On The Bookshelf
Lush Life: A Biography Of Billy Strayhorn
Billy Strayhorn, one of the greatest composers in the history of American music, the creator of a body of work of standards like Take the A Train. Yet, as a composer with no stage presence many see him as overshadowed by his friend and collaborator Duke Ellington, with whom he worked with for the two and a half decades.
The songwriter and arranger was an integral component of the Harlem Renaissance and the evolution of jazz. Lush Life is a vibrant and absorbing account of the Strayhorn’s life and the times that other jazz musicians led in Harlem and Paris. While composing some of the most gorgeous American music of this century, Strayhorn labored under a complex agreement whereby Ellington took the bows for his work.
Fifty-one years from the date of his birth, Billy Strayhorn transitioned due to cancer and alcohol abuse. The small, shy black composer carried himself with singular style and grace as one of the few jazzmen to be openly homosexual. This biography has sparked an enthusiastic revival of interest in Billy Strayhorn’s work and is already acknowledged as a jazz classic.
Lush Life: 1996 | David Hajdu
Granta Publications
