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Listening to it right now - "First Broadcast in 1997" it says. Always a joy to hear the great Mr Schifrin speaking and playing. I love what he said about his father's reaction to jazz - "This isn't music! You can't write it, you can't read it... it's just nothing"!
I'm increasingly amazed at how huge the Schifrin story is. I was listening to THE HELLSTROM CHRONICLE the other day and thinking how brilliant it is, then I switched on the radio and they had a show about the great Benny Carter - and the arrangements were all by Lalo Schifrin.
Ha! Great story just come up on that broadcast! David Wolper wanted Elmer Bernstein for the THIRD REICH score, but Elmer was booked and he suggested Lalo Schifrin. "Schifrin?" exclaimed Wolper, "he can't do this kind of music! He's a jazz guy, he worked with Gillespie"! Wolper must have been convinced enough to go on to hire Schifrin again for THE HELLSTROM CHRONICLE, which just shows the enormous scope of the composer's output.
What a giant, what a genius. There were never very many of them.
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Something that comes through clearly on this show is Lalo's enormous experience and knowledge. Ideas about Stravinsky, Charlie Parker - he lived all those key moments in the development of 20th century music. Something else I notice is how all that "arranging" for jazz giants molded the careers of everyone involved. I put "arranging" in inverted commas because it's sometimes thought of as a dirty word. I'm beginning to realize that a background in arranging can be a huge asset in really getting to know what you can get out of groups of instruments. Some of the most interesting composers and musicians were steeped in arranging even more than in actually composing, or at least to the same extent - think of Mancini, Fielding etc.
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Kind of surprised that no-one on either board has mentioned that Marian McPartland passed away on August 20th at the age of 95.
The "Piano Jazz" programmes were great, especially the one with Henry Mancini; the Schifrin one too. Richard Rodney Bennett guested on the show as well and I had a cassette of that, or maybe still have - somewhere. I liked Marian's distinctive speaking voice, and her enthusiasm for the piano-playing on those shows was very affecting. She seemed like a real nice lady.
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