Lennie Niehaus, Alto Saxophonist and Frequent Clint Eastwood
Collaborator, Dies at 90
The Hollywood Reporter
By Mike Barnes
6/1/2020
His résumé includes 'Bird,' 'The Unforgiven,' 'The Bridges
of Madison County' and an Emmy Award.
Lennie Niehaus, the West Coast alto saxophonist, arranger
and composer who played with Stan Keaton's band and collaborated with Clint
Eastwood on more than two dozen films, has died. He was 90.
Niehaus died Thursday at his daughter's home under hospice
care in Redlands, California, his family announced.
Niehaus first met Eastwood in the 1950s in the U.S. Army
when the future Hollywood legend served as his swimming instructor at Fort Ord in Monterey, California.
A mutual love of jazz sealed their friendship.
Niehaus had orchestrated scores for movies starring or
directed by Eastwood including The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), The
Enforcer (1976), The Gauntlet (1977), Escape
From Alcatraz (1979) and Tightrope (1984) before
he wrote the score for Pale Rider (1985).
Niehaus then handled the music for the Eastwood-produced and
-directed Bird (1988), the biopic that starred Forest
Whitaker as famed jazz saxophonist Charlie "Bird" Parker.
The pair also partnered on Unforgiven (1992), A
Perfect World (1993), The Bridges of Madison County (1995), True
Crime (1999), Heartbreak Ridge (1986), The
Rookie (1990), White Hunter Black Heart (1990), Absolute
Power (1997), Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997), Space
Cowboys (2000), Blood Work (2002), Mystic
River (2003), Million Dollar Baby (2004), Letters
From Iwo Jima (2006), Flags of Our Fathers (2006), Gran
Torino (2008) and Changeling (2008).
The son of a violinist who played in an orchestra that
accompanied silent movies, Niehaus was born in St. Louis on June 11, 1929.
"I liked Harry James, and when I heard tenor
saxophonist Corky Corcoran play 'The Mole' in 1942, I wanted to play the tenor
saxophone," he recalled in a 2009 interview. "My father was in shock.
He said, 'The saxophone! You play either the piano or violin, not the
saxophone. You'll wind up playing in a house of prostitution.' Actually, he was
right. I did play in small funky clubs later."
Niehaus studied music at Los Angeles City
College and earned his
degree in music education from Cal State Los Angeles in 1951. He played alto
saxophone and arranged for Phil Carreón and his orchestra, then went on the
road with Kenton for six months before being drafted into the Army.
After his discharge in 1954, Niehaus played in Kenton's band
through 1959, leaving to compose music in Hollywood
and arrange music for The King Sisters, Mel Tormé, Dean Martin and Carol
Burnett. In 1965, he worked as an uncredited orchestrator on the TV
comedy Hogan's Heroes.
Niehaus began orchestrating for film composer Jerry
Fielding, and they collaborated on features including Straw Dogs (1971), Lawman (1971), The
Mechanic (1972), The Gambler (1974), The
Bad News Bears (1976), Semi-Tough (1977), The
Outlaw Josey Wales and The Enforcer.
Niehaus' Hollywood résumé
also included Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985), Back
to School (1986) and The Two Jakes (1990).
He wrote the music and won his Emmy for the 1993 Showtime
movie Lush Life in which Whitaker played a jazz saxophonist.
He was nominated again in 2008 for his work on the ABC telefilm Mitch
Albom's For One More Day.
Survivors include his wife, Patricia, daughter Susan,
son-in-law Owen and grandchildren Josh and Emily.
NIEHAUS, Lennie (Leonard
Niehaus)
Born; 6/11/1929, St. Louis, Missouri,
U.S.A.
Died: 5/28/2020, Redlands, California,
U.S.A.
Lennie Niehaus’s
westerns – composer, orchestrator, conductor:
Lawman – 1971 [orchestrator]
Chato’s Land – 1972 [orchestrator]
The Outlaw Josey Wales – 1976 [orchestrator]
Pale Rider – 1985 [composer]
Unforgiven – 1992 [composer, songwriter, conductor]
Crazy Horse (TV) – 1996 [composer]
Pocahontas II: Journey to the New World
– 1998 [composer, orchestrator, conductor]
The Jack Bull (TV) – 1999 [composer]
Comanche Moon (TV) – 2008 [composer]
No comments:
Post a Comment