Lennie Niehaus

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Lennie Niehaus is an American alto saxophonist, arranger, and composer. 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.

Lennie Niehaus was born on the 11th of June 1929 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. He then changed instruments to bassoon. Then, when Niehaus turned thirteen, he took up alto saxophone and clarinet. Niehaus was always interested in composing and writing and wrote music as a young teenager. Listening to his sister and father play romantic era music, he had always heard advanced chords. In 1946, while still studying music at college, 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, and then 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. It was in 1962 that Lennie started orchestrating for that great film composer Jerry Fielding, whose untimely death at a young age musicians still mourn. All up he did about sixty or seventy TV shows and films for Fielding. Since Fielding’s death, Lennie has been a leading film composer in his own right. He always does his own orchestrating as in everything he wrote he always thought orchestrally.

In films Lennie never forgets his jazz roots. The story of the film City Heat was cast in the ‘thirties, 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. In the last eight years Lennie had not played his alto at all. Today he’s back blowing, reportedly in top formn. Back onto the film composing, Lennie also musically directed the Charlie Parker Film called "Bird".

His work includes a "Spiritual Jazz Suite", 4 pieces arranged for Brass Quartet.