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Lennie Niehaus (1929–2020)

  Leonard Niehaus was an American alto saxophonist, composer and arranger on the West Coast jazz scene. His father, a Russian immigrant, was a violinist in an orchestra accompanying silent films. Niehaus began playing alto saxophone and clarinet and composing. After studying music at college, he began his professional career arranging and playing alto with West Coast bands, and in 1951 joined the Stan Kenton Orchestra.

On discharge from the US Army, he re-joined Kenton for five years as lead alto and featured soloist. He composed and arranged extensively for the band, and had numerous arrangements featured on Kenton’s recordings.

In 1962, he began orchestrating and composing for television and film. He had met Clint Eastwood when they were serving together in the US Army and found they both had a passion for jazz. He developed a close association with Eastwood as composer and arranger for motion pictures produced by him.

Niehaus wrote the score for Pale Rider , directed by Eastwood, and went on to write the scores for the next 12 films directed by Eastwood, including the box-office hits, Heartbreak Ridge , Unforgiven and the classic The Bridges of Madison County .

The most substantial collaboration between them was the biographical film on Charlie Parker, Bird , for which both won awards. One award was shared between Niehaus and Charlie Parker due to a production process that had managed to electronically isolate Parker’s saxophone solos from the original recordings and back them with modern stereo recordings.

Biography by Mike Rose

Proud and happy

Following an early career as a lead alto, composer and arranger, Niehaus brought his experience and talent to the world of movies. In this 1988 interview with Howard Lucraft, he describes the making of the movie Bird which Clint Eastward directed as a tribute to Charlie Parker.

• Interviews - Jazz artists

Lennie Niehaus

Image details, interview transcription.

Lennie Niehaus admits that he “has every reason to be proud and happy”. In his early career he was acclaimed internationally as jazz altoist, composer and arranger (Stan Kenton and his own six albums as leader). Then, in these latter years, Lennie has garnered accolades as a leading Hollywood film composer. Yet he has always continued to utilise and expose his jazz background. This has culminated in his much-envied assignment as musical director and composer on the upcoming Charlie Parker  Bird  film, produced and directed by Clint Eastwood.

Lennie’s sister was a concert pianist and his father was an expert violinist. Père Niehaus started his son on violin at age seven. “I went from violin to oboe to bassoon,” Lennie recalled. “Then, at thirteen, I took up alto and clarinet.” He went on: “I was always interested in composing and writing; I wrote music as a young teenager. I had always heard advanced chords, listening to my sister and father play romantic era music.” 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.

“I left in 1959—I wanted to write. I came back to town (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. “I did about sixty or seventy TV shows and films for Jerry,” Lennie recalled. Since Fielding’s death, Lennie has been a leading film composer in his own right. “And I always do my own orchestrating. I always think orchestrally,” Lennie informed.

In films Lennie never forgets his jazz roots. He instanced: “The story of the film  City Heat  was cast in the ‘thirties. I wrote jazz of that period using people like altoist Marshal Royal. Bill Perkins came in and played like Lester. I 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 form, although he confessed: “Now I hear a little differently.” The Charlie Parker film, tentatively titled  Bird , has just finished shooting. Release is expected for the Autumn.

Clint Eastwood, who produced and directed, reportedly once played for beer and tips in an Oakland, California bar. A jazz fan from way back, weaned on his father’s Fats Waller records, he stated that his “first idol was Lester Young.” His first exposure to Bird was in an “incredible Jazz at the Philharmonic concert” that also included Coleman Hawkins and Flip Phillips. When Eastwood was in the Army at Ft. Ord, California, he would go to hear Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker. It was at Ft. Ord that he first met Lennie Niehaus.

As the Parker film’s musical director, Lennie revealed: “I went to all the musical scenes and I helped also with all the editing. Unlike past films on jazz, this one will be a hundred per cent authentic.” Playing Bird in the movie is twenty-six year-old Forest Whitaker, who once played trumpet. Lennie taught all the alto fingerings to Whitaker in the Bird numbers featured “Now’s The Time” and “Just Friends” are just a couple mentioned. Lennie told me: “I have been listening to Bird since I was fifteen; I had taken down a stack of his stuff.” As Lennie and I talked on the Burbank Studios movie lot, he pointed out a reconstructed brownstone house just across from where we were seated. “This was the house built for Chan’s (later Bird’s wife) apartment. It’s exactly like the one she had in New York.” (Chan is a consultant on the film).

There’s a supposedly true story that Bird had two of his friends serenade Chan outside her window with “Why Do I Love You?” Then Bird came along on a horse and doffed his hat. “This is all in the movie,” Lennie said. “I taught the song to the two actors.” Other scenes show Bird at age sixteen in the Reno Club, Kansas City, where they didn’t like his playing and the drummer threw a cymbal at him. “For young Bird in this episode we used Forest Whitaker’s young brother, who is also aged sixteen.” All the alto playing heard in the film is from actual Charlie Parker recordings.

