Lalo Schifrin's First US LP

The late, great composer-arranger-conductor Lalo Schifrin was active in the recording studio from an early age. This 1957 LP - his first in the US - came out when he was all of 24.

It's quite a remarkable achievement, but an online Schifrin discography shows that he made his first record in his native Argentina at age 19, when he arranged "The Continental" for a big band.

By 1955, he was playing piano for the famed composer Astor Piazzolla. In about that same year, he made two LPs in Paris, where he was studying with Olivier Messiaen. (His first teacher back home was Daniel Barenboim's father.)

The young composer

So when it came time for a US recording, he was no neophyte. And it shows in this assured set, called Spectrum to denote that the songs all have a color in their names. The discography says the LP was recorded for Philips (this release is on the US label Epic), but I have not found evidence of the Philips disc yet.

The arrangements are clever and sophisticated, comparable in quality to anything on that market at the time. This is not a jazz album - although Schifrin was a major jazz fan and was soon to begin an association with Dizzy Gillespie. Even so, it is extraordinary.

Here is a rundown on the songs - some familiar, some less so:

• "Red Sails in the Sunset," from 1935, by Wilhelm Grosz (writing as "Hugh Williams'), first done by Henry Hall and the BBC Dance Orchestra

• Don Redman's "Azure," introduced by that bandleader in 1937

• "The Moon Was Yellow," one of Fred Ahlert's best songs, a hit in 1934 for Abe Lyman with Frank Munn and Bing Crosby

• The film theme "Ruby," which Heinz Roemheld wrote for 1952's Ruby Gentry; the song was a success for Les Baxter and Richard Hayman

• Duke Ellington's "Black Beauty," first recorded by him in 1928

• "When the Wind Was Green" by Don Hunt (Donald Henry Stinson), which was used in the film When You're Smiling and recorded by Hugo Winterhalter in 1949

• "Brown Prelude," an obscure piece by "C. Paul"

• Peter de Rose's "White Orchids," first written for piano in 1945, with lyrics by Charles Tobias soon to follow

• Fred Fisher's "Blue Is the Night," from the 1929 film Their Own Desire, and recorded by many artists at the time

• "Scarlet Ribbons (For Her Hair)," one of the most effective quasi folk songs of mid-century, written by Evelyn Danzig and Richard Segal, first recorded by Jo Stafford and a hit for Harry Belafonte shortly before this LP was recorded

• "Purple Pastel," written by former Ben Pollack pianist Sammy Prager in 1942

Schifrin would go on to make a large number of recordings in the next several years - with Dizzy Gillespie, various bossa nova and other Latin LPs, backings for singers such as Pat Thomas and Sarah Vaughan - before launching his hugely successful Hollywood career via the 1964 film Rhino! with Harry Guardino as a zoologist. Mission: Impossible and Mannix were not far in the future.

Here a free link to the New York Times obituary for this fascinating musician.

LINK to the Spectrum LP

The young pianist

Another Collection of Color Songs

Recordings themed to colors are not unusual - at least one other one has appeared on this site. It is Les Brown's Over the Rainbow - A Panorama of Color from 1951. Like Spectrum, the Brown LP includes "The Moon Was Yellow" and "Azure." 

This enjoyable LP has now been remastered in ambient stereo.

Here's a link to the original post with more information.