I only have a few of his works, but everyone of them I enjoy. Rest well, Mr. Niehaus.
PS: Still awaiting a release of Space Cowboys and The Rookie
I agree and thinking about it over several years I fail to understand even now how major soundtrack labels have totally ignored him. He composed excellent music to films like : True Crime Space Cowboys The Rookie and others yet nothing official gets released. These labels release plenty of rubbish [ and I mean rubbish ] movie scores that one listen is more than enough but a real quality composer Lennie Niehaus gets left by the roadside.
There was an LP release of Leith Stevens' score to Don Siegel's 1954 movie PRIVATE HELL 36, wasn't there? Niehaus was on sax on the original film tracks. Was he brought back for the LP recording? Or was it a release of the original soundtrack?
I don't know, but here is an interesting tidbit:
PH36 was a 10" LP.
It was re-released in its entirety on a 12" LP called "Jazz Themes for Cops and Robbers."
The new tracks were stereo, but the PH36 tracks were originally mono. So, they overdubbed two tracks of percussion, including vibes and bongos, onto the PH36 tracks to make them "stereo." They centered the original mono track, and placed the vibes and bongos left and right. I do not know if Stevens was involved in creating the overdubbed parts, or if they brought in another arranger.
