960 until now – although Gillespie often performed the work throughout his career and Schifrin presented a 35th anniversary version at New York City's Lincoln Center ...
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