Have you heard of Lennie Niehaus?

If, like most BSH readers, you are educated in bebop, the question might seem absurd. If, like me, your jazz knowledge is limited, the answer might be: “No, but I’ve heard lots of his music.” Again, like me, you might not be aware of that fact.

Niehaus was a star alto sax player, composer/arranger with Stan Kenton more or less from completing his musical education in 1951 until 1959 when he quit performing to concentrate on writing music for film and television. (No, I knew none of this when I first heard his name at a recent gig: I consulted Googlepedia to check how to spell Niehaus, and was surprised by what followed).

What followed was the Eastwood connection: during two years military service, Clint Eastwood was Niehaus’ swimming instructor and the two bonded with their common passion for jazz. When Eastwood had moved more into producing and directing movies, he turned to Niehaus for the music in his classic western, Pale Rider. Twelve more films followed including:

Heartbreak Ridge*

Bird*

Unforgiven*

The Bridges of Madison County*

Space Cowboys*

Bloodwork

Asterisked films won BMI or other awards.

When Eastwood started doing his own scores Niehaus did their orchestration for six more acclaimed movies:

Mystic River

Million Dollar Baby

Flags of Our Fathers

Letters from Iwo Jima

Changeling

Gran Torino

I have seen all of the above films – many of them numerous times – without ever knowing the name (let alone how to spell it)! Have you heard of him too? Jerry