Sail blad digital

LENA HORNE • CLARK TERRY • DIANNE REEVES N A N C Y W I L S O N • T E R E L L S TA F F O R D • H E R B J E F F R I E S A N D M O R E CO M M E N TA R Y F R O M

STRAYHORN AN ILLUSTRATED LIFE FOREWORD BY

RAMSEY LEWIS EDITED BY A. ALYCE CLAERBAUT AND DAVID SCHLESINGER

The RCA album Esquire All-American 1946 Award Winners featured guest artist Louis Armstrong (vocal and trumpet) and pianists Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington. Louis, Billy, and Duke were photographed at the January 10 recording session.

42

MUSICAL ORBITS

FOREWORD

BY RAMSEY LEWIS AME RI CAN JAZZ COM P OS ER , P I A N I S T, R EC OR DI N G A RTI S T, A N D R A DI O P ER S ON A L I T Y

T

he name Billy Strayhorn (1915–1967) should be known to anyone who claims to be knowledgeable of the major music shapers of the twentieth century. As a musician, I have always been aware of his name and reputation as a pianist, arranger, and

composer because—despite the fact that he is not a household name to the general public—he is highly revered by musicians and industry insiders worldwide. On the occasion of his centennial, there are celebrations of his legacy throughout the United States and abroad.

Strayhorn’s immense talent was noted in 1938 by

the jazz orchestra. Strayhorn vested himself in the El-

Duke Ellington who was already famous and estab-

lington style so completely that many musicians were

lished in history as a great composer and bandleader.

not able to determine who actually wrote what.

He was so impressed with Strayhorn that their first

Yet, recent research on Strayhorn has revealed

meeting launched a collaborative musical partnership

that he was a composer of singular genius and had a

lasting nearly three decades. Ellington came to refer

distinctive musical voice from the beginning. His highly

to Strayhorn as his “writing and arranging compan-

acclaimed composition “Lush Life” was written in his

ion.” He further declared that Strayhorn was “my right

pre-Ellington days during his high school years. Al-

arm, my left arm, all the eyes in the back of my head,

though it never became part of the Ellington book—it

my brainwaves in his head, and his in mine.” Their mu-

was never recorded or performed by Ellington—it still

sical collaboration is historically intertwined. Together

emerged as one of the top torch songs of all time.

they forged some of the most creative repertoire of

Strayhorn also wrote the undisputed first jazz musical

xi

10

INTRODUCTION

PART ONE

BY A. ALYCE CLAERBAUT

MUSICAL

ORBits B

illy was born to Lillian and James Strayhorn in the city of Dayton, Ohio. The year was 1915 in the month of November.

He was a sickly child who was referred to as “Baby Boy

Strayhorn.” Having already lost two young children after the birth of my father, James, perhaps his parents were wary about giving a name to another child who could have slipped away from them; they waited to file a legal name for him until five years later in

INTRODUCTION

11

From his high school days Billy was a Francophile. He was fluent in the language and was thrilled with every trip he could make. Aaron Bridgers said, “Nobody cared who you were or what you were. There was no judgment. That’s one of the reasons Billy and I loved it here.” A photo of the photographer at Versailles was likely made by Bridgers.

28

MUSICAL ORBITS

“Many composers in jazz are very good at thinking vertically and horizontally about music. But Billy could write diagonals and curves and circles.”

—DONALD SHIRleY

MUSICAL ORBITS

29

“LUSH LIFE” (CA. 1936) That a youngster from one of Pittsburgh’s poorest and

These memories that hint at the Roaring Twenties give

most depressing neighborhoods came up with “Lush

way to the grim present, where “life is lonely again.” “A

Life,” one of jazz’s most beloved ballads, is baffling.

week in Paris might ease the bite of it,” the protagonist

Strayhorn started to work on the song sometime in

muses but to no avail, and in the end, he is with “those

his late teens and must have completed it by 1936. He

whose lives are lonely too.”

paired sophisticated lyrics with an exquisite yet pretty complex musical setting, which put him in the same league as some of his much older contemporaries: Gershwin, Porter, Berlin.

In 1949, singer-pianist Nat King Cole premiered Strayhorn’s “Lush Life” on record, the first of countless performances and recordings by jazz vocalists and instrumentalists.

Others, too, have tried their hands at it, from Queen Lat-

The clever, inner-rhyming first stanza is absolutely bril-

ifah to Lady Gaga. Among the most rewarding renditions

liant: "I used to visit all the very gay places / Those

are those rare ones recorded by the pianist-composer

come-what-may places / Where one relaxes on the

himself, such as the 1964 version from Basin Street East.

axis of the wheel of life / To get the feel of life / from

Though his singing is slightly out of tune, Strayhorn de-

jazz and cocktail."

livers the song with just enough subtle irony to steer it

Next, he bespeaks his love of the French language in

away from becoming a too-heavy torch song.

what are possibly the most often mangled lines in jazz:

—Walter van de Leur

"The girls I knew had sad and sullen grey faces / with distingué traces / That used to be there you could

RECOMMENDED RECORDINGS

see where they’d been washed away / By too many

£ Billy Strayhorn, Lush Life (1964; Red Barron 1992)

through the day / Twelve o’clock tales."

