Mission Impossible: My Life in Music

by Lalo Schifrin, Richard Palmer (Editor)

Overview

Mission Impossible: My Life in Music is the engaging autobiography of Lalo Schifrin, the musician, conductor, and composer of more than 60 jazz and classical works and over 100 film and television scores, including Bullitt, the Rush Hour series, Cool Hand Luke, The Dead Pool, Tango, The Fox, Voyage of the Damned, The Amityville Horror, The Sting II, and Mission Impossible. Edited by Richard Palmer, this autobiography is a journey from Schifrin's formative years in Argentina to the classical and jazz atmospheres in Paris in the 1950s; and from his jazz career in the United States with Dizzy Gillespie from 1958-1963 to his development as a film and television composer from 1963 to the present.

Organized in eight parts, the book reflects on Schifrin's cosmopolitan experience and provides impressions and vignettes of the extraordinary people with whom he worked. As a composer whose works bridge three main musical styles—jazz, classical, and film and television—his autobiography offers invaluable insights on all three genres, as well as politics, literature, and travel. This significant volume includes over 30 photos, appendixes listing Schifrin's works, and a discography, as well as an audio CD featuring some of Schifrin's greatest compositions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780810859463
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	06/27/2008
Series:	Studies in Jazz , #56
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Lalo Schifrin has received four Grammy Awards and six Academy Award nominations, and recently established a jazz and classical composition scholarship at University of California in Los Angeles.

Richard Palmer is director of general education at Bedford School in the UK. He is the author of Sonny Rollins: The Cutting Edge (2004), and editor of Jazz Writings (2005).

Table of Contents

CD Track Listing     xi
Foreword     xv
Acknowledgments     xvii
Roots and Beginnings
Prologue     3
Prelude     5
Fugue     17
International Incidents #1-Paris     27
South American Genius I-Music     31
South American Genius II-Jorge Luis Borges     37
From Gillespiana to Jazz Meets the Symphony
Gillespiana     43
A Dizzy Gillespie Miscellany     47
The Verve Years and a First Marquis     54
Jazz Mass     58
Jazz Meets the Symphony #1     61
Jazz Meets the Symphony #2 and #3     64
A Second Marquis     67
The Esperanto Suite     68
More Jazz
Anecdotes and Vignettes     73
Interlude
International Incidents #2-The Cuban Missile Crisis     87
Resonances     89
International Incidents #3-The Fourth Protocol Redux     93
International Incidents #4-Sofia     96
A Vignette Miscellany     99
Film
Composing for Film and TV     111
Film Vignettes     120
Symphonic Variations
Dies Irae     131
Scales and Arpeggios     134
Fantasy forScreenplay and Orchestra     138
The Triple Concerto     140
Cantos Aztecas     142
The Three Tenors and the Opera World     148
A Polynesian Adventure-Lili'Uokalani Symphony     154
The Paris Philharmonic     157
Bix     158
Oman     161
Donna
Romanza: For Donna     167
Finale
Things to Come     173
Composer Credits     179
Discography     191
Index     203
About the Author     215
About the Editor     219

What People are Saying About This

Anthony Bushard

Schifrin's story represents the familiar yet fascinating story of the diversely talented, contemporary musician's quest to create not jazz, or classical music, or commercial music, or popular music, but music. There is a fine line between a "Renaissance man" and a Jack-of-all-trades, and once hopes that this autobiography will spawn further conversation on how effectively Schifrin has approached that line.

Jon Faddis

Intelligent and captivating, this autobiography by Lalo Schifrin is impossible to resist. Lalo has achieved his mission, and then some, changing the sound of American music and listeners' expectations in a multitude of contexts. Here, Lalo's passion for life and his integrity and wit shine as they do in his music; his insights into not only creating music but also making a living as a musician and composer make for fascinating reading.

Kenny Burrell

Lalo Schifrin's autobiography is a wonderful story of a musician with great talent who realized and accomplished his 'mission' on many fronts. This book should be particularly inspiring to young musicians as it clearly reveals how talent and hard work can lead to real success. Congratulations to Lalo on this book and for the great music that continues at the highest level.

James Morrison

A book on the life of Lalo Schifrin is a book about creativity, music, and passion - in short, a book about a life we would all aspire to live.

Editorial Reviews

Lalo Schifrin's autobiography is a wonderful story of a musician with great talent who realized and accomplished his 'mission' on many fronts. This book should be particularly inspiring to young musicians as it clearly reveals how talent and hard work can lead to real success. Congratulations to Lalo on this book and for the great music that continues at the highest level.

Kenny Burrell

This book is a must-read for any fan of Schifrin as well as students of film scoring, jazz musicians, concert composers, filmmakers, instrumentalists, and conductors.

Ain't It Cool News

Schifrin's story represents the familiar yet fascinating story of the diversely talented, contemporary musician's quest to create not jazz, or classical music, or commercial music, or popular music, but music. There is a fine line between a "Renaissance man" and a Jack-of-all-trades, and once hopes that this autobiography will spawn further conversation on how effectively Schifrin has approached that line.

Anthony Bushard

Intelligent and captivating, this autobiography by Lalo Schifrin is impossible to resist. Lalo has achieved his mission, and then some, changing the sound of American music and listeners' expectations in a multitude of contexts. Here, Lalo's passion for life and his integrity and wit shine as they do in his music; his insights into not only creating music but also making a living as a musician and composer make for fascinating reading.

Jon Faddis

A book on the life of Lalo Schifrin is a book about creativity, music, and passion - in short, a book about a life we would all aspire to live.

James Morrison

This book is a must-read for any fan of Schifrin as well as students of film scoring, jazz musicians, concert composers, filmmakers, instrumentalists, and conductors.

October 2008 Ain't It Cool News