Lennie Niehaus
Lennie Niehaus | |
---|---|
orchestrator | |
Instrument(s) | Alto saxophone |
Labels | Contemporary |
Website | |
Military service | |
Allegiance | United States |
Service/ | United States Army |
Years of service | 1952–1954 |
Unit | 6th Infantry Division Band |
Leonard Niehaus (June 1, 1929 – May 28, 2020)[1] was an American alto saxophonist, composer and arranger on the West Coast jazz scene. He played with the Stan Kenton Orchestra and served as one of Kenton's primary staff arrangers.[2] He also played with
Life and career
Education and active years as a musician
Niehaus was born in
Stan Kenton Orchestra
After completing college in 1951, Niehaus got his start with the
Orchestrating and composing for television and film
By the age of 33, in 1962, he began orchestrating for television and film composer
In his film scores, Niehaus never forgot his jazz roots. The story of the film
Work with Clint Eastwood
With Clint Eastwood, Niehaus had probably his most significant professional relationship. The two men had first met when serving together in the U.S. Army at Fort Ord during 1952 - 1954. Both found they had a passion for jazz music. Niehaus had already orchestrated scores for films starring Eastwood like Tightrope (1984), also produced by Eastwood. But it was not until Eastwood's eleventh film as director, Pale Rider (1985), that Niehaus actually wrote the first entire score for one of his films. Niehaus then wrote the musical scores for the following twelve films up to Blood Work (2002), and orchestrated the music for the next six features that Eastwood completed, from Mystic River (2003) to Gran Torino (2008). Niehaus won the BMI Film & TV Awards for Heartbreak Ridge (1986), Unforgiven (1992), The Bridges of Madison County (1995), and Space Cowboys (2000).
The most substantial collaboration between Niehaus and Eastwood which related directly to jazz was the 1988
Other awarded film scores
Lennie Niehaus wrote the music for another jazz related feature, the 1993 TV movie Lush Life, in which
Further works and educational publishing
His work includes Spiritual Jazz Suite, four pieces arranged for brass quartet, three sets of Christmas Jazz suites (4 pieces in each) and a Christmas Jazz Medley arranged for saxophone quartet. His educational publishing includes a book of classical saxophone duets, a beginning/intermediate/advanced method books for the understanding of jazz technique, and a book of jazz saxophone duets exemplifying jazz styles. After many years of not playing his alto saxophone at all, Niehaus returned to performing, reportedly in top form.[13][14][15] He played saxophone as leader of his octet on his album, Sunday Afternoons At The Lighthouse Cafe (2004).[16]
Later life and death
In addition to his film scores and orchestrations, Niehaus spent his final years playing with jazz combos in the Los Angeles area. He died in Redlands, California at the age of 90. Although a cause of death was not disclosed, his son-in-law said that it was likely heart-related.[2]
Selected discography
- Volume 1: The Quintets (1954, 7" & 10"; 1956, Contemporary 3518)
- Volume 2: The Octet, No. 1 (1954, 7" & 10"), Contemporary); LP reissue on Zounds!
- Volume 3: The Octet, No. 2 (1955, Contemporary 3503)
- Volume 4: The Quintets and Strings (1955, Contemporary 3510)
- Volume 5: The Sextet (1958, Contemporary 3524)
- Zounds! (1958, Contemporary 3540); reissue of The Octet, No. 1 with a further 1956 octet recording
- I Swing for You (1957, EmArcy 36118)
- The Lennie Niehaus Quintet: Live at Capozzoli's (2000, Woofy WPCD96)
With Stan Kenton
- Popular Favorites by Stan Kenton (Capitol, 1953)
- The Kenton Era (Capitol, 1940–54, [1955])
- Contemporary Concepts (Capitol, 1955)
- Kenton in Hi-Fi (Capitol, 1956)
- Kenton with Voices (Capitol, 1957)
- Rendezvous with Kenton (Capitol, 1957)
- Back to Balboa (Capitol, 1958)
- The Ballad Style of Stan Kenton (Capitol, 1958)
- The Stage Door Swings (Capitol, 1958)
- Kenton Live from the Las Vegas Tropicana (Capitol, 1959 [1961])
- Sophisticated Approach (Capitol, 1961) as arranger
- Adventures in Standards (Capitol, 1961) as arranger
- Stan Kenton! Tex Ritter! (Capitol, 1962) with Tex Ritter as arranger and conductor
- Stan Kenton / Jean Turner (Capitol, 1963) with Jean Turner as arranger
- Kenton / Wagner (Capitol, 1964)
Selected television and film scores
- Faerie Tale Theatre (1984)
- Tightrope (1984)
- City Heat (1984)
- Pale Rider (1985)
- Follow that Bird(1985)
- Never Too Young to Die (1986)
- Ratboy (1986)
- Heartbreak Ridge (1986)
- Emanon (1987)
- Bird (1988)
- White Hunter Black Heart (1990)
- The Rookie (1990)
- Unforgiven (1992)
- Lush Life (TV movie, 1993)
- A Perfect World (1993)
- The Bridges of Madison County (1995)
- Dogwatch (1996)
- Absolute Power (1997)
- Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997)
- Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World (1998)
- True Crime (1999)
- The Jack Bull (TV, 1999)
- Space Cowboys (2000)
- Blood Work (2002)
- Oprah Winfrey Presents: Mitch Albom's For One More Day (TV, 2007)
See also
References
- ^ Barnes, Mike (June 1, 2020). "Lennie Niehaus, Alto Saxophonist and Frequent Clint Eastwood Collaborator, Dies at 90". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved June 5, 2020.
- ^ a b c Sandomir, Richard (June 10, 2020). "Lennie Niehaus, Who Set Eastwood's Films to Music, Dies at 90". The New York Times. Retrieved July 30, 2021.
- ^ a b "Artist Biography: Lenny Liehaus," by Scott Yanow, AllMusic (retrieved December 17, 2010)
- OCLC 2698149
- ^ The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz
1st ed. (2 vols.),OCLC 16804283
1st ed. (1 vol.),OCLC 30516743
2nd ed. (3 vols.),OCLC 46956628 - OCLC 44035053
- ^ "Interview: Lennie Niehaus" (Part 1), JazzWax, November 9, 2009
- OCLC 774640408
- ^ "Lennie Niehaus," by Marcia Hillman, The New York City Jazz Record, Issue 145, May 2014
- ^ Marble, Steve. Obituaries. Los Angeles Times. "Lennie Niehaus, L.A. jazz pioneer and longtime Clint Eastwood composer, dies at 90" JUNE 9, 2020. 1:59 PM
- OCLC 54303731
- OCLC 867590253
- ^ The Heritage Encyclopedia of Band Music: Composers and Their Music (2 Vols.), by William Harold Rehrig (born 1939), Westerville, Ohio: Integrity Press (1991)
3rd. Vol. Supplement (1996);OCLC 24606813 - OCLC 59693135
- Colin Larkin (ed.), Muze (1998), Grove's Dictionaries
"Niehaus, Lennie"OCLC 5108648136
"Contemporary Records"OCLC 5108887634
"Bird"OCLC 5108925774
"Manne, Shelly"OCLC 5108784472 - ^ "Lennie Niehaus: Composing for Clint," Archived April 2, 2015, at the Wayback Machine by Don Heckman, JazzTimes, September 2007
External links
- Lennie Niehaus at IMDb
- Lennie Niehaus discography at Discogs