NY, Nov 10: Clint Eastwood regularly has a hand in composing or assembling his movie soundtracks. And he recently was recognized for his efforts by the Henry Mancini Institute. But his highly praised new film, the intense crime drama "Mystic River," is the first to feature an entire score by the onetime jazz-club pianist -- save for a pair of jazz instrumentals by his jazz bassist son, Kyle Eastwood, and Michael Stevens that was used as source music in a bar scene.

"I've written themes for pictures before," says Eastwood, singling out "Big Fran's Baby" from 1993's "A Perfect World" country-music soundtrack, "Doe Eyes" from his Johnny Hartman-heavy 1995 romance "Bridges of Madison County" and especially "Claudia's Theme" from his 1992 masterpiece "Unforgiven" -- which he wrote on his way to the location.

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"I've just fooled around and let Lennie Niehaus save my bacon and be the hero," he continues, referring to his longtime musical collaborator. "But on this one, I wrote it and then played it into a friend's computer, and he mocked up some synthesized instruments. After the film was done, Lennie arranged and conducted it for the Boston Symphony Orchestra."
Eastwood says he never intends to write music for his films. "It just comes to you along the way," he explains.
On determining what would work for the new film, Eastwood says, "I didn't want a jazzy thing because I didn't see it as that kind of movie, but went with the three guys who were haunted by their past and the problems they were having in the present, and built a sort of triad on the piano, and just worked it out from there."

The director/composer says he draws upon a lifetime's worth of film music influences "dating back to Franz Waxman, Max Steiner, Miklos Rozsa -- all those people you grow up with -- and then guys I worked with like Lennie and Jerry Fielding and Lalo Schifrin, and then Hank Mancini, who was not only a great composer but a great songwriter."

Mancini, who died in 1994, was also a great friend of Eastwood's.

"We knew each other back in the '50s, when I was a contract player at Universal and he was a young guy in the music department," Eastwood recalls, noting that the two future legends were then of low company ranking. "We'd see each other now and then and commiserate, and we used to laugh about how we both used to play 'Honky Tonk Train Blues' at assemblies in school. I always liked following his career."

Receiving the Henry Mancini Institute's fourth annual Hank Award for distinguished service to American Music, then, was especially meaningful for Eastwood.

Previous honoree Quincy Jones presented the award at the Institute's 2003 Mancini Musicale in August at UCLA's Royce Hall. The gala featured a performance by Diana Krall, who sang "Why Should I Care?" on the soundtrack for Eastwood's 1996 thriller, "True Crime." Bureau Report