Billy Strayhorn

Musician

• Born: November 29, 1915
• Birthplace: Dayton, Ohio
• Died: May 31, 1967
• Place of death: New York, New York

American jazz pianist and composer

An important jazz arranger and composer, Strayhorn is known for his longtime collaboration with Duke Ellington and for his compositions “Lush Life” and “Take the A Train.”

Member of The Billy Strayhorn All-Stars

The Life

William Thomas Strayhorn (STRAY-hohrn) was born to James and Lillian Strayhorn, and he was raised with four siblings in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, area. By the time Strayhorn finished high school, he was an accomplished pianist performing with youth orchestras. He soon discovered jazz, and he began leading his own trio with success. During this time, he also studied at the Pittsburgh Musical Institute.

Strayhorn met Duke Ellington in 1938, impressing the bandleader with striking interpretations of several Ellington compositions. The following year, Strayhorn moved to New York City to work for Ellington. At that time, he began a serious relationship with a man named Aaron Bridgers. Strayhorn and Bridgers, unafraid to be open about their homosexuality at a time when most were secretive, shared an apartment in Harlem. Their relationship ended in 1947 when Bridgers left for Paris to pursue a career as a cocktail pianist. They remained friends and always reunited when Strayhorn visited Paris.

Later, Strayhorn became active in the Civil Rights movement after his close friends Arthur Logan (a prominent African American doctor) and his wife Marian introduced him to Martin Luther King, Jr. Strayhorn raised funds for King and participated in numerous demonstrations with the Logans and his longtime friend Lena Horne. Logan diagnosed Strayhorn, who was a heavy drinker and a smoker, with cancer of the esophagus in 1964. Bill Grove, Strayhorn’s partner, was with him when he died in New York City in 1967.

The Music

Strayhorn was a gifted jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, and he spent the majority of his career working for and with Ellington. Partly because of his homosexuality, Strayhorn never sought the spotlight and worked mainly behind the scenes. Although he was capable of writing raucous swing numbers and simple blues tunes, Strayhorn’s most personal works were introspective and revealed the influence of classical composers such as Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. During his lifetime, he made just one album as a leader (in 1961) and gave only one significant concert (at the request of the Duke Ellington Society in 1965).

Early Works. Strayhorn’s early works are marked by the influence of George Gershwin. His first major work was Concerto for Piano and Percussion, which he performed at his high school graduation in 1934. The piece bore such a resemblance to Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue (1924) that many of his classmates remember him playing that piece. After graduation Strayhorn wrote songs and skits for the musical revue Fascinating Rhythm, which was a hit in Pittsburgh and on the local African American theater circuit.

“Lush Life.”Strayhorn’s most important early work was “Lush Life,” which he completed in 1936. The song tells the story of a jilted lover who plans to spend life drinking in a low-class bar surrounded by other lonely people. It is a strong example of Strayhorn’s songwriting style. In “Lush Life” the chromatic harmony and the melody work alternately with and against the lyrics to create an organic whole. Strayhorn performed the song for friends and at parties, but he never intended it to be published or recorded. Nat King Cole decided to record it after hearing it in 1949, leading to broad recognition of the song. “Lush Life” was published that year, and it is one of Strayhorn’s most important contributions to the jazz repertoire. Jazz musicians and several popular singers have made the song a standard.

“Take the A Train.”Completed by Strayhorn in 1940, “Take the A Train” became the Duke Ellington Orchestra’s theme song. Describing subway directions to Harlem, the song is a fast-tempo swing number with an unusually chromatic yet unforgettable melody. The composition was a fitting choice for Ellington’s theme because of its energy and memorable melody and because of its musical inspiration from the African American culture of Harlem. Ellington is widely identified with this song, even though he did not write it. Unfortunately, because of this strong association, Strayhorn is often overlooked as the song’s composer. “Take the A Train” is an important and regularly heard piece in jazz repertoire.

Such Sweet Thunder.As his career progressed, Ellington focused increasingly on creating large-scale works that challenged the conventions of the jazz idiom, and he relied heavily on Strayhorn’s collaboration. Their preferred format was the suite, which allowed them to compile several shorter pieces, often with no direct relation to one another, into a greater and more prestigious whole. Among the most successful of these works was Such Sweet Thunder, inspired by the works of William Shakespeare and premiered in 1957 at Town Hall in New York. Included in the suite was Strayhorn’s hauntingly beautiful ballad “Star-Crossed Lovers.” The composition was actually completed earlier and recorded by Johnny Hodges as “Pretty Girl,” but Ellington insisted upon renaming it and adding it to the suite. “Star-Crossed Lovers,” referring to Romeo and Juliet (1597), is a strong example of Strayhorn’s gift for making highly effective use of relatively few melodic and harmonic ideas, and it is considered a high point of the suite.

The Peaceful Side.Strayhorn’s only album as a leader features him on piano, accompanied by bass, strings, and voices. His arrangements and performances of “Take the A Train,” “Lush Life,” “Day Dream,” “Passion Flower,” and “Chelsea Bridge” are restrained, introspective, and soft. The album provides further insight into Strayhorn’s distinct musical personality because the performances of his best-known compositions are so different from the Duke Ellington Orchestra renderings.

Musical Legacy

Strayhorn’s complete output as a composer is difficult to assess because he collaborated so extensively with Ellington, frequently without credit for his arrangements or for his entire compositions. Although scholars and musicians may debate the importance of Strayhorn’s work, it is clear that his use of chromatic harmony and his comfort with adopting musical devices from bebop style helped to modernize jazz. Many of Strayhorn’s compositions are standards of the jazz repertoire that are performed regularly. Interest in Strayhorn’s music surged in the 1990’s after Joe Henderson released a Grammy Award-winning album of Strayhorn’s compositions called Lush Life in 1992 and David Hajdu released the excellent book Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn in 1996.

Principal Recordings

albums:Chelsea Bridge, 1941; Caravan, 1947 (with the Duke Ellington All-Stars and the Billy Strayhorn All-Stars); Trio, 1950; Satin Doll, 1953; Historically Speaking: The Duke, 1956; A Drum Is a Woman, 1957; Such Sweet Thunder, 1957; Billy Strayhorn/Johnny Dankworth, 1958; The Billy Strayhorn Septet, 1958; Cue for Saxophone, 1959; Johnny Hodges with Billy Strayhorn and the Orchestra, 1961; The Peaceful Side, 1961; Lush Life, 1964; The Far East Suite, 1966; And His Mother Called Him Bill, 1967.

singles: “Take the A Train,” 1941.

Bibliography

Dance, Stanley. The World of Duke Ellington. New York: Da Capo Press, 2000. This collection of essays and features by a longtime Duke Ellington Orchestra insider includes an interview with Strayhorn.

Hajdu, David. Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1996. This thoroughly researched biography chronicles the life of the talented, gentle, and shy Strayhorn, who has been described as the alter ego of Ellington.

Leur, Walter van de. Something to Live For: The Music of Billy Strayhorn. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2002. This careful examination of Strayhorn’s individual contributions to the Ellington repertoire provides ample study of Strayhorn’s work outside of the Ellington organization. Based on Strayhorn’s actual scores.

Schuller, Gunther. “Duke Ellington.” In The Swing Era. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1989. This chapter in a lengthy study provides helpful analysis of several Strayhorn compositions as well as commentary on his role in the Duke Ellington Orchestra.

Tucker, Mark, ed. The Duke Ellington Reader. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1995. This broad collection of Ellington-related material includes one of the few published interviews of Strayhorn.