21 Facts About Lennie Niehaus

Leonard Niehaus was an American alto saxophonist, composer and arranger on the West Coast jazz scene.

Lennie Niehaus played with the Stan Kenton Orchestra and served as one of Kenton's primary staff arrangers.

Lennie Niehaus played with Ray Vasquez and trombonist and Vocalist, Phil Carreon and other jazz bands on the US West Coast.

Lennie Niehaus had a close association as composer and arranger on motion pictures produced and directed by Clint Eastwood.

Lennie Niehaus was born in St Louis, Missouri on June 1,1929 to Aaron "Pere"and Clariss Lennie Niehaus.

Lennie Niehaus's father, a Russian immigrant, was a violinist who played in an orchestra that accompanied silent films in theaters.

Lennie Niehaus's father started him on violin at age seven, then he switched to bassoon.

At thirteen, Lennie Niehaus began alto saxophone and clarinet, about this time he began composing.

In 1946, after graduation from Roosevelt High School, Lennie Niehaus started to study music at Los Angeles City College later earning a music education degree from Los Angeles State College in 1951 as part of the school's first full graduating class.

Lennie Niehaus began his professional career arranging for and playing alto saxophone with Phil Carreon and His Orchestra in the Los Angeles area.

Lennie Niehaus composed and arranged extensively for the Kenton band being a feature soloist and having numerous arrangements featured on Kenton's Capitol Records releases.

Lennie Niehaus had the longest and most recorded tenure of any of the lead alto players with the group, including such players as Charlie Mariano, Lee Konitz, Gabe Baltazar, and Tony Campise.

Lennie Niehaus would go on during that time to write and arrange music for entertainers acts such as the King Sisters, Mel Torme, Dean Martin, and Carol Burnett.

Lennie Niehaus had already orchestrated scores for films starring Eastwood like Tightrope, produced by Eastwood.

Lennie Niehaus then wrote the musical scores for the following twelve films up to Blood Work, and orchestrated the music for the next six features that Eastwood completed, from Mystic River to Gran Torino.

Besides a Golden Globe for Eastwood as best director, an Academy Award for best sound and many others, the score by Lennie Niehaus was nominated for a BAFTA Award, and won 2nd place at the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards, shared between Lennie Niehaus and Charlie Parker, due to a production process that had managed to electronically isolate Parker's saxophone solos from the original recordings and backed them with modern stereo recordings.

Lennie Niehaus wrote the music for another jazz related feature, the 1993 TV movie Lush Life, in which Forest Whitaker, who played Charlie Parker in Bird, starred as a jazz saxophonist.

Lennie Niehaus won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie, or a Special.

Lennie Niehaus's work includes Spiritual Jazz Suite, four pieces arranged for brass quartet, three sets of Christmas Jazz suites and a Christmas Jazz Medley arranged for saxophone quartet.

Lennie Niehaus played saxophone as leader of his octet on his album, Sunday Afternoons At The Lighthouse Cafe.

Lennie Niehaus died in Redlands, California at the age of 90.