Greetings! ScoreKeeper here toting a new book written by a legend about a legend that’s sure to tickle the fancies of film music enthusiasts, concert composers, jazz musicians, and film industry folk everywhere.

Scarecrow Press has just released the new autobiography of six-time Academy Award® nominated composer, Lalo Schifrin. MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: MY LIFE IN MUSIC (2008) which was written by Schifrin and edited by Richard Palmer, chronicles Schifrin’s entire musical journey from his humble beginnings in Argentina to his lauded musical achievements as a composer for film and concert halls.



This book (available HERE) is a must-read for any fan of Schifrin as well as students of film scoring, jazz musicians, concert composers, filmmakers, instrumentalists, and conductors. Schifrin is the swiss-army knife of composers and this book covers it all through his own personal reflections and anecdotes.

There is even a CD included containing hand-picked selections of Schifrin’s concert and film music which is referenced throughout the book.

Here is some additional information:

Organized in eight parts, the book reflects on Schifrin’s cosmopolitan experience providing impressions and vignettes of the extraordinary people with whom he worked. His music bridges three styles—jazz, classical, and film/TV—his autobiography offers insights on all three genres, as well as politics, literature, and travel. It includes over 30 photos, appendixes listing Schifrin’s works, a discography, and an audio CD featuring some of Schifrin’s greatest compositions.

As a young man in his native Argentina, Lalo Schifrin received classical training in music and studied law. He came from a musical family, and his father was the concertmaster of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Buenos Aires at the Teatro Colon.

After his studies at the Paris Conservatory, Schifrin returned to Argentina and formed his own big concert band. Dizzy Gillespie heard Schifrin perform and asked him to become his pianist, arranger, and composer. In 1958, Schifrin moved to the United States and began his remarkable career.

Since then Schifrin’s career has taken him in many directions. As a jazz musician he performed and recorded with Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Getz, Count Basie, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and George Benson. His classical activities include Zubin Mehta, The Three Tenors, Rostropovich, Barenboim, and others.

His longtime involvement in both the jazz and symphonic worlds came together in 1993 as pianist and conductor for his on-going series of “Jazz Meets the Symphony” recordings, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and jazz stars like Ray Brown, Grady Tate, Jon Faddis, Paquito D’Rivera and James Morrison.

Schifrin has written over 100 film and television scores including Mission Impossible, Mannix, Cool Hand Luke, Bullitt, The Cincinnati Kid, Amityville Horror, four of the Dirty Harry films, and more recently Abominable and the Rush Hour trilogy. To date, Lalo Schifrin has won four Grammys® (twenty-one nominations), one Cable ACE Award, and six Academy Award® nominations.

SOURCE CineMedia Promotions

For more information: check out the Scarecrow Press website.

ScoreKeeper!!!