From Lalo Schifrin to Duke Ellington, sacred music to a jazz beat

June 26 saw the demise of the famed Argentine-American pianist, composer, arranger, and conductor Lalo Schifrin at the age of 93.

He is best known for his work as a composer for films and television shows going back to the 1950s. I listened to a compilation of his “greatest hits” and relived some of those films or shows I had watched.

I had forgotten that he was responsible for the film score to the 1973 martial arts blockbuster Enter the Dragon, my introduction to Bruce Lee and my brother’s pin-up hero. Listening to the music once again brough back memories of the kung fu craze, the Bruce Lee hairstyle (and bloodcurdling yells and flying kicks to go with it) and improvised nanchakus from discarded sticks from the Vaglo cloth store. Nothing can take you back in time like music. So much Hindi film music was “inspired” by this track.

It is a testament to Schifrin’s versatility and adaptability that he could make his music just as fresh and relevant through all the intervening decades to the present. He will probably be most remembered by today’s young generation for scoring the Mission Impossible theme. I hadn’t realised that the distinctive tune in 5/4 time with its dash-dash dot-dot metre spells out...

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