“A lot of the stuff we used was never released,” Lennie told me. “There’s nine choruses of “Lester Leaps In” jetted at about sixty bars a minute. Then there’s some stuff that Lennie Tristano recorded in his own home studio, with himself on piano, Bird, and Art Blakey playing brushes on a telephone book.” The sound engineers isolated Bird’s solos by cutting the highs (cymbals, drums) and the lows (bass), thus eliminating the original, badly recorded rhythm sections. Then Ray Brown (bass), John Guerin (drums) and Monty Alexander (piano) were brought in to record a modern–sounding background to Bird’s solos. “The original piano (in that register) was obviously hard to eliminate completely but is covered by Monty Alexander’s playing,” Lennie said.

Numbers such as “Koko” (Cherokee”) were re–recorded using Jon Faddis (for Dizzy Gillespie who was unavailable), Walter Davis (piano) and bassist Ron Carter. To act the part of the young Dizzy they used Sam Wright. “For ‘Ornithology’ I showed Sam how to breathe and finger,” Lennie said.

“Strangely, Sam was born thirteen miles from Dizzy’s birthplace in South Carolina.” Michael Zelniker played the part of trumpeter Red Rodney, who also plays on the soundtrack and, because of his close association with Bird, was consultant on the picture.

“There was one number where we didn’t use Bird’s actual recorded sound,” Lennie informed. “A take of ‘Now’s The Time’ featured altoist Charles McPherson from San Diego. There were many suggestions for a Bird sound–alike Phil Woods, Joe Maini, Frank Morgan but none was as close as McPherson.” Lennie himself got to play alto for one scene. In the Reno Club episode there is a tenor/ alto cutting session with James Rivers and Lennie supplying the soundtrack.

To ensure complete authenticity, the old Birdland, Three Dueces and a complete 52nd Street was built at the Burbank Studios. To further illustrate the authenticity, Lennie pointed out: “We sought out a twenty-two-year-old white bop drummer who played left-handed because Stan Levey was the left-handed drummer with Bird on 52nd Street.”

This article was first published in Crescendo International, February, 1988.

Copyright © 1988, Howard Lucraft. All Rights Reserved.

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Voicing/Format Jazz Ensemble Desc Swing/Trombone Section Composer Lennie Niehaus Publisher Kendor Music Inc Series Jazz Journey Grade 3.5 Catalog # 3572 Permanently Out of Print

Masterpieces for the Modern Pianist: A Unique Classical Collection of Favorites and Undiscovered GemsAn extensive 272-page classical piano collection of original piano solos from Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and early 20th Century masters that juxtaposes familiar pieces with lesser known gems.... Read More ›

Piano Songs for the Very Beginner (30 Popular Songs in Pre-Staff Notation)Designed with the beginner in mind, “Piano Songs for the Very Beginner” features popular, easy-to-play melodies in pre-staff notation, perfect for those in their first months of learning. Arrangements... Read More ›

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Birth and Death Data: Born June 11, 1929 ( St. Louis ), Died May 28, 2020 ( Redlands )

Date Range of DAHR Recordings: 1954

Roles Represented in DAHR: alto saxophone

Chicago Style APA Style MLA Style

Discography of American Historical Recordings , s.v. "Niehaus, Lennie," accessed April 24, 2024, https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/333901.

Niehaus, Lennie. (2024). In Discography of American Historical Recordings . Retrieved April 24, 2024, from https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/333901.

"Niehaus, Lennie." Discography of American Historical Recordings . UC Santa Barbara Library, 2024. Web. 24 April 2024.

DAHR Persistent Identifier

URI: https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/333901

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LCNAR: Niehaus, Lennie - http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n83156021

Wikidata: Lennie Niehaus - http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1818079

VIAF: http://viaf.org/viaf/84969682

MusicBrainz: Lennie Niehaus - https://musicbrainz.org/artist/84b40267-a06a-4c03-9fe0-a92e340f99c5

ISNI: 0000 0001 2141 8906 - http://www.isni.org/isni/0000000121418906

FAST: http://id.worldcat.org/fast/116605

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The spiraling 246m high Evolution Tower is located on plots 2-3 of Moscow-City high-rise business district on Presnenskaya Embankment of Moscow river. New multi-function center occupies the territory of 2.5ha in area, 2ha of which is a landscaped terraced civic plaza, the integral part of the new city piazza, the central open public space of Moscow-City business downtown.

ivic plaza includes 10m high ceremonial stairs (leading from embankment and pedestrian Bagration Bridge to the higher terraced levels) as well as landscaped areas with green lawns, trees, water features, travellators and feature lightboxes.

