Posted by redlotus51 on August 15, 2009 at 11:30pm
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..
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I should permanently write on my forehead, forwards and backwards, "ignorant".Went to my first concert of the year, was about time you'll tell me, and you'll be right: I'm still amazed at how little I listen to live music. Terebi & live recordings don't count. I almost didn't go there , as usual for meaningless reasons, but a cocktail of hurting feet, television and a high mix of monosaccharide changed my mind somehow. Or maybe I just wanted to piss my flatmate off. Make him understand he cannot talk me, no matter how hard he tries, into laziness. Laziness is usually my own decision, but thanks for the concern.Anyway, off I went to this small converted-to-art malt-house (is my life dictated by and dedicated to beer ? hmm...) to hear a bit of jazz. I liked that place. The malt-house, I mean. It's small. So small that it was difficult for the double-bass to stand without touching the ceiling.About the music, well... I'm not able to make accurate comments about music, I mean, I don't know anything about it, it's mostly personal... Mmm... The first part was a French piano player, from what I have read his music is supposed to be inspired from Scandinavia, well, if he says so, right ? I'm no judge. And I wouldn't know how to judge that in the first place. He was talking about his daughter and an obscure Swedish writer, and I felt like an idiot because I had no idea who it was. I liked it, btw. His music. Sounded round. Made me wish I'll never learn how to play the piano, because it'd kill it all. Like in magic tricks, you know ? If you understand how it works, it isn't funny anymore.The main act was the Japanese piano player Fujii Satoko, along with the three other members of her quartet (good, you can count up to four !). And, well. I didn't understand much. At all. I am not made to understand this kind of jazz. It felt like they were all on different rythms, I'm sorry I don't have four brains to compute four differents tracks ! When they were splitting into solos or duos I could follow (a bit) but mostly I felt like an idiot. Sigh. Someday...For those interested, anyway, here are the MySpaces of Stefan Orins and Fujii Satoko.Read more…
