Billy Strayhorn Overlooked Great American Composer

[redlotus51]

Billy Strayhorn was one of America's greatest composers and arrangers of the last century. As Duke Ellington put it, Strayhorn was "my right arm, my left arm, all the eyes in the back of my head, my brain waves in his head, and his in mine. "His dreams of playing classical music was not realizable in that era for a Black and Gay man, so he joined in with the Duke (Ellington) in writing some of the great music of last century using the jazz idiom."Take the A Train"," Lush Life" "Satin Doll"," Lotus Blossom", "Raincheck". "Blood Count"." U.M.M.G.". Larger suites such as : larger works such as "Such Sweet Thunder", "A Drum Is a Woman", "The Perfume Suite" and "The Far East Suite", where Strayhorn and Ellington worked closely together.Check out "And His Mother Called him Bill", Duke Ellington's tribute album on Bluebird. Will try and upload some songs on my wall since it doesn't seem possible in this format.Here's one vid of Take the A Train with Billy playing.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tjc7mu9leYwADDED FOUR SONGS TO MY PLAYLIST IF FOLKS ARE INTERESTED. BOO-DAH, UMMG, ROCK SKIPPING AT THE BLUE NOTE, AND LOTUS BLOSSOMFrom Wikipedia:Though classical music was Strayhorn’s first love, his ambition to become a classical composer was shot down by the harsh reality of a black man trying to make it in the then-completely white classical world. Strayhorn was then introduced to the music of pianists like Art Tatum and Teddy Wilson at age 19. These musicians guided him into the realm of jazz where he remained for the rest of his life. .He met Duke Ellington in December 1938, after an Ellington performance in Pittsburgh (he had first seen Ellington play in Pittsburgh in 1933). Here he first told, and then showed, the band leader how he would have arranged one of Duke's own pieces. Ellington was impressed enough to invite other band members to hear Strayhorn. At the end of the visit he arranged for Strayhorn to meet him when the band returned to New York. Strayhorn worked for Ellington for the next quarter century and collaborator until his early death from cancer. As Ellington described him, "my right arm, my left arm, all the eyes in the back of my head, my brain waves in his head, and his in mine".[2]Strayhorn was openly gay during an extremely homophobic era. Critics agree that his dedication to the gay movement was a contributing factor to him being so overlooked as an important musician. More attention was given to the fact that he was gay and black than to his genius as a pianist, composer, and arranger. For this reason, he long hid behind Ellington, letting the Duke take credit for much of his work..