Lennie Niehaus - I Remember You (1929 - 2020)

The news that Lennie Niehaus had died on May 28 came as a shock to me even though I hadn’t realised he was still alive! I never met him or even heard him playing live* and yet he became part of me at a relatively early age. 

I'd just bought an alto sax and crossed the river on the ferry from Hebburn to Wallsend - the same ferry that featured in Get Carter, although I got aboard some years before Michael Caine. The reason for my journey was my first sax lesson from the late Jackie Laing.

At the end of the lesson he loaned me a 10" LP by Niehaus saying "Listen to I Remember You, that's the standard you have to aim for".

Well, needless to say, I never did reach that standard albeit I tried - boy how I tried!

From then on, I followed Lennie's career with the various Kenton bands. He had the challenging task of replacing first, Art Pepper and then Lee Konitz which he did successfully.

A career as a film composer in Hollywood brought him back into focus because of his association with Clint Eastwood and the Charlie Parker biopic, Bird.

Needless to say it is the Clint Eastwood connection that dominates the headlines but I will always remember Lennie Niehaus for I Remember You.

Lennie Niehaus was 90 years old.

R.I.P.

Lance.

Obituary.

* I think he played with Kenton at Newcastle City Hall in the 1950s but that was one Kenton concert I missed.