38

MUSICAL ORBITS

£ John Coltrane, Lush Life (Prestige 1960)

LUSH LIFE

MUSICAL ORBITS

39

“BOO-DAH” (1953) One of Strayhorn’s most appropriate nicknames was

also the time when the partnership between Strayhorn

Buddha for his tendency to quietly sit and savor the

and Ellington was seriously cooling off, mainly because

company of his friends. He must have liked it better

Strayhorn was unhappy with the lack of recognition he

than Swee’ Pea or Weely—names the Ellingtonians used

received for his work.

for him—because he dedicated an entire composition to this sobriquet. The smart title of the tune “BooDah” mimics the phrasing of the music, like some of the works of the boppers: Strayhorn has the brass say “boo-dah” throughout the song, and, as with some of his other compositions (“After All,” “Lately”), the title fits the first notes of the theme as well—a sure sign

Strayhorn did not live to hear the orchestra record a glorious second version of “Boo-Dah,” some fourteen years later. The Ellingtonians cut this version as the opener for the highly praised tribute album And His Mother Called Him Bill a month after Strayhorn passed away at the age of fifty-one.

of Strayhorn’s quest for the “marriage of music and

—Walter van de Leur

words,” as his collaborator-friend once called it.

The first, and rather little-known, recording of the work was made in April 1953 at a time when the Ellington orchestra was struggling to survive in a world

RECOMMENDED RECORDING £ Duke Ellington and His Orchestra, And His Mother Called Him Bill (Columbia 1967)

that had largely turned its back on big bands. It was

this specific use of the word than that he described

Aaron and Billy with his landlord so they might rent

with such accuracy the lure of the drink or the “ease

another of his properties—315 Convent Avenue.54

the bite of it” that Paris could and later did provide for him.

Billy and Aaron lived together until Bridgers left for Paris in 1947. They remained intimate. Whenever Billy

There is no doubt about the relationship of Stray-

visited Paris (as he did several times after 1950), they

horn with Aaron Bridgers once he arrived in New York.

found their relationship had changed little. Even after

They too were musically simpatico, and they moved to

they were physically separated for eighteen years, it

declare their love by living together and entertaining

was Aaron to whom Billy turned when his cancer be-

Billy’s new colleagues from the Ellington orchestra as

came critical. Writing to Bridgers on July 27, 1965, Billy

a couple in their apartment “straight out of the pages

confided about his upcoming surgery, asking Aaron to

of Esquire magazine.”

keep the news private, as he had discussed it with no

53

Billy met Haywood Williams

through Aaron. Bridgers met Williams at a party and

one else. He signed the letter:

got him a job as a bellman in the Kenmore Hall Hotel on Lexington Avenue where Aaron worked as an el-

LUV B.S.

evator operator. It was Williams who helped connect

XXXX XXXX AD INFINITUM55

138

MORAL FREEDOMS

Aaron Bridgers was the love of Billy’s life. They met within months of Billy’s arrival in New York, lived together in the 1940s, and were reunited during Strayhorn’s many trips to Paris after 1950. After Billy’s death, Bridgers flew to New York and with Goldberg and Grove— the three men Billy loved most—mourned with them.

MORAL FREEDOMS

139

STRAYHORN

AN ILLUSTRATED LIFE

EDITED BY

A. ALYCE CLAERBAUT AND DAVID SCHLESINGER

This large-format collection of essays, photographs, interviews, and ephemera celebrates the legacy of Billy Strayhorn, one of the most important—yet underappreciated—contributors to 20th-century American music.

Released in commemoration of Strayhorn’s centennial, this luxurious coffee-table book offers intimate details of the composer’s life from musicians, scholars, and Strayhorn’s closest relatives.

Strayhorn is perhaps most well known for the 28 years he spent working in collaboration with Duke Ellington, but that doesn’t begin to describe Strayhorn’s contributions to music—not to mention the inspiring story of his personal life. Posthumously, Strayhorn has emerged as one of the major forces in shaping the jazz canon.

This volume was created to document the significance of Strayhorn’s life and work, detailing every stage of his musical career as well as more personal topics, such as his involvement with the civil rights movement and his open homosexuality. Featuring contributions from Strayhorn’s biographer David Hajdu, film director Robert Levi, music scholar Walter van de Leur, as well as a foreword by jazz artist Ramsey Lewis, this collection will be treasured by jazz aficionados everywhere.

A. Alyce Claerbaut served as an administrator at Northeastern Illinois University until her retirement in 2002. She is the president of Billy Strayhorn Songs, Inc., a family-owned music publishing company. Claerbaut has sung professionally and is an active jazz advocate and promoter. In 2011, she was named Chicagoan of the Year in Jazz by the Chicago Tribune.

David Schlesinger is a writer and editor living in California.

Music/Individual Composer & Musician/Biography November 10, 2015 | $35 | 9.25 × 11.25 | 224 pages ISBN: 978-1-932841-98-5

For more information, call Agate Bolden at 847.475.4457 or inquire via agatepublishing.com.

Please supply two tear sheets of any published review.

1328 Greenleaf St., Evanston, IL 60202