Evolution Tower

Location: Moscow, Russia

Typology: High-Rise, Office, Mixed-Use

Years: Construction 2011-2014

Status: Built

Height: 246m

Design team: GORPROJECT  (2011-2015), 

RMJM Scotland Ltd 

(original concept 2005-2007)

Under the piazza levels the 2-storey retail mall connects the Evolution Tower with metro station and pedestrian bridge over Moscow river, thus integrating the new development into the large Moscow-City district, the Europe's newest and most ambitious high-rise cluster (7 of 10 highest European skyscrapers ae located here), housing over 4 million square meters of office and retail areas with associated transport and engineering infrastructure.   

The Evolution Gallery mall houses food court and 6,000m2 family entertainment and educational center for various children activities (the first center of that kind in Moscow). 

The 82,000m2 office tower has 52 levels rotated 3 degrees each floor with overall twist reaching 156 degrees clockwise. With world’s largest innovative cold-bent glazing the tower façade provides seamless floating reflection that rotates the panoramas of Moscow skyline vertically, where the reflected clouds moving up enhance the dynamic visual impact of the twisted tower, an unprecedented optical effect in the world architecture.  The Crown with supporting steel structure made of two twisted arches provides the helipad at the very top as well as the open observation roof decks at Levels 51-52 featuring the best panoramas of Moscow riverside with views towards the historical center. 

From the very beginning the developer and architects have set an ambitious task to create a recognizable and symbolic tower, the new icon of contemporary Moscow.  The sculptural DNA-shaped twisting tower symbolizes the evolution spiral with the white façade ribbon wrapping over the roof in a form of 90-degree twisted infinity symbol, which speaks of philosophical concept of evolution and celebrates the development of human civilization. From spiraling onion domes of St. Basil to the iconic Tatlin Tower concept the Russian architecture was obsessed with idea of spiral. The simple and innovative design was based on principles of twisting square-shaped floor plates with vertical structural RC frame supported by a central core and 8 columns with continuous beams and 4 spiraling columns at the corners. 

The proposed structural scheme with cantilevered continuous RC beams and cantilevered floor slabs  picking up the overhangs from the twisted floor plates appeared to be simple, efficient and economical. The complex sculptural tower façade envelope was built using the innovative cold-bent glazing with flat double glazed units cold-formed in 3D within the aluminum frame under its own weight to avoid stepping in geometry. This approach appeared to be both more energy-efficient and more cost-efficient solution in comparison to the stepped curtain wall units previously applied in some twisted unitized facades. 

The multifunctional architectural glass by Guardian significantly reduces the solar gain whilst providing the double glazed unit thermal performance equal to standard triple glazed unit normally used in Moscow to withstand harsh winter conditions. The use of innovative TWIN elevators by ThyssenKrupp saved 2 shafts within the core (10 TWINs instead of 12 double-deckers in the original concept) and contributed to the overall project sustainability with lesser power consumption per passenger. Other sustainable design features include green roofs over the retail mall and integrated coil floor heating under landscaped civic piazza levels using the return water in winter to melt the snow and ice for the safety of pedestrians. The reinforced concrete formwork by PERI, including self-climbing ACS formwork specially designed for the twisting corner columns, allowed to achieve the impressive speed of RC frame construction of 6 days per floor due to perfect site logistics by Renaissance Construction as main contractor. 

All innovative design solutions and optimizations secured the delivery of this fairly unique skyscraper within the project plan and almost within the budget of the standard ‘benchmark’ high-rise building. This turned out to be a major achievement of the design and construction teams. 

The organic twisting silhouette dominates on its background of extruded glass towers greatly contributing into the overall composition of the high-rise Moscow-City cluster. The development delivered a significant open public space on the landscaped roof of the retail mall, thus providing the perfect mix of business uses with public and social activities of the civic plaza and the mall with its food court and core family entertainment function. The synergy of that mix with large underground car-park complemented by the direct link to the metro station and pedestrian bridge as means of main public transportation secured the successful project completion with the recent entire tower acquisition. Bold shape and timeless aesthetics as added values brought by its unique architecture materialized in a commercial success of this project with the tower being fully acquired for corporate headquarters even in the context of oversupply in the Moscow office market. The outstanding quality of architecture and its fine detailing, state of the art building services and communications of Class A office Tower together with the highest level of transport accessibility  (direct access to metro station from the lobby, large car-parking, proximity to boat pier and helipads) make this property very attractive for tenants and visitors. The beautiful riverside panoramas from offices are complemented by green roof and water features of the large 2ha terraced civic piazza as the main recreational outdoor space with direct link from the office tower lobby. 

The highest quality of façade cladding, glazing, vertical transportation and MEP equipment from leading European and international suppliers provided the truly Class-A office environment with the luxury of minimalist spirit in the architecture of the new landmark on the Moscow skyline. Even before its completion the sculptural spiral of Evolution Tower, more often appearing in commercials, posters and magazines, became a new icon for modern Moscow as the symbol of its business ambitions and fast development. The Evolution Tower also became the monument to the courage of its developer (Snegiri Group) and investors, who built the great deal of trust with architects, engineers and contractors by investing their efforts and funds in a challenging adventure of designing and building the unique and innovative skyscraper for the capital of Russia. 

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