Lennie Niehaus
Encyclopedia
Lennie Niehaus is an American
alto saxophonist, arranger
, and composer
on the West Coast jazz
scene. He has played with the Stan Kenton
big band
, and various other jazz
bands on the West Coast of the U.S. Niehaus has arranged and composed for motion pictures, including several produced by Clint Eastwood
.
Niehaus was born in St. Louis
, Missouri
, USA. Lennie’s sister was a concert pianist and his father was an expert violinist. Père Niehaus, his father, started his son on violin at age seven. Lennie then changed instruments to bassoon
. When he turned thirteen, he began learning alto saxophone
and clarinet
. Niehaus was always interested in composing and wrote music as a young teenager. In 1946, while still studying music at college (what is now CSULA), Lennie started his professional career, along with reedmen Herb Geller, Herbie Steward and Teddy Edwards. He went with the Stan Kenton orchestra for six months. However, he was drafted into the army in 1952. Discharged in 1954, he rejoined Kenton for five years.
He left in 1959 because he wanted to be a composer. He went back to Los Angeles to arrange for the King Sisters
, Mel Tormé
, Dean Martin
, and Carol Burnett
. In 1962 he began orchestrating for film composer Jerry Fielding
. Niehaus worked with Fielding on approximately sixty or seventy TV shows and films. Since Fielding’s death, Lennie has been a leading film composer in his own right. He always does his own orchestrating for his pieces.
In films Lennie never forgets his jazz roots. The story of the film City Heat
was cast in the 1930s, so he wrote jazz of that period using people like altoist Marshal Royal. Bill Perkins
came in and played like Lester. He had a jazz violinist who sounded like Stephane Grappelli
. Then there was a boogie woogie sequence with three pianists Pete Jolly, Mike Land and producer Clint Eastwood. After many years of not playing his alto saxophone at all, Niehaus returned to performing, reportedly in top form. He still composes for films as well. He was the musical director for the Charlie Parker
feature film, Bird.
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, a book of classical saxophone duets, A beginning, intermediate, and advanced methods for the understanding of jazz technique, and a book of jazz saxophone duets exemplifying jazz styles.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
alto saxophonist, arranger
Arranger
In investment banking, an arranger is a provider of funds in the syndication of a debt. They are entitled to syndicate the loan or bond issue, and may be referred to as the "lead underwriter". This is because this entity bears the risk of being able to sell the underlying securities/debt or the...
, and composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
on the West Coast jazz
West coast jazz
West Coast jazz refers to various styles of jazz music that developed around Los Angeles and San Francisco during the 1950s. West Coast jazz is often seen as a sub-genre of cool jazz, which featured a less frenetic, calmer style than bebop or hard bop. The music tended to be more heavily arranged,...
scene. He has played with the Stan Kenton
Stan Kenton
Stanley Newcomb "Stan" Kenton was a pianist, composer, and arranger who led a highly innovative, influential, and often controversial American jazz orchestra. In later years he was widely active as an educator....
big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
, and various other jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
bands on the West Coast of the U.S. Niehaus has arranged and composed for motion pictures, including several produced by Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
.
Niehaus was born in St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, USA. Lennie’s sister was a concert pianist and his father was an expert violinist. Père Niehaus, his father, started his son on violin at age seven. Lennie then changed instruments to bassoon
Bassoon
The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band and chamber music literature...
. When he turned thirteen, he began learning alto saxophone
Alto saxophone
The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in 1841. It is smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano, and is the type most used in classical compositions...
and clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
. Niehaus was always interested in composing and wrote music as a young teenager. In 1946, while still studying music at college (what is now CSULA), Lennie started his professional career, along with reedmen Herb Geller, Herbie Steward and Teddy Edwards. He went with the Stan Kenton orchestra for six months. However, he was drafted into the army in 1952. Discharged in 1954, he rejoined Kenton for five years.
