He might have been thinking about the gay bars, but I think it was something broader than that, because he was too broad of a person. Recent scholarship, however, challenges this assumption, asserting that Strayhorn lived an openly gay life and deeply enjoyed concert performances. Today, historians and scholars agree that Billy Strayhorn remains one of the most under-recognized American composers in history. There's a worldliness, about a person who has lived. And he did become an alcoholic. 
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February 5, 5: The ambitious musical played at black theaters throughout western Pennsylvania for several years, attracting top-notch talent, including singer Billy Eckstine and pianist Errol Garner.
Ellington's ebullient charm led him instinctively to the spotlight, while writers speculated that Strayhorn shied from a more public role, both to maintain his privacy and to lifee being persecuted for his homosexuality.
It's not about 'ring-a-ding ding' when you do "Lush Life. Strayhorn died inhis death hastened by years of alcohol and cigarettes.
From the s to the s, Billy Strayhorn was one of the forces behind the sound of the renowned Duke Ellington Orchestra. Both are titled Lush Lifeafter Strayhorn's enduring composition. lifw
Through a year, on-and-off relationship, Strayhorn wrote many of Ellington's most memorable and sophisticated tunes. As a child, he was shielded from an abusive father by his mother, Lillian, who bought him books and sheet music from her earnings as a domestic. Fewer still appreciated that this generous, deferential man had created some of the most important and enduring American music of the 20th ,ush.
He might have been thinking about the gay bars, but I think it was something broader than that, because he was too broad of a person. Bey quotes the first line of the song — "I used to visit all the very gay places For those looking to hear his music, the titles listed below represent a good start.
He never said if "Lush Life" was intended to be a pronouncement of his lifestyle, yet the song survives as a poignant self-portrait: Duke Ellington Billy Strayhorn. Martin Luther King, Jr. It was perhaps this decision—and his lifelong devotion to Ellington—which contributed to his near anonymity as a major American composer. Certainly, Strayhorn was considerably more than a humorous aside or a musical footnote.
Yet, as courageous as he could be, Strayhorn found it a challenge to receive a fair share of the unique musical achievements and the considerable profits he helped to generate. Strayhorn was openly gay during a highly homophobic era.
Lush Life (jazz song)
I see it as places that bully happy and carefree and gay. You really have to kind of understand the story and try to keep the mood, keep the focus.
He did become a socialite, he did make it to France. His offstage role in Ellington's lite made it possible to avoid the public spotlight. In both senses, the song reflects the life of the man who wrote it. It also seems to suggest another significant side to Strayhorn's strayhogn In fact, the words Strayhorn wrote as a teenager predicted the life he did eventually lead.
A few months later, Strayhorn was writing arrangements for Ellington's orchestral music and living relatively openly as a gay man, a rare feat for an African American man during that time.
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When the year-old Strayhorn died in after battling cancer, he was well on his way to the recognition he deserved. Born inStrayhorn chose to live openly as a gay black man. It even gave Frank Sinatra a hard time when he tried to record in Since then, it's become one of the most standard of pop standards, with no signs of fading away.
Recently discovered Strayhorn compositions reveal much about his role, as he kept pushing both himself and Ellington in ambitious new directions. Best known as the songwriting genius who created many of Duke Ellington's masterpieces, Billy Strayhorn is the subject biloy a new documentary premiering Tuesday night on public television, as well as a fine companion CD.
Most assume that Ellington was responsible for these long-form innovations, but Strayhorn was, at the very least, co-composer of many of these ambitious new works.
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