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- Eargsams Volume 2: Billy Strayhorn “Lush Life”
Eargsams Volume 2: Billy Strayhorn “Lush Life”
- By Jair Trice
- Published 08/17/2007
- Literary & Music - Jair Trice
- Unrated
Jair Trice
Jair, “The Literary Masturbator™”
See His Bio in "Meet the Writers"
Eargsams Volume 2: Billy Strayhorn “Lush Life”
You may not know the name Billy Strayhorn, but you certainly know his music. Even if you aren’t a jazz fan you have heard his signature Duke Ellington tune “Take The A Train”. It’s a song that lives in the strata of music as a seminal composition helping to define Ellington as one of jazz’s greatest influences.
Billy Strayhorn first came to Ellington as a composer, arranger, and musician. Both gentleman probably had no idea how their association would change music as we know it. In fact before leaving Pittsburgh for New York, Strayhorn in his own words considered music, “an avocation, not a vocation”. The money he got for performing local gigs he called, “play money”.
Classically trained, which shows in his dexterity on the piano. He was a small man known to be very neat, with a lively intelligent mind, somewhat dry wit, impressive vocabulary, and precise diction.
Born in Dayton, Ohio on 29 November, 1915, he subsequently lived with his grandmother in Hillsboro, North Carolina and an aunt in Montclair, New Jersey, until his parents settled in a suburb of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.
Although he is most well known to the public as working with Ellington he had many successful recordings of his own as well as with other musicians as part of UMMG (Upper Manhattan Medical Group). His songs have been recorded by the likes of Dizzy Gillespie and two of his most famous songs “Lush Life” and “Something To Live For” have been recorded by legends such as Sarah Vaughn as well as an entire disc titled “Daydream: Variations On Strayhorn” by out “In The Life” contributor and singer/Broadway performer Darius de Haas.
“Lush Life” is also the title of his autobiography by David Hajdu, and a recording for the Red Baron label that shows off his abilities working with a big band, small band, and as a piano soloist. It includes him at the piano singing his own masterpiece and even though his vocal skills are not as remarkable as his expertise as a writer, arranger, and musician you understand the wan and melancholy of the song.
The disc also features solos by some of the most well known and talented musicians of the period including Johnny Hodges, Clark Terry, Paul Gonsalves, Willie Ruff, vocalist Ozzie Bailey and in one of the small band recordings of the song “Smada” another set of hands can be heard on the keyboard in the person of Duke Ellington himself, who had dropped by the recording just to see what was going on.
If the music wasn’t enough, what should also interest you about this man is that he was an openly same gender loving black man who had a long time life partner that he traveled the world with as a performer and entertainer. As noted in his autobiography it wasn’t discussed much because most black people lived by “the code” and didn’t discuss their “business” in the street. But it was a well known fact and one that was accepted amongst his peers.
One has to wonder what would have happened if men like Strayhorn and others from the previous generations’ “Harlem Renaissance” period would have lived in a time where they could have had community in opportunities like we have now, and also how our lives would be different.
Music samples, pictures, and other items can be viewed or listened to at www.billystrayhorn.com Like many of the era Strayhorn smoked continuously and that contributed to his untimely death in 1967 but his music and influence lives on.
Lush is a synonym for words such as abundant, flourishing, thriving, luxuriant, and fertile. I find it very apt to describe the life and music of Billy Strayhorn.
Billy Strayhorn first came to Ellington as a composer, arranger, and musician. Both gentleman probably had no idea how their association would change music as we know it. In fact before leaving Pittsburgh for New York, Strayhorn in his own words considered music, “an avocation, not a vocation”. The money he got for performing local gigs he called, “play money”.
Classically trained, which shows in his dexterity on the piano. He was a small man known to be very neat, with a lively intelligent mind, somewhat dry wit, impressive vocabulary, and precise diction.
Born in Dayton, Ohio on 29 November, 1915, he subsequently lived with his grandmother in Hillsboro, North Carolina and an aunt in Montclair, New Jersey, until his parents settled in a suburb of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.
Although he is most well known to the public as working with Ellington he had many successful recordings of his own as well as with other musicians as part of UMMG (Upper Manhattan Medical Group). His songs have been recorded by the likes of Dizzy Gillespie and two of his most famous songs “Lush Life” and “Something To Live For” have been recorded by legends such as Sarah Vaughn as well as an entire disc titled “Daydream: Variations On Strayhorn” by out “In The Life” contributor and singer/Broadway performer Darius de Haas.
“Lush Life” is also the title of his autobiography by David Hajdu, and a recording for the Red Baron label that shows off his abilities working with a big band, small band, and as a piano soloist. It includes him at the piano singing his own masterpiece and even though his vocal skills are not as remarkable as his expertise as a writer, arranger, and musician you understand the wan and melancholy of the song.
The disc also features solos by some of the most well known and talented musicians of the period including Johnny Hodges, Clark Terry, Paul Gonsalves, Willie Ruff, vocalist Ozzie Bailey and in one of the small band recordings of the song “Smada” another set of hands can be heard on the keyboard in the person of Duke Ellington himself, who had dropped by the recording just to see what was going on.
If the music wasn’t enough, what should also interest you about this man is that he was an openly same gender loving black man who had a long time life partner that he traveled the world with as a performer and entertainer. As noted in his autobiography it wasn’t discussed much because most black people lived by “the code” and didn’t discuss their “business” in the street. But it was a well known fact and one that was accepted amongst his peers.
One has to wonder what would have happened if men like Strayhorn and others from the previous generations’ “Harlem Renaissance” period would have lived in a time where they could have had community in opportunities like we have now, and also how our lives would be different.
Music samples, pictures, and other items can be viewed or listened to at www.billystrayhorn.com Like many of the era Strayhorn smoked continuously and that contributed to his untimely death in 1967 but his music and influence lives on.
Lush is a synonym for words such as abundant, flourishing, thriving, luxuriant, and fertile. I find it very apt to describe the life and music of Billy Strayhorn.