He left in 1959 because he wanted to be a composer. He went back to Los Angeles to arrange for the King Sisters
The King Sisters
The King Sisters were an American big band-era vocal quartet.-History:Born and raised in Pleasant Grove, Utah, about 35 miles south of Salt Lake City, the King Sisters originally were part of the "Driggs Family of Entertainers"."In the early 1930s sisters Luise, Maxine and Alyce formed a vocal trio...
, Mel Tormé
Mel Tormé
Melvin Howard Tormé , nicknamed The Velvet Fog, was an American musician, known for his jazz singing. He was also a jazz composer and arranger, a drummer, an actor in radio, film, and television, and the author of five books...
, Dean Martin
Dean Martin
Dean Martin was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?"...
, and Carol Burnett
Carol Burnett
Carol Creighton Burnett is an American actress, comedian, singer, dancer and writer. Burnett started her career in New York. After becoming a hit on Broadway, she made her television debut...
. In 1962 he began orchestrating for film composer Jerry Fielding
Jerry Fielding
Jerry Fielding was an American radio, record, film and television composer, conductor, and musical director.-Childhood and education:...
. Niehaus worked with Fielding on approximately sixty or seventy TV shows and films. Since Fielding’s death, Lennie has been a leading film composer in his own right. He always does his own orchestrating for his pieces.
In films Lennie never forgets his jazz roots. The story of the film City Heat
City Heat
City Heat is a 1984 American action-comedy film starring Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds. The film was released in North America in December 1984. The pairing of Eastwood and Reynolds in a Prohibition-era action-comedy seemed to give the film the potential to be a hit...
was cast in the 1930s, so he wrote jazz of that period using people like altoist Marshal Royal. Bill Perkins
Bill Perkins (saxophonist)
Bill Perkins was a cool jazz saxophonist and flutist popular on the West Coast jazz scene, known primarily as a tenor saxophonist. Born in San Francisco, California, Perkins started out performing in the big bands of Woody Herman and Jerry Wald. He also worked for the Stan Kenton orchestra, which...
came in and played like Lester. He had a jazz violinist who sounded like Stephane Grappelli
Stéphane Grappelli
Stéphane Grappelli was a French jazz violinist who founded the Quintette du Hot Club de France with guitarist Django Reinhardt in 1934. It was one of the first all-string jazz bands....
. Then there was a boogie woogie sequence with three pianists Pete Jolly, Mike Land and producer Clint Eastwood. After many years of not playing his alto saxophone at all, Niehaus returned to performing, reportedly in top form. He still composes for films as well. He was the musical director for the Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....
feature film, Bird.
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, a book of classical saxophone duets, A beginning, intermediate, and advanced methods for the understanding of jazz technique, and a book of jazz saxophone duets exemplifying jazz styles.
Discography
- Volume 1: The Quintets (Contemporary 3518)
- Volume 2: Zounds! (Contemporary 3540)
- Volume 3: The Octet, Number 2 (Contemporary 3505)
- Volume 4: The Quintets And Strings (Contemporary 3510)
- Volume 5: The Sextet (Contemporary 3524)
- I Swing For You (EmArcy 36118)
Musical scores
- Oprah Winfrey Presents: Mitch Albom's For One More DayOprah Winfrey Presents: Mitch Albom's For One More DayFor One More Day is a 2007 television film adaptation of the Mitch Albom's novel by the same title, which was a The New York Times Best Seller. Produced by Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Productions, the film stars Michael Imperioli and Ellen Burstyn as leads. Director Lloyd Kramer, also directed the TV...
(2007) (TV) - Blood Work (2002)
- Space CowboysSpace CowboysSpace Cowboys is a 2000 science fiction film directed by Clint Eastwood. Eastwood also stars in the film alongside Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, and James Garner as four older "ex-test pilots" who are sent into space to repair an old Soviet satellite...
(2000) - The Jack Bull (1999) (TV)
- True CrimeTrue Crime (1999 film)True Crime is a 1999 American mystery drama film directed by Clint Eastwood, and based on Andrew Klavan's 1997 novel of the same name. Eastwood also stars in the film as a journalist covering the execution of a death row inmate, only to discover that the convict may actually be innocent.-Plot:Steve...
