Lennie Niehaus, who went from Stan Kenton sideman to Clint Eastwood’s movie composer during a nearly 60-year career in music, died Thursday at his daughter’s home in Redlands, Calif. He…
’s movie composer during a nearly 60-year career in music, died Thursday at his daughter’s home in Redlands, Calif. He was 90.
Niehaus’s Army service interrupted a long stint playing alto saxophone, and later arranging, for renowned bandleader Stan Kenton. He joined the Kenton band in 1951 and then rejoined it in 1954. Beginning in 1958, he wrote arrangements for such Kenton LPs as “The Stage Door Swings,” “Sophisticated Approach” and “Adventures in Standards.” He once estimated that he wrote 100 arrangements for Kenton’s dance band.
A few years after Fielding’s 1980 death, Niehaus began working for Eastwood as composer himself, first on 1984’s “Tightrope” with its New Orleans setting, then on the Western “Pale Rider” and the military drama “Heartbreak Ridge.” As the piano-playing Eastwood’s confidence in his own music grew, he began writing themes that Niehaus incorporated into his films — “Claudia’s Theme” in the 1992 “Unforgiven” and “Doe Eyes” for the 1995 “Bridges of Madison County” among them. By 2003, Eastwood was composing full scores but having Niehaus orchestrate and conduct them. That practice continued through 2008’s “Gran Torino.”
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