Lalo Schifrin

Farewell to one of the all-time greats, Lalo Schifrin, who died yesterday at 93. Here is the Variety obituary by Jon Burlingame. (Above: Brett Ratner, me, Lalo, Jeff Bond.)

I cannot remember a time when I was not aware of Lalo’s music, even if I didn’t know who he was—the Mission: Impossible theme is ingrained in our culture.

But there was so much more! Bullitt, Mannix, Cool Hand Luke, THX 1138, Enter the Dragon, Dirty Harry, and on and on.

His sound was so unique, you knew it was him just from a few notes—and he put endless imagination and melody and diversity into each score.

One time I was at a home-theater screening of Bullitt with a bunch of, let’s just say, Hollywood party people. It was the “Shifting Gears” cue leading to the famous car chase, and I’ll never forget a young woman there—not a film music fan—blurting out, “This music’s great!”

I even remember exactly when she said it! After 2 min in the above clip, when Bullitt’s car appears in the rear-view mirror of the bad guys and the saxes come in—and the big band horns follow to back them up, and it’s just rockin’ with this energy and coolness and simmering excitement that something awesome is about to happen.

At that moment, you’re just glad to be watching this movie and hearing this music and excited to see what’s next!

It takes a special kind of genius to encapsulate that in the perfect notes—and that was Lalo.

I feel very lucky to have been in L.A. and working on FSM the magazine in 1997 when one day I got a call from percussionist Emil Richards inviting him to a scoring session with Lalo—“and they want him for his old style,” Emil enthusiastically added.

It was Money Talks, Brett Ratner’s first film (Brett loved the Enter the Dragon soundtrack), and it was followed by the Rush Hour films—bringing Lalo back into studio films in an unforgettable way.

I got to see and listen to him work, and meet his family, and watch a living legend up close. It was great!

I was also proud to release so many of his scores on the FSM label, from the classics to obscure gems.

My heart goes out to Donna, Ryan, Theresa and the entire Schifrin clan.

And of course, my gratitude to Lalo—for a life making music we’ll never forget.