Lalo Schifrin: "There's A Whole Lalo Schifrin Goin' On"

Argentinian pianist/composer Lalo Schifrin has been an influential man-behind-the-scenes in the music business for decades, writing soundtracks for such huge films as “Mission Impossible,” “Enter The Dragon” and “Dirty Harry.”  His solo records done outside of the soundtrack field, then, remain more esoteric; certainly more personal, but also obscured by the instant hum-ability of his more well-known work.  “There’s A Whole Lalo Schifrin Goin’ On” is his most psychedelic piece to date, and has earned comparisons to some of Frank Zappa’s late ‘60’s work due to its cut-and-paste recording techniques and creation of sound collages.  Yet Schifrin’s melodic sensibility is far less fractured than Zappa’s, and so the acid-trip experimentation here is less abrasive and more effervescent.  Schifrin toys with early synthesizers on songs like “Secret Code Synthesizer:  Lalo Schifrin,” and then proceeds to get downright folky on glittering numbers like “Bride Of The Wind.”  Other titles include “Vaccinated Mushrooms,” “Wheat Germ Landscape” and “Gentle Earthquake,” which gives you a sense of the headiness at play here.  This is music for people who celebrate the eccentricities and whims of fearless artists, of which Schifrin most definitely is one.