(1999) - Pocahontas II: Journey to a New WorldPocahontas II: Journey to a New WorldPocahontas II: Journey to a New World is a 1998 straight-to-video sequel to the 1995 Disney film Pocahontas. The film is inspired by true events in the life of Pocahontas which took place several years after her encounter with John Smith and the founders of Jamestown...
(1998) - Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997)
- Absolute PowerAbsolute Power (film)Absolute Power is a 1997 American political thriller produced, directed by, and starring Clint Eastwood as a thief who witnesses a murder. The screenplay by William Goldman is based on the 1996 novel of the same name written by David Baldacci...
(1997) - Love Theme for The Bridges of Madison CountyThe Bridges of Madison County (film)The Bridges of Madison County is a 1995 American romantic drama film based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Robert James Waller. It was produced by Amblin Entertainment and Malpaso Productions, and distributed by Warner Bros. Entertainment...
(1995) - A Perfect WorldA Perfect WorldA Perfect World is a 1993 drama film directed by Clint Eastwood, and starring Kevin Costner as an escaped convict who befriends a young boy , and ends up embarking on a road trip with the child...
(1993) - Lush Life (1993) (TV)
- UnforgivenUnforgivenUnforgiven is a 1992 American Western film produced and directed by Clint Eastwood with a screenplay written by David Webb Peoples. The film tells the story of William Munny, an aging outlaw and killer who takes on one more job years after he had hung up his guns and turned to farming...
(1992) - The RookieThe Rookie (1990 film)The Rookie is a 1990 American action film directed by Clint Eastwood and produced by Howard G. Kazanjian, Steven Siebert and David Valdes. It was written from a screenplay conceived by Boaz Yakin and Scott Spiegel. The film stars Charlie Sheen, Clint Eastwood, Raúl Juliá, Sônia Braga, Lara Flynn...
(1990) - White Hunter Black HeartWhite Hunter Black HeartWhite Hunter Black Heart is a 1990 American film, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood as John Wilson, based on the book by Peter Viertel. Viertel also co-wrote the script with James Bridges and Burt Kennedy. The film was based on several Golden Age of Hollywood movie producers...
(1990) - Bird (1988)
- Emanon (1987)
- Heartbreak RidgeHeartbreak RidgeHeartbreak Ridge is a 1986 American war film, starring Clint Eastwood and Mario Van Peebles, surrounding the 1983 U.S. invasion of Grenada, West Indies. A portion of the movie was filmed on the island itself....
(1986) - Ratboy (1986)
- Never Too Young to DieNever Too Young to DieNever Too Young To Die is a 1986 action film, starring John Stamos as Lance Stargrove, a young man who, with the help of secret-agent Danja-Deering must avenge the death of his secret-agent father at the hands of the evil hermaphrodite Velvet Von Ragner .-External Links:*...
(1986) - Follow that Bird (1985)
- Pale RiderPale RiderPale Rider is a 1985 American western film produced and directed by Clint Eastwood, who also stars in the lead role. This movie has plot similarities to the classic Western Shane , including in its final scene, as well as previous Eastwood films featuring his Man with No Name character and his 1973...
(1985) - City HeatCity HeatCity Heat is a 1984 American action-comedy film starring Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds. The film was released in North America in December 1984. The pairing of Eastwood and Reynolds in a Prohibition-era action-comedy seemed to give the film the potential to be a hit...
(1984) - TightropeTightrope (film)Tightrope is a 1984 American suspense thriller produced by and starring Clint Eastwood and written and directed by Richard Tuggle.-Plot:A young woman walks home from her birthday party. She is stalked by a man in distinctive sneakers. After dropping one of her presents, a police officer offers to...
(1984) - Faerie Tale TheatreFaerie Tale TheatreFaerie Tale Theatre is a live-action children's television anthology series retelling popular fairy tales. Shelley Duvall serves as narrator, host and executive producer of the program, and occasionally stars in episodes...
(1984)